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Vanessa Grigoriadis
I'm not giving up.
Taylor Swift
I am selling the building.
Narrator/Announcer
The final season of FX is the Bear.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
The restaurant is flooded.
Narrator/Reporter
Everything's either gonna be okay.
Taylor Swift
No, stop.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Or not.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
We are outgunned and we are outmanned.
Narrator/Reporter
But we have each other.
Narrator/Announcer
FX's the Bear the final season, all episodes now streaming on Disney
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Campside Media. Welcome back to infamous everyone at Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment production. Vanessa Grigoriadis here. So we're going to be off next week, but this week we wanted to bring you a little taste of an episode that is really connected to one of the biggest events in history. Well, maybe that's a little much, but it is definitely the biggest potential event of the upcoming week. And I am, of course, speaking of the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Big Fat American wedding.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
The 1200 person invite list is said to include Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, and Zoe Kravitz, who is, of course now engaged. Today's ex, Harry Styles, the king and
Vanessa Grigoriadis
queen of sports and pop culture are having their merger and they're doing it, supposedly in a fascinating venue. I'm speaking of Madison Square Garden where Taylor has played so many sold out arena tours. Are you going to do DJ or band?
Narrator/Announcer
I think we're live music kind of people.
Taylor Swift
Ed Sheeran, is he singing at us?
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
Oh, I mean, it would be hard to keep him from it.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
I think it will take several days to transform Madison Square Garden into an intimate, romantic venue and several more to take it down.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
This lines up with MSG's calendar, which
Vanessa Grigoriadis
is clear from June 29 through July 6. In honor of this union, I'm going to play an episode that we released a while ago about Taylor and her rise and rise to power. It was sort of a hard episode to put together because though I have some bones to pick with Taylor Swift, like everyone, there are some things that I find just too too about her. I also have a lot of respect for her. I actually interviewed her for her first Rolling Stone cover way back when she was 19 years old. I hope you enjoy this episode and if you do, please check out the whole series which will be linked in our show notes. We come up on the parking lot of a seedy motel in Vegas. It's night, but it's not dark because it's never dark here with all the buzzing neon signs. And tonight there's also the hypnotic red, blue, red, blue of police car lights flashing over the scene. There's been a crime. Sprawled out on the black pavement is the body of a teenage Girl.
Narrator/Reporter
The Victim is a 16 year old
Taylor Swift
girl who lives on the premises.
Narrator/Reporter
She's the daughter of Mark and Nicole Jones, who run the motel.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
She's thin, she's pretty. But wait a minute. Does she look a little familiar? The investigator approaches the body.
Taylor Swift
I knew her. I'm gonna knock on some doors.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
He recognizes her. And you think you might recognize her too. The oval face, the pouty lips, skin perfectly smooth, like a scoop of French vanilla ice cream. Oh, my God. You do recognize her.
Taylor Swift
You figure it out yet?
Vanessa Grigoriadis
That's Taylor Swift on an episode of csi.
Taylor Swift
Rolling, rolling. Let's tighten up on the B camera, please. For about three years, I've been saying everywhere that my favorite show is csi.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Just imagine being a teenager getting a role on your favorite TV show. Plus, she has the coolest costume and coolest character backstory ever.
Taylor Swift
I'm black hair, lip ring, nose ring, earring, earring, earring, earring, earring, earring, earring, bikes, skirt, combat boots. And you end up figuring out that there's this whole backstory that, you know, my parents had a child that ended up dying and I was the second replacement child and my mom never really loved me and all this stuff. There are so many different intricate storylines that come into play.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment. This is infamous. And I am Vanessa Grigoriadis.
Natalie Ropamed
I'm Natalie Ropamed.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
So this series is generally about prominent people and their infamous scandals, all told by the journalists who reported on them. But this week, we're turning our attention to perhaps the most famous woman in the world who just seems to become more and more famous as people who were previously not interested in her want to get a glimpse too. Taylor is like a literal star in the sky that keeps getting hotter and hotter, bigger and bigger as time goes on. And now she's a supernova.
Natalie Ropamed
Yeah, I mean, Taylor Swift is sort of like Glenda the good witch using a sparkly wand to make people's dreams come true. So, right, she's this year's Time person of the Year.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Yep.
Natalie Ropamed
Her tours generate the GDP of a small country and she's just an all round superstar. I mean, here she is giving a commencement address at NYU a couple years ago and calming the whole audience down.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And as long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I am a doctor now, so I know how breathing works.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
I mean, if you told people Taylor Swift Also just happened to be a doctor. I think some people would believe that. She wears so many hats and she means so much to so many people.
Natalie Ropamed
Yeah, she's a country star who crossed over to pop. A singer, songwriter and a Beyonce like queen. Someone whose lyrics are about tiny notice moments in regular quotidian life, who also plays the biggest arenas.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
That's very much right. She's like this little woodland nymph who somehow ended up on the COVID of a million magazines and very, very far from that 19 year old on CSI who had, you know, the sort of put on country accent because she'd been living in Nashville and trying to make it in the country business. This is what happened. Rolling Stone sent me to extensively interview Taylor in 2009 in several different cities for her first Rolling Stone cover. That's where these tape recordings were taken and I'm sorry they're a bit scratchy, but they are sort of old. She was so excited that the magazine was ready to anoint her.
Taylor Swift
Never in my life ever went to. I'm going to get a call that says you're going to be on the COVID for only so. Are you kidding me? It's self preservation. I try not to go too far out there and predict that I'm going to be so successful and all that.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Self preservation. That's a good word to keep in mind with her because it's a term she used in our conversation over and over. The Washington Post had called her the poet laureate of puberty and millions of people were buying what she was selling.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
At 16, her hard work paid off
Vanessa Grigoriadis
and her debut CD was the number
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
one highest selling country album of 2007.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Her Taylor's second album, Fearless, came out. Before I met her, I listened to a lot of it in the car on the way to see her. She was getting noticed, and not only by me.
Taylor Swift
Yesterday I woke up and went to the Beverly Center. This is so funny because my dad's never seen paparazzi before. Taylor. There's a guy behind that trash can. And I was like, dad, don't point at him. And it's so funny. Do you worry about like pictures? I think there's always that. There's always that inclination to be scared that you're gonna lose what you have. Yeah. But honestly, if you just be yourself and if you focus too much on it to the point where you get paranoid, then you're not enjoying what you're lucky enough to have. You know, when I get in those moments where you think, you know, what if someone says something about me. That's not true. And what if you know someone, you know, sees something and fudge it with something else? You can do that all day until you drive yourself insane. But I kind of started living by the motto of I'd rather enjoy this, then spend every single minute being afraid of losing it.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
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Vanessa Grigoriadis
This is infamous from Campside Media. So when you write for Rolling Stone, you get a lot of access to your subject. I mean, a lot of access. I had met Taylor at csi. It was a whole thing. I had to drive to the CBS lot in Studio City, get a pass, go park in this huge parking garage, and then I walked through a bunch of cavernous sound stages to find her, this tall 19 year old just sitting in a director's chair. And once she was done taping, we went out in the blinding sun. We walked past golf course and gaffers and found her trailer, an RV trailer that was lined up next to the other actors on set and talked some more about how CSI was shooting most of her scenes on location.
Taylor Swift
We've been shooting in North Hollywood all week at an actual motel in like 90 degree heat. And at night when it drops to 50, when I'm laying on the ground covered in blood, shivering.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Still, Taylor loved the whole process. The melodrama of course, the costumes, the creativity. Even the part about dying, though that didn't sit quite right with her mom.
Taylor Swift
My mom was a little freaked out because I'm open eyed dead. Literally had to stare off into nothing and not breathe for the times when I was being closed up. Yeah, and they were doing checking rigor in my arm and checking my jaw and doing all these things and I've got to keep. He'd be staring stance off into nowhere and not flinch, not twitch. She was watching the monitor just like oh no.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Taylor's mom and dad were around quite a bit when we were talking. She was 19, but still close to them, and they were helping her with business. She'd been so driven since she was a kid, partially because of them. Her father worked for Merrill lynch, and it's been reported that among his ancestors are many bank presidents. Part of why she was named Taylor was her mom wanted an androgynous name so she could later be just a businessperson in a business world. Taylor's parents ended up raising her on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania. When her mom would garden, she would put Taylor on an old Shetland pony that just didn't move, and that way she could gather her vegetables for dinner. They had a grape arbor to make jam from purple grapes. The place just fed Taylor's imagination. Taylor started acting in kiddie plays at nine, but what she really loved was the wrap party, having a karaoke machine, and the type of karaoke she really loved to sing was the stuff of a slightly earlier decade. 90s women led country her parents were sort of surprised by Taylor's love of country, but they were willing to help out, drive her all over where she could sing. To be clear, she was also commuting to New York City for vocal and acting lessons and even made a demo CD of herself singing other people's songs. There was a bit of a child start with mama in tow thing happening, but she says the real change came when she got a guitar to make her own music. Taylor kept writing songs and playing and pushing, moving to Nashville even for a record deal as a songwriter and so many things went right. And then here she was in la, a star, talking to Rolling Stone.
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Vanessa Grigoriadis
This is infamous from Campside Media. So again, as I said, this was Rolling Stone I was reporting for, and it was a lot of access, which means I saw Taylor Swift again. In fact, we went to a grocery store to get some ingredients to make cookies. Next, she wanted to make mocha chocolate chip cookies.
Taylor Swift
Chocolate chocolate chip cookies? No, mocha chocolate chocolate chip cookies.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
We drove through the winding streets of Beverly Hills and up, up, up. As Taylor pointed out all the celebrity homes. Soon we pulled into the driveway for country music power couple Faith hill and Tim McGraw. Faith Hill is, of course, one of the biggest country stars, the kind who crossed over into the mainstream, won a bunch of Grammys and has her music playing in department stores across America. Tim McGraw's music is more traditional country. He's also had acting roles in things like the Blind side and Friday Night Lights. Their house, of course, was gorgeous. It was Mediterranean style, white stucco with a red tiled roof. There was a big pool out back and those terracotta patio tiles that were all the rage back then. Taylor Swift was staying here because she didn't have a place in LA yet. And they were new friends. In a very canny move that her record label also admitted was a canny move, she even named one of her first songs Tim McGraw. This song was sort of wistful. It was all about a past love and how they'd had a special Tim McGraw song that brought them together.
Taylor Swift
When you think Tim McGraw, I hope
Vanessa Grigoriadis
you think my favorite song, the one
Taylor Swift
we dance to all night long.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
And now Taylor's version of Tim McGraw was a huge hit. I mean, this girl was really just into love and falling in love, singing about love, Romeo, Juliet, fairy tale. It was all a little exhausting, but she was selling it hard.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
The first time I heard Tim McGraw on the radio, I'm just driving down the road. This girl calls in and is like, hi, can I Hear that Tim McGraw song you played earlier? And he's like, what Tim McGraw song
Taylor Swift
you want to hear?
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
She's like, the one by Taylor Swift. And I'm like, yes, yes. And so I was like freaking out and I almost drove off the road.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
All of their success meant that Faith hill and Tim McGraw had really blown it out on their house, which feels like being in a fairytale castle. All sumptuous wallpaper and beautiful rugs. Somewhat disconcertingly, there are life size Grecian statues around as well. As Taylor moves around their kitchen getting ready to make her mocha chocolate chip cookies. She talks about how she ended up in this house, ended up as a huge country star. In order to reach the fans that she knew were out there for herself, she'd drive to radio stations with her parents, play songs in those conference rooms for decision makers, and then plead with them to put her on.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
People around here say that once you get the record deal, that's when the hard part starts. And I'm well aware of that and ready to step up to bat.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
97.9 FM is that. Is the big 98. W6 831 on a Friday night. You want to take a call?
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
I'll take some calls.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
All right, why don't you go ahead
Taylor Swift
and grab line one there, the big 98.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
This is Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift
Hey, Taylor, I love your song. Kim McGraw. Oh, my gosh, I love it. The first time I heard it, I was on my way to school and I just started bawling.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
I mean, it touched me.
Taylor Swift
It really hit home. It really hit the heart.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
Thank you. Oh, my gosh, that means so much to me. Thank you so much.
Taylor Swift
You're welcome. Have a great night. All right.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
You too.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
Would you guys like to hear a new song?
Vanessa Grigoriadis
And who was behind her in all this? Well, she had a record deal by this point, but not with a big label, since she was a songwriting prodigy, a real savant. When she was in her mid teens, she had had this songwriting contract with rca, but now that was up. There was a guy, though, who had worked at Universal and was well known in Nashville, and he wanted to sign her to his new independent label. Scott Borchetta at Big Machine. She went with him.
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
Well, I told you she would stop by. And now, ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome Big Machine recording artist. It's Taylor Swift.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
When Scott got Taylor's demo, she'd sent a package including herself modeling in an Abercrombie and fashion stitch catalog. Literally, like holding a guitar and dabbing a tear. He saw something in Taylor. He thought she looked more like a young adult than a teenager. And her songs were great.
Narrator/Reporter
I was just smitten on the spot. It was like a lightning bolt.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
The best part about getting a record deal was that it wasn't just a record deal. It was the right deal for me. I'm just so grateful that I got the right one and that I'm with people that I believe in and that they believe in me.
Narrator/Reporter
I couldn't get up in the morning and not have her as part of this label.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
This is my chance. This is my chance to bring my music out of my bedroom where I'm writing it.
Taylor Swift
Oh, I'm just a girl
Narrator/Reporter
now.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
She was just a girl, yes, but her father, the one who worked for Merrill lynch, and her mom, the mutual fund wholesaler, was. Were also there with her. They were a pretty powerful business triumvirate, and they even invested in the big machine label. That's how much they believed in Taylor. But what were these songs that she was going to sing be about? Well, they were going to be about love, because this was country. They had to be about love. Even though Taylor told me she didn't know too much about it. She said she was the girl who was friends with guys she liked but didn't really show her real feelings about them, and then she'd support them as they went after other girls. She called it girl next door. Itis.
Taylor Swift
I have girl next dooritis where in high school, I was always the girl that would be friends with the guy, and he liked the other girl, the girl he couldn't have.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
Taylor said she hadn't had a lot of boyfriends, maybe five, maybe less, and only been in love once. But official boyfriend girlfriend relationships, as she called it, were meaningless in terms of writing songs anyway. It was a crush, a glance. The way someone makes you feel for just a moment. That's her muse. She could blow these little moments into the most epic love song or breakup song, just like she'd experienced the whole arc of a relationship from dating to going your separate ways. Like, here she is telling me about one of her songs, feeling I don't
Taylor Swift
know you at all. You tell me that you like me and then you just cut me down. You got these stupid reasons for things that I don't even understand. There's no logic behind it. But you think there's logic behind it. Feeling like I don't know you. You tell me that you love me, then cut me down and it just became a song. Yeah, yeah, why not? They happen like that. You're going through something, and the only way that you know how to verbalize it is through music.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
That's how music was happening for Taylor, and that's how it would continue to happen for years and years. She would have a feeling, and then she'd pick up her guitar. And sometimes that was because she was mad at Katy Perry. And eventually it would be about her romantic relationships, too. And other times it would be because she was just able to see things other people couldn't. Angles ways of business, ways of love. She would end up being such a visionary and such an intuitive mind that the words she was singing would become, for a lot of America, quite frankly, gospel.
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
Thank you for a magnificent, happy, free, confused, sometimes lonely, but mostly golden decade. And as for me, lately, I. I've been focusing less on doing what they say I can't do and more on doing whatever the hell I want.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
That's all. Next time on Infamous. As we keep telling the story of Taylor Swift,
Taylor Swift (Interview Clips)
this is just what happens to a woman in music if she achieves success or power beyond people's comfort level.
Taylor Swift
I'm really happy for you. Let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time.
Vanessa Grigoriadis
The 22 year old has realized that she maybe is correct. And like that, that sort of shifts
Advertiser/Commercial Voice
a lot of their relations.
Taylor Swift
Foreign.
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Podcast: Infamous
Host: Vanessa Grigoriadis, Gabriel Sherman, Natalie Robehmed
Date: June 25, 2026
This episode delivers a timely update on the (supposedly) imminent wedding of pop superstar Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelce, one of the biggest anticipated celebrity events of the year. Host Vanessa Grigoriadis uses this occasion to revisit a previously released episode chronicling Taylor Swift’s meteoric rise, offering both affectionate and critical insights into her career. Listeners are treated to a mix of firsthand reporting, reflective narrative, and choice interview excerpts, all in a tone that’s equal parts curious, skeptical, and admiring.
This episode of Infamous skillfully weaves together the personal and professional journey of Taylor Swift, celebrating her relentless drive, self-awareness, and savvy with just a dash of critical eye. While the headline is all about Swift’s possible wedding to Travis Kelce, the narrative spends most of its time offering a textured look at Taylor as both a product and architect of modern celebrity, giving listeners an inside view of her world at 19, her strategies, insecurities, and the foundations of her empire. Sprinkled throughout are the seeds of her later triumphs and controversies, all told in the lively, intimate voice of someone who watched her become the supernova she is today.
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For listeners and Swifties alike, this episode provides a fascinating mix of nostalgia, insight, and real talk about the making—and staying—of fame.