Taylor Swift breaks down in tears on Travis Kelce's podcast as she opens up about reclaiming her masters

Daily Mail​

6 days ago

Taylor Swift fought back tears in an emotional appearance on Travis Kelce 's New Heights podcast as she opened up on how she fought for years to reclaim the masters of her music.
In a special episode ushering in her new 'era', Swift unveiled the front cover of her 12th album 'The Life of a Showgirl', to be released October 3 and featuring 12 new songs. 'It's a complete 180 on Tortured Poets,' Kelce said in an early review of the sound of the record.
But it was Swift breaking down in tears and Kelce kissing her on the head as she composed herself about the battle to reclaim her master recordings that quickly became the most striking moment. The couple held hands throughout the show, Kelce often stroking hers as she spoke in a very PDA-heavy appearance.
With over around 1.3million fans tuning in for the live stream - which even crashed at one stage - she explained how Kelce was playing video games when she found out she had got the rights back, and the loved-up NFL man started weeping when he was told. Swift had sent her mother and brother to Los Angeles to negotiate with Shamrock Capital, the owners, on her behalf.
'I haven't gotten my hopes up about this in a decade. A couple months after the Super Bowl I was in Kansas City,' Swift said, adding she had been saving to buy her masters since she was a teenager. 'I get a call from my mom. She's like, "You got your music." I very dramatically hit the floor for real. Bawling my eyes out, weeping, like "Really?" I said to myself "Go tell Travis in a normal way."
'He was playing video games, and he put his headset down. I was like "I got my music back!" And I was heaving crying. This changed my life.'
Swift's masters had been owned by Scooter Braun, prompting her to re-record her early records again as 'Taylor's version'. Braun eventually sold them to Shamrock and then, this summer, they were returned to the singer.
'After the Eras Tour, I had a meeting with my team, and we decided this might be a good time to approach the current owners,' Swift added. 'The owners of it was a private equity firm called Shamrock Capital. I knew them to be aboveboard people - they had been very friendly to us.
'What I was looking to do, though, was I wanted to buy my music outright. I don't want to be in a partnership, I don't want to own 30% of it. I want to own all of it. But it was a long shot to think they would do that.'
Swift also joked that Travis used the podcast as a dating app by publicly revealing he had tried and failed to give Swift his phone number after she had performed at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City back in 2023. His admission at the time eventually led to the start of their relationship.
'This podcast had done a lot for me. This podcast got me a boyfriend,' Swift said, explaining why she was finally on the show to make her album announcement. 'It was wild, but it worked. He is the good kind of crazy. The first time we talked, he was truly getting to know me. He is just a vibe booster in everyone's life that he's in. He's like an exclamation point.'
Swift admitted she knew nothing about football until meeting Kelce but is now 'obsessed' and was even screaming in excitement when the Chiefs drafted Xavier Worthy in 2024.
'I'm not ready to be an analyst right now but give me 16 months,' she joked, explaining how it wasn't always that way.
'I thought everyone was on the field at the same time. I didn't know what a tight end (Kelce's position) was,' she said. 'I thought it was Josh Allen is here and Jared Goff is here. And they blow a whistle and they go at each other.'
After one hour and 45 minutes of the show, the live stream was abruptly cut because of a technical issue. New Heights quickly tweeted that it was a glitch, there was still more to come and that all their fans had helped them 'break the internet'.
Earlier Wednesday, Swift ramped up the excitement over her appearance when her website became a timer counting down to the launch of the episode. Underneath the ticking clock, there was a locked door that slowly lowered towards colored boxes that had a padlock on the front. The closer time got to the podcast, the greater the number of boxes that appeared and when the countdown ended, fans were able to pre-order the album.
Now, after teaser clips her devoted fans scoured forensically for clues or 'E aster eggs' that Swift deliberately leaves to indicate future music plans, she has finally shared the first details of her 12th album, 'The Life of a Showgirl' - as well as opening up on her Eras Tour and reclaiming her masters.
Swift revealed she recorded the album while on tour in Sweden and said the sound is 'electric' - borrowing the word Kelce often uses to describe things that bring him joy.
'Working on this, I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,' she said. 'It felt like catching lightning in a bottle, honestly. This is the record I've been wanting to make for a very long time.'
Swift confirmed she co-produced her new album with pop music heavyweights, Max Martin and Shellback, saying: 'We hadn't worked together in like seven or eight years. There's something about these guys. They're just geniuses in different avenues, in different ways.'
Fans were quick to pounce on a moment where Kelce was holding her new vinyl record with both of his arms wrapped around it while staring back at her. 'Don't drop the baby,' one fan joked as the caption.
Travis's older brother Jason gave Swift a typically passionate introduction at the start of the show, saying: 'Our guest today is a singer, songwriter and producer and director from Nashville, Tennessee. That's bulls***. She is from Reading, Pennsylvania (Jason lives in Pennsylvania).
'She is the most awarded artist in the history of the American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and iHeart Radio Music Awards. She has 14 Grammy Awards and is the only artist in the history to win Album of the Year four times.
'Last December, she wrapped up the Eras Tour, which spanned 149 shows across 51 cities, five continents and was the most attended tour of all time. Her last album The Tortured Poets Department set a record with 1.76 billion streams globally within the first week alone.
'And as a fan of that guy on the Chiefs, she has 19 wins, two AFC titles and a Super Bowl. Making her podcasting debut, the most requested guest in the history of shows, Taylor Swift!'
Swift took her introduction and, in the first time we've seen the high-profile couple properly interacting, mocked the NFL fans who have booed and complained about her arrival into the world of football.
'As we all know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast, and I think we all know that if there's one thing that male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens, it's more of me,' she said, with a wry grin.
She appeared to be hitting back at certain fans booing her when she appeared on the jumbotron at the Super Bowl in New Orleans in February. But soon enough, it was all about her upcoming release.
'The Life of a Showgirl' follows on from Swift's wildly popular 2024 record, The Tortured Poets Department.
After Monday's brief announcement, Swifties were quick to notice how orange appeared to be the color theme for album 12, even unearthing footage from her Eras Tour where the stage lit up in the color during performances of the song 'august' - the month where she has now returned to the spotlight.
And while, as Swift was so keen to point out, New Heights is predominantly a football podcast, the Kelce brothers have gladly leant in and welcomed the overflow of Swifties who routinely tune into their show.
Kelce's relationship with Swift - which they went public with in 2023 when she joined his mom, Donna, in a VIP suite at the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium - has seen many in the NFL world thrilled by her presence.
Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs quarterback and one of Kelce's closest friends in football, was among the millions watching the live stream.
Earlier in the day, he told reporters after Chiefs practice: 'I'm obviously super excited.
'Just knowing Taylor and seeing the process from just a little bit closer of how she makes the albums, it's going to be amazing because of how much work she puts into it.
'What better place to announce it than New Heights podcast, where I feel like she can be herself and showcase who she is. I think people are going to be really excited to watch it tonight. I haven't seen it yet, just little clips of it.
'But I'll be tuning in tonight just like everybody else. I'll be able to have something to watch on this night off that I have here.'
Mahomes also revealed that after the show had been recorded, Swift FaceTimed his wife, Brittany.
'I knew before y'all did just because they called me after the podcast was done,' Mahomes said, before correcting himself.
'They didn't call me, they called Brittany. I was in the back of the FaceTime.'
For Kelce, his girlfriend's big news coincides with him ramping up his preparations for the new season which for the Chiefs, begins September 5 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, against Los Angeles Chargers.
The 35-year-old nearly retired from football after his team were blown away in February's Super Bowl by the Philadelphia Eagles, before eventually deciding he didn't want his career to end on such a low point.
Judging by Wednesday's episode, Kelce enters his 13th season happier than ever off the field with Swift, with whom he enjoyed a low-key offseason with. He recently shared pictures from his summer of them at dinner with friends, ice skating and spending time with Jason and her brother, Austin.
And as she is set to dominate the music world with another massive album release, it will soon be up to him to copy that success out on the football field.