Speaking with Rolling Stone, Charlie Puth has responded once again to Taylor Swift‘s decision to mention him in a lyric from the title track of her 2024 album, The Tortured Poet’s Department.
In the song, Swift recounts a conversation with an ex-lover (rumored to be The 1975 frontman Matty Healy), in which she claims that “Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.” The line garnered plenty of attention when it was released, and Puth reacted with surprise to the mention:
“It was surreal,” Puth admitted to Rolling Stone in 2024. “I feel like I could have done things a little differently in the past, but it’s all meant to happen now.” Puth even cited Swift’s stamp of approval as motivation to release his next single “Hero”, in which he sings about the inability to stop somebody else’s self-destructive behaviors.
Puth Doubles Down On His Lyrical Surprise
Almost two years later, speaking with Rolling Stone again to promote his upcoming Whatever’s Clever! album, Puth has more to say about Swift’s popular lyric.
“It was definitely affirming that one of the biggest stars in the world knows me,” Puth admitted. “It’s like, ‘I better write something good, ’cause maybe she, and some others, will hear it.’”
Puth drew specific attention to his upcoming single “I Used To Be Cringe”, which reportedly discusses how he’s evolved artistically throughout the years and details the creative journey he’s been on to become to artist he’s always wanted to be. “And it’s all just because Taylor had said something about me.”
Though many of Swift’s fans decided to read the lyric as an ironic slight towards Puth, he never received it that way. “I understood exactly what she meant to be a “bigger artist” […] I think you have to let people in a little bit more.”
