‘You absolute loser’: Why Taylor Swift’s ‘The Manuscript’ could be about ex John Mayer
They are never ever getting back together.
Taylor Swift is notorious for writing songs about her exes — and on her newly released album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday, she may have once again invoked John Mayer.
Some fans believe her new song “The Manuscript” is about Mayer, 46.
The second verse of the song makes a reference to a relationship between people with a large age gap. In 2009, when Swift dated the “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” singer, Swift was 19 and Mayer was 32.
The song’s lyrics say, “In the age of him, she wished she was thirty / And made coffee every morning in a Frеnch press / Afterwards she only atе kids’ cereal / And couldn’t sleep unless it was in her mother’s bed.”
“john mayer you will never have peace,” one fan posted on X, formerly Twitter, next to an image of the lyrics from “Manuscript.”
“the manuscript……..john mayer you will never live this down,” another fan said.
“the manuscript oh john mayer you absolute loser,” another fan said.
Taylor Swift has a long history of writing about her exes on her albums — from Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal to Joe Jonas and Harry Styles.
This song isn’t Swift’s first time ripping into Mayer.
Her 2010 song “Dear John” famously bashed the “Your Body Is a Wonderland” singer after their breakup. And the pop superstar appeared to be at it again on “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” — one of seven more tunes on a surprise “3am Edition” of her “Midnights” album.
In that song, she sang, “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first/And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil.”
She also made a direct reference in that song to being 19, the same age she was when she dated Mayer.
In “The Manuscript,” Swift also has a line about dating “boys who were her own age.”
Following her relationship with Mayer, Swift moved onto Connor Kennedy, Styles and Calvin Harris, all of whom were closer in age to her than Mayer, and her current beau, NFL player Travis Kelce, is her same age, 34.
She also seemingly wrote about Mayer in “The Story of Us” from 2010’s “Speak Now.”
“Now and then I reread the manuscript / But the story isn’t mine anymore,” she sings on “The Manuscript.”
So “The Manuscript” could be a direct reference to that other track.
