The original version of Taylor Swift’s third album “Speak Now” hit stores and sites in 2010. The record arrived on the heels of Swift’s 2009 romantic relationship with fellow singer-songwriter John Mayer. The musicians’ relationship had a controversial age gap, as Mayer was 32 when the romance began, Swift was 19, and “Speak Now” included the song “Dear John,” a chastising of an older man for exploiting a much younger woman. A minor chart hit in the U.S., “Dear John” found its probable intended audience — its inspiration and subject matter, John Mayer.
Mayer figured out the song was about him, and discovered Swift’s feelings toward him when he first heard it, which hurt him. “I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off-guard, and it really humiliated me,” Mayer told Rolling Stone. “I will say as a songwriter that I think it’s kind of cheap songwriting. I know she’s the biggest thing in the world, and I’m not trying to sink anybody’s ship, but I think it’s abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, ‘Wait till he gets a load of this!'”
In 2013, Mayer released the song “Paper Doll,” which dismisses the complaints of a former lover. “Yeah, songwriters write songs because of people, about people,” Mayer said on NBC’s “Today” (via Us Weekly) when asked if the song could be about his prominent ex.
