STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Our next guest is Bryan West, the full-time Taylor Swift reporter for the USA Today Network. Good morning, sir.
BRYAN WEST: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: I imagine you were up all night reporting, so thanks for joining us early. I really appreciate it. I see that you have (laughter) your name on seven articles about this. What's it like to be the Taylor Swift correspondent right now?
WEST: It was a busy day and night. I usually call it a Taynado (ph) whenever there's a firestorm of news.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
WEST: 'Cause she takes the world by storm, and it is reporting on it and then also doing interviews. But it's fun. It goes by fast.
INSKEEP: OK. Now, one of our colleagues at NPR was observing the photos on Instagram, the spectacular picture of Travis on his knees, and they're surrounded by flowers. And he observed, quote, "it's so cool that a passerby happened to catch this spontaneous moment."
WEST: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: What are you learning about how all this came together?
WEST: We're learning overnight that Ed Kelce, Travis' dad, spoke to the ABC affiliate in Cleveland and gave a little bit more details. He said that was in a gazebo that was on Travis' property.
INSKEEP: OK.
WEST: He said it also occurred about two weeks ago on a - he found out on Sunday at a Philadelphia Eagles' practice. So if that's the case, that means it might have happened right after the taping of her "New Heights" episode.
INSKEEP: Wow. OK, so now I'm curious. If this happened two weeks ago and you're on the Taylor Swift beat, were there any hints, any leaks, any thoughts this might be coming?
WEST: It's interesting 'cause on that podcast, she said she'll never do any Easter eggs when it comes to her personal life, and that was true. But in the most Taylor way, she did announce the news 13 days after the podcast.
INSKEEP: What do you mean by that? Oh, 13. OK. Fine, fine. But I'm just curious if it was in the air that this might be happening at all.
WEST: He said that he knew - Ed Kelce - for a couple of months that Travis had been toying with the idea. His quote was he was going to put it off until even maybe this week. She was getting a little antsy, but he was going to put her off until this week. So it makes some sense that he wanted to do some grand thing or make it a big special event. And Ed said his advice was, you could do it on the side of the road. Any place makes it special.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
WEST: And Scott Swift also told him that advice.
INSKEEP: OK. So I want to ask about the Taynado aspect of this. Is that the term you use? Taynado? Do I have that right?
WEST: Yes.
INSKEEP: OK. Obviously, anything that Taylor Swift does is going to be news for her millions of fans. People follow everything that she does, everything that she says. Is there something about this particular announcement, though, that takes it to a different level?
WEST: This is an engagement that fans have been hoping for. So anybody that's in the storm of the Swifty universe understands it. They've been following her for two decades. They've heard her diaristic lyrics, how she's written about wanting to fall in love and had heartbreak. And so for a lot of them, they were excited about this.
But it's not as much of a surprise with Travis, just because over the past year and a half to two years that they've been dating, she has hinted to it in the form of - when he went to the Eras Tour in Argentina, for example, her surprise song that night was "End Game," which is a song about ending up with your person or your soulmate. And so she has definitely talked about it. When she was on the podcast, she said, you know, I've been writing about this my whole life. And so when this guy showed up, I either thought he's incredibly crazy or he's actually romantic. And it was like an '80s John Hughes' movie, where someone's standing outside your window with a boom box saying, please date me. Please go on a date with me.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) Well, what do you think it means for her music and her lyrics, having worked her way toward this moment for so long?
WEST: So here's what's interesting about just kind of how her life works out. Thirteen, as any Swifty knows, is her number. She's entering her 12th era, "Life Of A Showgirl," this fall, which she wrote in 2024 about dating Travis and about the time of her life back then, which would lead to her 13th era...
INSKEEP: Ah.
WEST: ...Is almost what's unfolding now, her bridal era.
INSKEEP: OK. So maybe this is actually going to fit into the plan somehow.
WEST: The plan for the future, yes.
INSKEEP: OK. Bryan, thanks very much for the update - really appreciate it.
WEST: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: Bryan West is the Taylor Swift reporter for the USA Today Network. Let's take it out with Tay-Tay.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PAPER RINGS")
TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) All right. Three times 'cause I waited my whole life.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: One, two, one, two, three, four.
SWIFT: (Singing) I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings. Uh-huh. That's right. Darling, you're the one I want. And I hate accidents, except... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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