Is Taylor Swift’s new song about a famous former beau? Since the release of her 10th studio album Midnights on Oct. 21, including an additional seven songs from her album’s “3am” edition, Swift’s fans are speculating the bonus song “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” is about her ex-boyfriend, John Mayer. She reflects on a previous relationship as a teenager that she expresses regret over in the song. Swift is rumored to have dated Mayer in 2009 and 2010. “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first,” read a selection of the lyrics. “And I damn sure would’ve never danced with the devil/ At 19, and the God’s honest truth is that the pain was heaven/ And now that I’m grown, I’m scared of ghosts.”
Fans have responded to the song’s release on Twitter, with many believing it a follow-up to Swift’s 2010 song “Dear John.” While Mayer hasn’t publicly responded to the song, he told Rolling Stone in 2012 that “Dear John” “really humiliated” him and expressed resentment towards the record. “I didn’t deserve it,” he told the magazine at the time. “I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”The singer responded to Mayer’s comments by saying, “How presumptuous!” telling Glamour in 2012, “I never disclose who my songs are about.”
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Swift’s fans have an equally contentious relationship with Mayer regarding the two’s rumored tumultuous relationship. The “Say What You Need to Say” singer faced criticism from Swifties after joining TikTok in 2021, resulting in a flood of negative comments. Hours after sharing his first video, which was inundated with thousands of critical remarks from Swift fans, Mayer returned to the platform with a muted response to the backlash. In his second-ever TikTok video, he is shown nodding in agreement. Mayer captioned the clip, “POV: You’re berating me, and I’m hearing you out.” That clip also received much backlash, with comments like “old man victim complex” and “POV: a man right before he gaslights you.”
Then, in a third video, Mayer is singing along to a song with lyrics, “That was a weird day. That was a real weird.” He captioned the clip, “Goodnight, new friends.” One commenter pointed out his TikTok bio, which read at the time, “it’s a long story,” asking if he “would say it’s a long story short,” referencing Swift’s track “Long Story Short,” from her album evermore. While both musicians have largely avoided discussing their alleged romance, Mayer briefly addressed it in a 2015 interview with MSNBC. “Now I can just go, ‘Look, I can say the name Taylor Swift.’ She’s an artist. I’m an artist. Everybody stop, nobody’s got cancer. We’re rich people who get to live out our dreams. Let’s just stop it. I’m a musician who’s bigger than one song or one record.”
