Few relationships have fueled as much fandom fervor as Taylor Swift’s brief romance with John Mayer.
Her short fling with the famous ladies man inspired her hit song “Dear John,” which cemented Mayer’s place as a villain in the minds of Taylor Swift fans.
The pair dated prior to the release of her third studio album, “Speak Now,” in 2010 when he was 32 and she was 19.
The “Karma” singer, who is in the midst of re-recording her first six albums, drops her new version of the “Speak Now” on July 7, 2023.
Read on to find out everything about her relationship with Mayer through the years.
John Mayer publicly states he wants to work with Taylor Swift
The pair’s first interaction happened very publicly in March 2009 when Mayer tweeted that he wanted to collaborate with Swift.
“Waking up to this song idea that won’t leave my head. 3 days straight now. That means it’s good enough to finish. It’s called ‘Half of My Heart’ and I want to sing it with Taylor Swift,” he wrote at the time.
“She would make a killer ‘Nicks’ in contrast to my ‘Petty’ of a song,” he added, referring to Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty.
Two months later, she invited him on stage during her “Fearless” tour stop in Los Angeles, marking their first performance together.
The pair sang Swift’s hit “White Horse” from her sophomore album and Mayer’s track “Your Body Is a Wonderland.”
They collaborate on “Half of My Heart”
In November 2009, Mayer’s proposed duet with Swift became a reality.
The duo dropped “Half of My Heart” on his album “Battle Studies,” marking their first — and only — collaboration.
On the track, he croons, “Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring, but half of the heart is the part of a man who’s never truly loved anything.”
Swift told Elle that she “freaked out” when she heard about Mayer’s initial tweet because she had “been such a big fan of John for such a long time.”
The “Fifteen” singer went on to say she was “really excited about just the idea that he would even mention me in his Twitter.”
Meanwhile, Mayer told Access Hollywood that he considered the then-up-and-coming musician a “friend.”
“I think she’s a really remarkable person and it’ll be nice to have her name on my record,” he said. “Taylor is the world’s biggest star who doesn’t know she’s a star. Which I think is totally sweet.”
Mayer and Swift get dinner together in Nashville
On Jan. 24, 2010, the pair were spotted out to dinner together with some friends in Nashville.
The outing came shortly after Swift split from “Twilight” actor Taylor Lautner, whom she dated from October to December 2009.
Mayer honors Swift at the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony
Mayer and Swift seemed comfortable in each other’s company when he honored her at the June 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony.
“You could put her in a time machine in any era and she would have a hit record,” he said before presenting her with the Hal David Starlight Award.
“Don’t confuse everybody loving one thing as hype. Sometimes that’s everyone agreeing that it’s fabulous.”
Swift thanked Mayer with a kiss on the cheek and a warm hug upon accepting the award.
Swift releases “Dear John”
Although there were no signs of trouble between the pair, Swift dropped her album “Speak Now” in October 2010 featuring the track “Dear John.”
The song made it clear that their dalliance had gone south as the lyrics seemed to reference their falling out.
“Don’t you think nineteen is too young to be played by your dark twisted games. When I loved you so?” she sang.
Swift’s song “The Story of Us” from “Speak Now” is also rumored to be about Mayer.
Mayer responds to “Dear John”
Two years after its release, Mayer addressed the song that fans speculated was about him.
He told Rolling Stone in 2012 that the lyrics made him “feel terrible.”
“I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”
Mayer also claimed that Swift hadn’t reached out to him beforehand.
“I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off-guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I’d already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest you’ve ever been, someone kicked you even lower?” he said.
The “Gravity” hitmaker even referred to the track as “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!’ That’s bulls—t.”
Swift calls Mayer “presumptuous”
Swift said the “New Light” singer was wrong to assume her hit song was about him.
“How presumptuous,” she told told Glamour in November 2012 when asked about his Rolling Stone interview.
“I never disclose who my songs are about,” she continued, noting she didn’t read his comments. “I know it wasn’t good, so I don’t want to know. I put a high priority on staying happy, and I know what I can’t handle.”
Swift went on to explain that she never developed a “thick skin,” despite her career sky-rocketing in a matter of years.
“It’s not that I’m this egomaniac and I don’t want to hear anything negative, because I do keep myself in check,” she said. “But I’ve never developed that thick a skin. So I just kind of live a life, and I let all the gossip live somewhere else. If you go too far down the rabbit hole of what people think about you, it can change everything about who you are.”
Mayer releases “Paper Doll”
In June 2013, Mayer released a breakup ballad titled “Paper Doll,” which fans speculated was his response to “Dear John.”
The lyrics seemingly referenced a number of her hits, including “22,” “All Too Well” and “Dear John” itself.
Mayer didn’t address the speculation for years, until a rare 2019 comment on Instagram Live.
When a fan asked, “what song have you written that didn’t get the love it deserved?” Mayer responded, “When ‘Paper Doll’ came out, 100 percent of the people believed it was about somebody and the person that they thought it was about brought a certain amount of a superficial pop culture back and forth about it that I think kind of shat on the song.”
“But the song is not about that person,” he continued. “And I could never tell anybody that’s not true because then I would be breaking my rule that songwriters don’t say who the songs are about or not.”
Swifties roast Mayer on TikTok
When Mayer joined the video sharing app TikTok in 2021, Swift’s fans trolled him, with some even sending him death threats.
“John don’t you think 19 was too young?” one person wrote.
Another comment, which received over 30,000 likes, said: “You’re not safe here John.”
Mayer also responded directly to a fan who slid into his Instagram DMs, telling him, “f–k yourself you ugly bitch i hope you choke on something <3.”
He responded, “Hi Alondra, it’s John. I’ve been getting so many messages like these the past couple of days. I decided to choose your message at random to reply to. You can feel free to screen shot, share in any way you like if you want.”
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He continued, “I’m not upset, I just tend to have a curious mind and feel compelled to ask. Do you really hope that I die?”
The Swiftie then wrote back, “OMG WHAT i don’t want you to DIE,” before noting she was “sorry.”
Mayer accepted the troll’s apology, writing, “It’s okay. I wanted to understand. So it’s a fun thing people are doing without taking into account that I might see it and be affected by it?”
He concluded his message, “Go forth and live happy and healthy.”
Swift releases “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”
In October 2022, Swift released her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” which featured a track many fans believed was about her romance with Mayer.
On the song “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve,” Swift sings of her regrets about a relationship with an age gap and wished she had “only played it safe.”
“Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts / Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first,” she croons on the track, which also references the age 19.
Swift was 19 years old when she was first linked to Mayer.
Swift asks fans not to cyberbully John Mayer before “Speak Now” re-release
One month before the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” she warned fans about cyberbullying her ex-boyfriends.
“I get to stand on this stage every single night of this tour and watch some of the most beautiful things happen,” Swift told the audience at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis during her blockbuster Eras Tour.
“I see so many beautiful interactions happen, and I hear so many stories about friends that were made at these shows, and I watch it happen, and it’s the most unbelievable thing to watch, she continued.
“I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19. I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.”
Swift didn’t name Mayer in her impassioned speech, however she then performed “Dear John” for the first time in 11 years as part of the “surprise songs” segment of her show.
