Taylor Swift made her podcast debut with Jason and Travis Kelce on Wednesday evening. Not only did she talk about the upcoming release of her next album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift also provided a rare and candid look at her relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, discussed the joy of reacquiring the master recordings of her music and described what life has been like since the Eras Tour ended.
The episode ran just longer than two hours. However, people watching on YouTube did not get to see the last 15-plus minutes because the live stream cut off while Swift was talking about her new album.
By the early hours of Thursday, the complete episode had been uploaded to YouTube, and it had more than 6.7 million views. The complete audio of the podcast wa available immediately on other podcast platforms, like Apple and Spotify.
The episode was the season premiere for “New Heights,” the Kelce brothers popular podcast. At the start of the show, they explained they returned from their summer break two weeks early to have Swift as a guest and announce her new album. At the same time the episode became available, the pop superstar posted the cover art for “The Life of a Showgirl” on Instagram. The 12-track album will be released Oct. 3.
The cover shows Swift submerged in water wearing a silver, burlesque-style outfit. The post’s caption reads: “And, baby, that’s show business for you.”
During her “New Heights” appearance Swift also revealed the names of the songs on the album and that Sabrina Carpenter sings on the title track. Both are originally from Pennsylvania – Swift grew up in Berks County; Carpenter was born in Quakertown, Bucks County, and raised in East Greenville, Montgomery County.
“The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift’s previous album, had 31-tracks, which the singer described on the podcast as “a data dump of everything I thought, felt, in two or three years.”
In making “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift had written more music, but intentionally limited the album to 12 songs.
“I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle …” Swift said. “I feel like we achieved that. And I’m really happy about that.”
As for what to expect from the new era? The album encompasses everything that went on during her two-year Eras Tour run, all set to melodies that Swift said are “so infectious that you’re almost angry at it” and “lyrics that are just as vivid, but crisp, focused and completely intentional.”
Jason Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center, steered the interview and asked nearly all the questions. With the news breaking earlier in the week that Swift would have a new album, the episode’s most revealing moments with the singer occured when she talked about her relationship with Travis Kelce, the music business and her private life.
Here are other highlights and takeaways from the show:
When she got her master recordings back, Swift cried
For years, Swift had tried to reclaim her masters and in May, she finally did. When she heard the news that she had, Swift described that she collapsed to the floor and sobbed uncontrollably. Then she went to find Travis, who was in another room playing a video game. She tried to keep her composure, but couldn’t
“I thought about not owning my music everyday … it was like an intrusive thought,” Swift said. “I was bawling my eyes out, weeping and heaving, crying to Travis,” who initially thought something was wrong.
Travis added, “I mean, I started crying too. You know I’m a cryer.”
Swift’s mission is to prove to Jason’s daughters that cats aren’t poisonous
Swift is an avowed cat lady. Jason Kelce openly does not like cats, despite having one for a pet growing up. In fact, he has been brainwashing his daughters to believe cats are poisonous. But Swift is combating this by getting Jason and Kylie Kelce’s four daughters to spend time with her cats.
This is most interesting because it was one multiple instances during the conversation that showed Taylor and Travis spend significant time with the local Kelce’s and their kids. Another example: While describing her new hobby of baking sourdough bread, Swift said she was practicing making a rainbow Funfetti loaf for Jason’s girls.
“Oh my gosh. That’s going to blow their mind,” Jason said.
“No, it will. Cuz they love sprinkles … You know we put sprinkles in everything when we hang out,” Swift said.
Swift isn’t just a Travis Kelce fan, she’s become a football fan
Swift and Kelce started dating in the summer of 2023. At their first date, she asked Travis what it was like when the Chiefs played the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, and he looked “across the line of scrimmage and saw his brother standing … five feet in front of him on the field.”
Travis gently explained that he and Jason both played offense and were not on the field at the same time.
“I didn’t know what the chains were. I didn’t know what a tight end was. … Oh my God. I fell in love with (football),” Swift said. “I became obsessed with it.”
Travis said Swift actually was the first person to tell him the Chiefs had drafted wide receiver Xavier Worthy in the first round of the 2024 draft. Swift also causally referenced defensive formations cover 2 and cover 4 in the conversation.
Swift poked fun at the unlikelihood of her appearance on a sports podcast, and even at the football fans who have historically complained about her air time when attending NFL games.
“You guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast,” Swift said in the clip. “If there’s one thing that male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens, it’s more of me.”
Andy Reid helped Travis land his first date with Taylor
Former Eagles coach and current Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is friends with Swift’s father, Scott, a lifelong Eagles fan, and Andy has been coming to Taylor’s shows for years, she said.
“I didn’t really know what the sports were that he was doing,” before Swift and Kelce began dating, Swift said. “But I knew that that was my dad’s friend, Andy Reid.”
Two years ago, after Travis said on the podcast that he would like to meet Swift, she said many people reached out to her to help make the connection happen.
“There were friends that were like, he’s actually an amazing guy. He’s so great,” she said. “There was a lot of people whispering in my ear about you. Actually, that’s not normal. It’s not normal.”
And among those people was Reid.
While on the subject of her father, Swift noted Scott Swift is recovering “incredibly well” from quintuple bypass surgery this summer, and her mother Andrea Swift is on the mend from knee surgery.
Watch the Taylor Swift episode of “New Heights” in the video embedded below.
NOTE: Portions of this article were updated and edited after it was originally published.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
