There’s not a single reference to alcohol in the lyrics, but Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me” is meant to have the vibe of a drinking song, she revealed with a laugh in a new interview about the country-leaning takedown of an ex that was recorded for Red (Taylor’s Version) with Chris Stapleton.
The “From the Vault” tune, one of several that were new to fans with the Nov. 12 release of Swift’s re-recorded Red album, is getting an extra push this week with a Blake Lively-directed music video that’s set to premiere on Monday (Nov. 14) at 10 a.m. ET.
But before Swift announced the surprise visual for “I Bet You Think About Me,” on which Stapleton provides harmonies, she spoke to country radio about the story behind the song that was written more than a decade ago.
Boston-area radio station Country 102.5 tweeted an audio clip of Swift speaking about “I Bet You Think About Me” — and what her intentions were when writing it back in June 2011 with Lori McKenna.
“This is a song I wrote with Lori McKenna, who’s one of my favorite sing-songwriters ever. I’d always wanted to work with her … I wrote this with her at her house when I was playing Foxboro [Gillette Stadium] on the Speak Now Tour,” Swift said in the clip, setting the scene.
“We wanted this song to be like a comedic, tongue-in-cheek, funny, not caring what anyone thinks about you sort of breakup song because there are a lot of different types of heartbreak songs on Red — some of them are very sincere, some of them very stoic and heartbreaking and sad — we wanted this to be the moment where you’re like, ‘I don’t care about anything,’” she explained of the meaning behind “I Bet You Think About Me.”
Swift concluded, “We wanted to kind of make people laugh with it, and we wanted it to be sort of a drinking song. I think that that’s what it ended up being.”
She teased the upcoming music video for the song on social media Sunday morning, sharing a short clip of a hand tearing through what looks to be a red velvet wedding cake. A video still on YouTube shows Swift in a fancy red gown, performing alongside her red-lit band. (If you look very closely, that music video band possibly includes Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff.)
Listen to her talk about writing “I Bet You Think About Me” — and check out the lyric video, before the official music video makes its debut — below.
