Obsessed

Taylor Swift Reveals "All You Had to Do Was Stay" Was Inspired by a Dream About Her Ex

We're all well aware by now that Taylor Swift pulls inspiration for her songs directly from her life—whether it's from past relationships, a witty parody of how the media portrays her, or an ode to her move to New York City. But one interesting source of inspiration we didn't know about? Taylor's dreams. In a video interview for GQ—conducted by Ryan Adams, who recently—and brilliantly—covered her entire 1989 album (seriously, go listen to it now if you haven't yet)—Taylor reveals that she turned a strange dream about an ex into her song "All You Had to Do Was Stay." Ryan starts the interview off by asking Taylor if she has ever dreamed a song or a lyric, and she admits that the high-pitched "Stay!" in her song "All You Had to Do Was Stay" came from a dream. "I had a dream that my ex showed up at my door, knocked at my door, and I opened it up, and I was about ready to launch into the perfect thing to say," she tells Ryan. "Instead, all that would come out of my mouth was that high-pitched chorus of people singing, 'Stay!'...and then you go to say something else, and

We're all well aware by now that Taylor Swift pulls inspiration for her songs directly from her life—whether it's from past relationships, a witty parody of how the media portrays her, or an ode to her move to New York City. But one interesting source of inspiration we didn't know about? Taylor's dreams.

In a video interview for GQ—conducted by Ryan Adams, who recently—and brilliantly—covered her entire 1989 album (seriously, go listen to it now if you haven't yet)—Taylor reveals that she turned a strange dream about an ex into her song "All You Had to Do Was Stay."

Ryan starts the interview off by asking Taylor if she has ever dreamed a song or a lyric, and she admits that the high-pitched "Stay!" in her song "All You Had to Do Was Stay" came from a dream. "I had a dream that my ex showed up at my door, knocked at my door, and I opened it up, and I was about ready to launch into the perfect thing to say," she tells Ryan. "Instead, all that would come out of my mouth was that high-pitched chorus of people singing, 'Stay!'...and then you go to say something else, and it's just like 'Stay! Stay! Stay!' And I woke up, I was like 'Oh, that was mortifying. But that's kind of a cool vocal part.'"

Taylor doesn't reveal which ex the song is about—Harry Styles, maybe?—but she does add that "it's a really weird part of the song." Ryan admits he didn't even attempt to add that into his cover—he pauses during the line instead—but Taylor says she likes that Ryan took a different approach to her music. "You know when actors say a line, they say a sentence, but they say it with different emphasis on different words and they completely change it?" she tells him. "That's what you did with my album! If you take a song like 'All You Had to Do Was Stay'—my version of it was like, 'All you had to do was stay. Sorry 'bout it. I don't miss you and now you're back.' Yours is like, 'All you had to do was stay. You broke my heart! That's all you had to do!'"

Watch the full interview, below!

PS: Don't forget to read Taylor's cover interview with GQ.