Global pop-star Taylor Swift is all set to hit another mark, but this time not with a broken heart. The 35 year-old American singer-songwriter, who recently announced her engagement to NFL player Travis Kelce, is all set to release TS12, her twelfth album– The Life of a Showgirl, on October 4.
Ahead of her album release, while her fans globally are looking forward to knowing more about her life on the Era’s Tour and her blooming romance with Travis at the time, one of her exes has stolen the spotlight in India.
Seven-time Grammy award winner John Mayer, infamously known as Taylor’s ex among Swifties has announced his performance in Mumbai at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse on January 22, 2026.
Although the multi-Grammy award winning artists only briefly dated, the wounds of the breakup still run deep.
Although Taylor Swift never confirms directly about who has inspired which song, her fans– Swifties– are quick to decode the easter eggs in her songs. So here are all the songs that are (if not directly) about John Mayer:
Dear John
Dear John is a song from her third album ‘Speak Now’ in 2010. Aside from his name being directly mentioned in the title, the lyrics were very-specific and aligned with the timeline of her relationship with him.
John had hinted and re-confirmed by expressing how ‘humiliated’ he was, when this song was added as a surprise song on the tracklist of Taylor’s Eras Tour.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve
This song was released after over a decade of her breakup with John Mayer, alluding to how the ‘bad-blood’ between the two was still cold. It featured on her 2023 album ‘Midnights (3 am Edition).’ Although the name of this song doesn’t direct to anything, the deep lyrics directly point all fingers to John Mayer. The strong and bitter lyrics–At nineteen, and the god’s honest truth was that the pain was heaven– nineteen, the age that she dated John Mayer. Other lyrics, such as, ‘years of tearing down our banners, you and I,’ recollecting the time they tore down each others’ posters at their concert post their breakup.
These are the two songs that are confirmed (indirectly) to be about John, here are some other songs speculated to be about him
The story of Us
This song also featured on ‘Speak Now’ is also speculated by fans to be about Mayer. ‘Now I`m standing alone in a crowded room, and we`re not speaking and I`m dying to know,’ –Taylor has gone on record to say these lyrics were inspired by an awkward run-in with an ex at an award show and fans were quick to speculate it being about John Mayer, during 2010 CMT Awards.
Ours
Another song from the ‘Speak Now’ album that is speculated to be about Mayer. The lyrics with the physical description of the song’s subject was enough for Swifties to crack the code,’Cause I love the gap between the teeth” and “any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored”.
Superman
This song, again from her ‘ Speak Now’ album also relates to Mayer, however the lyrics are sweet and largely describe him in a good light. The songs` subject is described as ‘tall, dark and beautiful’, and insisting that, “He`s not all bad like his reputation.”
