Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, has been making waves and generating discussion among Swifties. One of the songs on this album, Ruin the Friendship, is in the spotlight as fans are speculating about who the track is about.
As per People, the most popular theory says that this song is about Swift’s high school crush, Jeff Lang, who died aged 21. The pop star had spoken at his funeral and had paid tribute to him at the BMI Country Awards the next day in her acceptance speech for the Country Songwriter of the Year award.
Ruin the Friendship lyrics
The lyrics of the song read like this:
“When I left school, I lost track of you
Abigail called me with the bad news
Goodbye
And we’ll never know why
It was not an invitation
But I flew home anyway
With so much left to say
It was not convenient, no
But I whispered at the grave
‘Should’ve kissed you anyway.’”
What is Ruin the Friendship actually about?
In a special feature, the Track by Track Version of The Life of a Showgirl for Amazon Music, Swift herself talks about the subject of the song and the message it gives, as per People.
{{/usCountry}}In a special feature, the Track by Track Version of The Life of a Showgirl for Amazon Music, Swift herself talks about the subject of the song and the message it gives, as per People.
{{/usCountry}}She said, “Ruin the Friendship is a song that wistfully goes back in time to moments that you hesitated, moments that you were too scared or anxious to do something that you were really curious about. The idea is if you told this person you have feelings for them, or if you kiss this person, you might ruin the friendship.”
This is an open-ended explanation that neither confirms nor denies the song’s link to Jeff Lang. The latter was with Swift at the Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He died on November 2, 2010, and Swift sang at his funeral.
Fan theories about the song
Before the album dropped, a lot of Swifties thought that the song was about the pop star’s supposedly failing friendship with Blake Lively. However, after the release of the album, fans quickly pointed out that another track from the album, Cancelled, seems to be about Blake Lively.
One X user wrote, “I f**king love that all the pick-mes tried to convince everyone “ruin the friendship” was about Blake Lively (which is a sweet song about a boy) but instead Taylor wrote, "Yeah it’s a good thing I like my friends cancelled, I salute you if you’re too much to handle,” about Blake.”
FAQs
What is Ruin the Friendship about?
Ruin the Friendship is the sixth song of the album and seems to talk about a person not expressing their feelings for another clearly, fearing that it would ‘ruin the friendship’.
What happened between Taylor Swift and Blake Lively?
Taylor Swift and Blake Lively were close friends. However, speculation is rife that the two have had a fallout and are not on speaking terms presently.