Taylor Swift Talks Politics, Ongoing Feud w/ Kanye West & Reveals Her Mother Was Diagnosed w/ A Brain Tumor

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift Talks Politics, Ongoing Feud w/ Kanye West & Reveals Her Mother Was Diagnosed w/ A Brain Tumor

Taylor Swift might have been a major singer she was 15, but the 30-year-old seems to be just now finding her voice.

She’s set to tell her story in the Sundance documentary Miss Americana, that will be released on Netflix and in theaters on Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, she shared lots more about her journey in a candid sit-down with Variety.

She first opened up about her political stance and said she used to be silenced when it came to speaking about it.

 “It was wild. I said, ‘I’m a 22-year-old girl — people don’t want to hear what I have to say about politics.’ And people would just be like, ‘Yeahhhhh!’”

And at one point, she was afraid to be open about it after seeing the downfall of The Dixie Chicks after their comments against then President George W. Bush.

“I saw how one comment ended such a powerful reign, and it terrified me. These days, with social media, people can be so mad about something one day and then forget what they were mad about a couple weeks later. That’s fake outrage. But what happened to the Dixie Chicks was real outrage. I registered it — that you’re always one comment away from being done being able to make music.”

While she’s definitely found her political voice and is a strong supporter of the LGBT community, Taylor Swift suggested she has regrets about not speaking up sooner, especially against current President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

 “…but I can’t change that. … I need to be on the right side of history…”

Taylor Swift went on to address the drama she had with Kanye West. It began when the rapper took over her speech after she won Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, and was reignited when his wife Kim Kardashian West leaked a conversation between them years later. The leak was in an effort to shut down Taylor Swift’s claims that she didn’t give Kanye West the okay to say her name in his song “Famous.”

Swift said,

“As a teenager who had only been in country music, attending my very first pop awards show, somebody stood uThat message was received, and it burrowed into my psyche more than anyone knew. … That can push you one of two ways: I could have just curled up and decided I’m never going to one of those events ever again, or it could make me work harder than anyone expects me to, and try things no one expected, and crave that respect — and hopefully one day get it.”

She added,

“But then when that person who sparked all of those feelings comes back into your life, as he did in 2015, and I felt like I finally got that respect (from West), but then soon realized that for him it was about him creating some revisionist history where he was right all along, and it was correct, right and decent for him to get up and do that to a teenage girl…”

Kanye West, Taylor Swift

On top of stepping into her own, behind closed doors she and her family are fighting as her mother, Andrea Swift, was diagnosed with cancer years ago. Unfortunately, more recently, doctors also found what they’ve described as a brain tumor.

“Everyone loves their mom; everyone’s got an important mom. But for me, she’s really the guiding force. Almost every decision I make, I talk to her about it first. So obviously it was a really big deal to ever speak about her illness…she was going through chemo, and that’s a hard enough thing for a person to go through. While she was going through treatment, they found a brain tumor. And the symptoms of what a person goes through when they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve ever been through with her cancer before. So it’s just been a really hard time for us as a family.”

What do you think about Taylor Swift’s remarks? Tell us in the comments!

–Paige Mitchell