Taylor Swift tells Stephen Colbert whether 'Hey Stephen' was written about him

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated Apr 14, 2021 5:35 PM ET

Taylor Swift dropped Fearless (Taylor's Version) on Friday (April 9), the re-recorded version of her 2008 sophomore album that includes six never-before-heard "From the Vault" tracks, and as with any Swift release, Swifties have detected numerous Easter eggs.

Stephen Colbert also had questions.

"Is the song 'Hey Stephen' about me?" Colbert asked.

"No, Stephen," Swift said with a smirk. "I mean, I first recorded that song in 2008. I think I was, like, 18."

"Yeah," Colbert said. "I was also a younger age."

Swift went in for the playful barb: "Right, yeah. I mean, you were probably about 44 years, 179 days old. Give or take several hours.

The bit was set up by Colbert and Jon Batiste discussing Batiste's admiration for Swift, which led to Colbert doing a deep dive into Fearless (Taylor's Version) as Swift's way of reclaiming her masters before the monologue turned spoof-y.

Ultimately, Swift joked that "Hey Stephen" was written about Stephen King.

Fearless originally produced Swift's first four Grammys—album of the year, best female country vocal performance ("White Horse"), best country song ("White Horse") and best country album. The 31-year-old has 11 Grammys to date (41 nominations) with her most recent win coming last month when Folklore was named album of the year.

Listen to Fearless (Taylor's Version) below.

Megan Armstrong

Megan Armstrong (@megankarmstrong) is a writer whose work has appeared in places such as Billboard, GQ, Esquire, Bleacher Report, Uproxx, and others. Megan has also produced various podcasts and hosted a daily radio show at Mizzou. She grew up obsessed with sports — impressing adults by memorizing NFL statistics as a kindergartner — and grew into an obsession with music

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