Taylor Swift Reveals Inspiration Behind Fearless Track 'Hey Stephen'

Immediately after 13 years, Taylor Swift is finally setting the record straight: No, her song "Hey Stephen" isn't about Stephen Colbert. The 31-year-old singer-songwriter stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday (April 13) to finally break the news to the late-night comedian that he did not inspire the nation track.


Or did he? Because the two talked who the real Stephen is, Swift revealed increasingly personal bits of data about Colbert — even unveiling a mood board she covered with photographs of his face — and he began to question the veracity of her claims. In the end, nevertheless, she revealed that the song was actually written about prolific horror author Stephen King.


"I've never revealed this before to anyone nevertheless 'Hey Stephen' is about Stephen King," she mentioned. "He's astonishing. The Dark Tower series changed my life, plus The Shining, The Stand, and do not even get me began on his short stories. Absolutely luminescent."


"Hey Stephen" is one of 26 tracks on Fearless (Taylor's Version), a re-recorded version of her 2008 album, which was released on April 9. Swift is remastering her entire discography up to 2019's Lover to increase complete ownership of her music immediately after her master recordings were purchased and then sold by her former management. Fearless (Taylor's Version) is her first completely re-recorded album, but Swift had fans abuzz with theories that her album 1989 might be next in line right after dropping multiple references to it throughout her interview with Colbert.


Speaking to People about the process of re-recording Fearless, Taylor said: "We really did go in and attempt to make build a 'the same although better' version. We kept all of the same parts that I initially dreamed up for these songs. Nevertheless if there was any way that we might improve upon the sonic excellent, we did."