SPEAK THEN VERSUS SPEAK NOW: What Ever Happened To John Mayer And Everyone Else Taylor Swift Wrote About? 

Taylor Swift re-recorded her iconic 2010 album, Speak Now, and it was released today to heavy fanfare. The Swifties rejoice! Swifitie or not, the album is one of her most famous and most of the songs hold up well to the passage of time. But how have the album’s subjects held up? 

Famously, Taylor Swift writes her music about her life. And Speak Now is no different. From ex-boyfriends to rivals, Speak Now is rumored to be about quite a few famous people.

Let’s see how they’re doing today, 13 years after they made Taylor’s lyrics (allegedly). 

Speak Then v Speak Now: 

1. John Mayer: Dear John (also Story of Us and possibly Superman)

Inarguably the most iconic of Taylor Swift’s song subjects, the figure rumored (I mean…basically confirmed) to be the focus of Taylor’s magnum opus, Dear John, is John Mayer. Mayer took a big career hit following the super success of the song in 2010 but since has been doing rather well. Mayer is now touring both with his own music and with the Grateful Dead which is a pretty auspicious feather in his cap. Taylor Swift herself asked her devoted fans to please play nice and not attack Mayer so many years after their tragic breakup. I personally am rooting for them to get back together. I like it as a storyline and I will not be apologizing.

2. Taylor Lautner: Back to December

The captain of Team Jacob himself, Taylor Lautner did date Taylor Swift in the 00s. He was the burgeoning Twilight heartthrob and she was the pop princess. It really should have worked. And Taylor agrees which is why she wrote Back to December about her regretting breaking up with him. Taylor is doing great and even though he lost Miss Swift he still found his fellow Taylor life partner. He recently married a woman named Taylor Dome and the two Taylors seem very happy. Lautner hasn’t focused much on Hollywood since his teen dream days but he has had fairly consistent work. He starred in the TV series, Cuckoo for a few years and most recently starred in a Netflix film with Kevin James, The Home Team. 

3. Camilla Belle: Better than Revenge

According to the song which is rumored to be about her, Better than Revenge, Camilla Belle stole Joe Jonas from Taylor Swift. The burn track is a little out of date for the 33 year old Taylor, so she actually changes the lyrics a little this time around so that she didn’t call Camilla Belle, essentially, a slut, in the year 2023. Frankly, the original lyrics are fire and she should have left them even if we are all adults now. Camilla seems to be doing alright. She has a dog she really likes and has been working as an actor with relative consistency since the 2010 diss track.

3. Joe Jonas: Last Kiss 

Last Kiss is kind of a cult classic of Taylor’s. It’s not one of her bigger hits but it’s one of her more emotional breakup tracks. It’s clear that Joe Jonas choosing Camilla Belle (allegedly, see above) really did a number on young Taylor’s heart. Nowadays, Joe is back with the Jonas Brothers with brand new music out. He’s married to Sophie Turner from Game of Thrones and they have two children. It really was the last kiss for him and Taylor.

4. Adam Young: Enchanted 

The song that gave us the oft instagrammed lyric “this night is sparkling, don’t you let it go” is (probably) about the Owl City singer, Adam Young. Owl City had it’s most iconic hit, Fireflies at a similar time to Speak Now. In fact, Adam Young released his own version of Enchanted at the time of the Speak Now original release. It’s clear both artists shared the feeling of ‘wonderstruck’ about their special meeting. Now, Adam Young is still touring as Owl City on albeit a much less grand scale as Taylor Swift and has a new album out called Coco Moon. Kinda sad this one didn’t come full circle tbh. 

5. Kanye West: Innocent 

The Kanye v Taylor saga would of course play out for many years after the release of Speak Now. But Innocent is allegedly written as a response to Kanye West’s infamous interruption of her award acceptance at the Video Music Awards the prior year. “Imma let you finish…” but that event remains one of Kanye’s most iconic moments. Today, Kanye has found God and become a political icon while struggling with his mental health. He had several hit albums since the incident and the release of Speak Now. He and Taylor Swift made up for half a second then fell out again over his hit song, Famous, where the lyric “I made that bitch famous” was subject to quite a bit of scrutiny and ultimately inspired a lot of Taylor’s Reputation album. What we can say for sure about Kanye West is that he lived rent-free in Taylor’s head for a long time. 

6. Bob Lefsetz: Mean 

Bob Lefsetz is a music critic who wrote a particularly scathing review of Swift back in the day. He came to realize the song was about him and wrote a pretty lengthy blog post about it. Lefsetz is still a music critic with a show on SiriusXM. He seems about as relevant today as he was back then, which is to say ‘somewhat.’ His newsletter has a healthy following still though he no longer has a column with Variety magazine. Frankly, Swift’s hit song being about him makes him more credible than he might have otherwise been. 

7. Jake Owen: Sparks Fly

Taylor Swift and Jake Owen may not have formally dated (unclear) but Taylor opened for Jake Owen early in her career and apparently, some sparks may have flown. Since the song’s release, Jake Owen had an illustrious country music career featuring several number 1 hits and iconic classics like Barefoot Bluejean Night. He married and divorced once and now has two daughters.