Stephen Barker Liles Revisits Taylor Swift’s Song About Him

Stephen Barker Liles resides proof that not all of Taylor Swift’s songs are about heartbreak. 

The Love and Theft singer, 39, took a visit down reminiscence lane through the newest episode of “The Bobby Bones Show” podcast, opening up about Swift, 33, writing the monitor “Hey Stephen” in regards to the pair after they received shut whereas touring collectively in 2008. 

“[Taylor put us on the first tour we ever did,” Liles said after being asked if the song was actually about him. “It was like, she was just about to release the Fearless album so we went on our first tour and [she] wrote a tune about me. We received shut and it was cool.”

The tune was rereleased in April 2021 when Swift dropped Fearless (Taylor’s Model) in an effort to reclaim her masters after they had been purchased and bought by Scooter Braun in June 2019. Fearless marked her first rerecording adopted by Red (Taylor’s Version) and Converse Now (Taylor’s Model) in October 2021 and July 2023, respectively. Her fifth studio album, 1989 (Taylor’s Model), is about to drop later this month. 

Whereas Swift has had to fight against the narrative that each one her songs are venomous tunes about ex-boyfriends since her profession started, “Hey Stephen” — with lyrics like “I can’t assist it should you seem like an angel” and “I can’t assist if I need to kiss you within the rain gradual” — show that Swift’s discography is full of a full vary of feelings on the subject of issues of the center. 

“It’s a pleasant tune,” Liles mentioned of the monitor. “It’s like the nicest song you could write about any person, in order that was cool.” 

Swift has a historical past of by no means naming the themes of her music — however her first 5 albums included secret liner notes that supplied a glimpse into her inspiration. When Fearless was launched, eagle-eyed followers rapidly found that “Hey Stephen’s” code spelled out “Love and Theft.” 

In a 2008 interview with CMT Radio Reside, Swift performed coy in regards to the monitor however revealed that she wrote “Hey Stephen” as a technique to categorical her admiration for “Stephen,” saying, “It’s identical to slightly musical wink to the man that I assumed was cute … I believe that man’s actually cute.”

Liles later confirmed the tune was penned about him — and that he heard the monitor earlier than the Fearless launch. 

“Me and Taylor actually hit it off and have become actually shut after we had been on tour collectively,” Liles informed Taste of Country in 2011. “We had an actual emotional relationship. We talked on the cellphone quite a bit. She was actually cool. At some point she known as me up and was like, ‘Hey, I wrote a song about you.’” 

The musician recalled discovering the information “humorous” as a result of he had written a tune about Swift the week prior. 

“She was like, ‘Actually!’ She requested the way it went and I informed her about among the strains,” he recalled. “I didn’t inform her an excessive amount of, however I informed her about the principle tag of the tune. She was like, ‘I need to hear it!’”

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Love and Theft’s hectic tour schedule stored Liles from recording and sending the tune to Swift on the time — “I by no means actually did something with it,” he informed Style of Nation — however the band laid down a uncooked model of the tune, titled “Attempt to Make It Anyway,” whereas writing their self-titled fourth album in 2011.

“That is truly one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever written,” Liles shared on the time. “[Taylor] is superior. I actually dig Taylor. I dig what her and her household have accomplished together with her profession, and I dig the individual she is. I hope she’s flattered by it. So far as I do know, not one of the different dudes she’s been hanging out with have written a tune about her.”