Amid the glitz and glamor of Taylor Swift The life of a showgirlone song, “Ruin the Friendship,” throws listeners a truly devastating curveball as the pop star sings about losing a former classmate way too soon — and according to Susan Lang, the track is about her late son Jeffrey.
In a recent Tennesseeian interview released after Swift’s new album hit the Billboard 200, Susan shared how she felt after hearing the record’s sixth track for the first time. The Tennessee resident’s son attended Hendersonville High School with the singer, but died suddenly in 2010 while studying biology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, according to the publication.
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“They were really good friends,” Susan said of her son and Swift. “It’s rare these days. They hung out at her house a lot. They were always joking with each other.”
In “Ruin the Friendship,” the 14-time Grammy winner recalls a crush she had on a friend when they were both teenagers. The song is sweet and melancholy until it takes a dark turn in the third verse, in which Swift sings: “When I left school, I lost track of you/Abigail called me with the bad news/Goodbye/And we’ll never know why.”
“It wasn’t an invitation/ But I still went home/ With so much to say,” Swift continues in the final chorus. “It wasn’t practical, no/ But I whispered to the grave/ ‘I should have kissed you anyway.'”
In the interview, Susan marveled at how bittersweet it is that “after all this time, (Taylor) hasn’t forgotten him.”
“She keeps her name alive,” she added.
Arrived on October 3, The life of a showgirl quickly became Swift’s most successful album in terms of opening week numbers. The LP sold over four million copies in its first seven days, setting a new record for the largest album debut ever in the modern era, beating the previous record holder. 25 by Adèle.
Swift hasn’t commented on who inspired “Ruin the Friendship,” but fans were quick to trace the lyrics to Jeff. A photo that has circulated online shows a teenage Swift wearing a camouflage shirt and slicked back hair, posing next to her late classmate, who is wearing a backwards baseball cap.
Listen to “Ruin the Friendship” below.
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