As a byproduct of how personal her music is, with each re-recording of her past albums, Taylor Swift, intentionally or otherwise, ends up rehashing past relationships and controversies. Things that have been long gone from the media cycle resurface as her music returns to the charts and radio.
After the fallout from Red (Taylor’s Version) and its lead single “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”, which had a whole new set of fans rediscover the turbulent breakup between Swift and actor Jake Gyllenhaal, the singer urged fans to not use her old, now re-recorded, songs to bully people who might have wronged her in the past. Seeing as in Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) she addresses one of them by name in what the singer-songwriter describes as her most “scathing” song to date, it’s hard not to feel at least a little bit curious about the events that inspired it.
What is Taylor Swift’s “Dear John” about?
In 2010, Taylor Swift released her third studio album Speak Now, which featured an almost 7-minute-long song about a painful break-up titled “Dear John.” It wasn’t hard for fans to figure out that the title was a play on words between the concept of a “Dear John letter” and the actual name of one of Swift’s ex-boyfriends, fellow musician John Mayer.
The two dated briefly between late 2009 and early 2010, but a few months was all Swift needed to write one of the most striking songs in her entire discography. “Dear John” details a pretty toxic dynamic between the singer, a 19-year-old young woman, and an older man who manipulates and hurts her. Mayer was 32 when the two became involved.
Naturally, when Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) came out in 2023, listeners were once again reminded of the strong accusations made about “John” in the song.
What has John Mayer said about “Dear John” in the past?
The subjects of Swift’s songs (and no, they’re not always men) don’t always comment on them, but considering the lyrical content of “Dear John,” Mayer felt he should reveal his side of the story.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2012, Mayer said he was “humiliated” by the song and that it had made him feel “terrible.” He considered “Dear John” to be “cheap songwriting,” an example of Swift “abusing her talent” to get back at someone, and also inaccurate. “I never did anything to deserve that,” the singer countered before refusing to comment on the age gap separating him from Swift.
At the time of “Dear John”‘s release, Mayer was experiencing backlash from interviews he had done with Playboy and Rolling Stone where he spoke crudely about his “napalm” sexual life with ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson as well as his “white supremacist” penis. He said the song felt like Swift was kicking him while he was down and that he never even received an email or phone call about it.
What song did John Mayer write about Taylor Swift?
In 2013, John Mayer released a song called “Paper Doll” from his Paradise Valley album, which is heavily rumored to be about Taylor Swift. Possible references in the song include the use of the number “22” in the chorus, as well as the lyric “someone’s going to paint you another sky” that’s reminiscent of the “Dear John” line “you paint me a blue sky then go back and turn it to rain.”
In an Instagram Live in 2019, Mayer said that “when the song came out, 100 percent of the people believed it was about somebody, and the person that they thought it was about brought a certain amount of superficial pop culture back-and-forth about it that I think kind of [affected] the song, but the song is not about that person.” He explained that he neither confirmed nor denied that the song was about Swift at the time because he believes songwriters should never directly address those kinds of questions, and as a result, he felt it was easier to bury “Paper Doll.”
A few years later, during a concert, the musician opened up about the song again saying he was “hurt” when he wrote it and wondered whether people disliked it because it sounded unintentionally “bitchy.” Other songs rumored to be about the relationship include Swift’s “Ours” and “Story of Us” (both from Speak Now) and “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve” from 2022’s Midnights.