In the interview, Swift also revealed that her background in country music, and the vitriolic reaction to anti-
George W Bush comments made by the Dixie Chicks in 2003, had previously encouraged her to avoid
talking about politics.
“I come from country music,” she explained. “The number one thing they absolutely drill into you as a
country artist, and you can ask any other country artist this, is ‘Don’t be like the Dixie Chicks!’ ... I watched
country music snuff that candle out. The most amazing group we had, just because they talked about
politics. And they were getting death threats. They were made such an example that basically every country
artist that came after that, every label tells you, ‘Just do not get involved, no matter what.’”
Swift also said in the interview that she had long felt ignorant about the political climate (“I wasn’t educated
enough on it,” she said, “because I hadn’t actively tried to learn about politics in a way that I felt was
necessary for me”) and that she had never had a significant relationship with the disgraced film producer
Harvey Weinstein, who she worked with on the films The Giver and One Chance. “I absolutely never hung
out,” she said. “If you listen to the stories, he picked people who were vulnerable, in his opinion. It seemed
like it was a power thing. So, to me, that doesn’t say anything – that I wasn’t in that situation.”
Swift’s new album Lover was released yesterday to positive reviews, with The Independent calling it “a
partial resurrection of the Swift of old”.