Taylor Swift’s new song “Ruin the Friendship” is not about Blake Lively, as some fans first assumed.
Instead, many believe he pays tribute to his late high school friend, Jeff Lang, whom he honored at his funeral in 2010.
The song, 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 give me the bad news,” Swift, 35, sings. “It wasn’t an invitation / But I flew home anyway… I whispered to the grave: ‘I should have kissed you anyway.’”
Swift and Lang attended Hendersonville High School in Tennessee, where he was one of the first to hear her first songs.
After his passing 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 an unlikely friendship.
“They spent a lot of time at his house, always joking,” he said, adding that he still has a photo of them together.
Swift’s moving song seems to immortalize the friend who inspired her long before fame came.
