Taylor Swift’s new song, “Ruin the Friendship,” isn’t about Blake Lively, as some fans initially assumed.
Instead, many believe it honors her late high school friend, Jeff Lang, whom she honored at his funeral in 2010.
The track, taken from her latest album The Life of a Showgirl, released October 3, reflects on unrequited love and loss.
“When I left school I lost track of you / Abigail called me to tell me the bad news,” Swift, 35, sings. “It wasn’t an invitation / But I went home anyway…I whispered at the grave, ‘I should have kissed you anyway.’”
Swift and Lang attended Hendersonville High School in Tennessee, where he was among the first to hear her first songs.
After his death at age 21, Swift performed at his funeral and later told the audience at the 2010 BMI Country Awards, “I used to play my songs for him first. »
Lang’s mother, Susan, told The Tennessean that the two shared a rare friendship.
“They hung out at her house a lot, always joking,” she said, adding that she always keeps a photo of them together.
Swift’s heartfelt track seems to immortalize the friend who inspired her long before fame arrived.
