Taylor Swift Tells the GRAMMY Museum She Feels 'More and More Loyal' to Her Country Roots
Taylor Swift told a GRAMMY Museum audience that the further her career goes, the more tied she feels to her country music origins, speaking in a Q&A with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. on 25 August 2026.
"The further along I get, the more I want to honor my country roots," Swift said, adding that she feels "more and more tied and more loyal" to them, according to Billboard.
Swift traced those roots to Nashville, where she became fascinated with the city at around age 10 after learning that Faith Hill had been discovered at the Bluebird Cafe, the small Nashville songwriters' venue. She made it a personal goal to perform there, teaching herself instruments and writing songs by studying the structures of the music she loved.
Her debut single, 'Tim McGraw,' introduced a teenager with a guitar and a story. Swift said she was 16 when she put out an album in country music that was all about her life as a kid in high school. The self-titled record, released in 2006, was the beginning of a career that would move through country, pop, and several genre-blending phases in between.
She cited 'Mean,' from 2010's 'Speak Now,' as an example of how that country background shaped her approach. When critics said she wasn't 'country enough,' Swift said she responded by adding more banjo to the track.
The pivot away from country came gradually. Swift said she brought 'I Knew You Were Trouble' to producers Max Martin and Shellback as a sad piano ballad. They suggested turning it into a dubstep-influenced track, a decision Swift called a turning point in her move away from the genre. Audiences first saw her experimenting with 2012's 'Red' before the official pop pivot arrived with 2014's '1989.' Both albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the chart that ranks the highest-selling and most-streamed albums in the United States each week.
During the GRAMMY Museum appearance, Swift also performed a piano mashup of 'I Knew You Were Trouble,' 'August,' and 'All Too Well,' seated at the acoustic piano she used on her Eras Tour, USA Today reported.
The event was part of a GRAMMY Museum programming series announced in a July press release that also featured Joni Mitchell, Billie Eilish, and Dua Lipa, with free admission offered on a Wednesday in August 2026.
For Swift, who has moved across genre lines more than once in a two-decade career, the evening was a chance to reframe the country chapter not as a starting point she left behind, but as a foundation she keeps returning to.
