Taylor Swift Urges Fans Not to ‘Defend Me’ From John Mayer Amid ‘Speak Now’ Rerelease: ‘I Don’t Care’

usmagazine.com:

In celebration of her upcoming Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) release, Taylor Swift surprised Minnesota Swifties with an acoustic rendition of “Dear John” at The Eras Tour — alongside an impassioned plea.“I was hoping to ask you, as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and that gentleness to extend onto our Internet activities,” the “Mastermind” songstress, 33, said during her Saturday, June 24, concert in Minneapolis, per social media footage, after gushing over her fans’ newfound friendships with one another over their shared love of her music.Swift — who is gearing up to release her rerecorded version of her LP Speak Now next month — further explained the reasons why she is revisiting her old records.“I’m putting this out now because I want to own my music and I believe that any artist who has the desire to own their music should be able to.

That’s why I’m putting out this album,” she said on Saturday. “I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19, except the songs I wrote. … So, what I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not putting this album out so that you should go and feel the need to defend me on the Internet against someone you think I might have written the song about 14 million years ago.”After Swift concluded her rousing speech, she launched into her new version of “Dear John.” The single, which originally dropped in 2010, was widely theorized to be inspired by her romance with her now-ex John Mayer.The Valentine’s Day actress and Mayer, 45, were first linked in 2009 after collaborating on his song “Half of My Heart.” Swift was 19 at the time and Mayer was 32, leading eagle-eyed Swifties to believe her “Dear John” lyrics referenced their age-gap