The guitarist and co-founder of The Who was discussing the art of songwriting with the What It Takes podcast earlier this summer.
“I’m a song dreamer in a sense,” he told the podcast. “So I love the great songwriters of my father’s era, Gershwin and so on. And also the great songwriters of today, past The Beatles and all the rest of them to Taylor Swift.”
Townshend went on to praise Swift, saying: “I love what she does, too. Not that she’s necessarily absolutely always to my taste, but I just love the fact that she seems to love it, that she seems to be having so much fun. That’s what I identify with.”
It’s not the first time the rock legend has spoken in support of Swift. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2019, he expressed sympathy for the ‘Cruel Summer’ singer, after Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings acquired Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Label Group, which included Swift’s early work. Swift had previously tried to regain ownership of her master recordings – but revealed that her music had been sold off without her knowledge. She’s since decided to re-record her first six studio albums.
“Watching Taylor Swift go through what she’s putting herself through at the moment is heartbreaking,” Townshend told the magazine. “She doesn’t own the fucking music. She doesn’t own the words. I think she has a financial right to it, but she shouldn’t screw herself up about this stuff.”
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