Singer prefaces performance by telling fans to not “defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about”
The “Surprise Songs” portion of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour delivered perhaps its biggest surprise yet Saturday in Minneapolis as Taylor Swift unearthed “Dear John” for the first time in 11 years.
The Speak Now track is, notoriously, a biting ballad allegedly aimed at former flame John Mayer. While Swift didn’t mention that artist by name in her long introduction to the track Saturday, she told fans not to cyberbully a certain someone in the aftermath of the performance and the impending arrival of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in 13 (now 12) days.
After acknowledging the connectedness and passion of her friendship bracelet-sharing fanbase, Swift asked that that “kindness and gentleness extend into our internet activities.”
“I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote,” Swift added. “So what I’m trying to tell you that I’m not putting this album out so you 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.”
And with that, Swift delivered the first “Dear John” since a March 2012 concert in New Zealand.
Swift followed that up with the tour debut of Lover’s “Daylight”: