The moment Taylor Swift played ‘Best of You’ to Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney
As far as modern musicians go, it doesn’t get much more eminent than a trio of Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl. As is often the case with A-list artists, the three aforementioned names have been in each other’s orbit for a while now. It turns out that being one of the best-selling names on earth tends to open up doors to the inner sanctum, a place in which to rub shoulders with the greats of the industry.
Swift, of course, is one of the most revered contemporary pop stars. Breaking through in the 2000s with the country-pop hit ‘Love Story’, the singer-songwriter defied her detractors who claimed she was a one-trick pony by expanding her oeuvre with hits such as ‘Shake It Off’ and ‘Look What You Made Me Do’.
As well as having a recent spat with Blur frontman Damon Albarn when he questioned the authorship of her songs, wherein she very much held her own, over the past few years, Swift has shown herself to be much more respectable than your usual pop star. This favourable PR comes from her defiantly re-recording some of her albums due to a battle with her old record label and collaborating with Haim on the incredibly heady ‘Gasoline’.
Swift’s talent is something that Paul McCartney is acutely aware of, and on his 2018 album Egypt Station, the track ‘Who Cares’ was directly inspired by the Pennsylvania songstress. When speaking to the BBC, McCartney explained that Swift’s relationship with her fans impacted him and led to him conceiving the track. “I was actually thinking about Taylor Swift and her relationship to her young fans and how it’s sort of a sisterly thing,” he expressed. “And I was imagining talking to one of these young fans and saying, ‘Have you ever been bullied? Do you get bullied?'”
Understandably, the pair are such great friends that they even once revealed that they’d love to collaborate. Unfortunately for fans, it is yet to come to fruition due to the delaying effects of the Covid pandemic. However, this doesn’t mean they haven’t played together. During a lengthy sit down with Rolling Stone, the two recalled one of the star-studded parties which they both attended. Unsurprisingly, it ended up in a sing-along featuring a host of other icons, including one David Eric Grohl.
Looking back on how the year foiled everyone’s plans, Swift said: “I think it’s important to note that if this year had gone the way that we thought it was going to go, you and I would have played Glastonbury this year, and instead, you and I both made albums in isolation.”
The ever-affable McCartney agreed before the ‘Shake It Off’ singer continued: “And I remember thinking it would have been so much fun because the times that I’ve run into you, I correlate with being some of the most fun nights of my life. I was at a party with you, when everybody just started playing music. And it was Dave Grohl playing, and you…”
The former Beatles man interjected by revealing that Swift was playing one of Grohl’s best-loved tracks, the anthemic ‘Best of You’, before she explained that the rockstar didn’t recognise it was his until halfway through her rendition because it was on the piano. Later though, Grohl revealed on The Howard Stern Show that he didn’t recognise his song because he was “stoned to the bone”. It was also here that Swift realised how fun Paul McCartney is, as the night became one to remember.
She said: “Yes, I was playing his song called ‘Best of You,’ but I was playing it on piano, and he didn’t recognise it until about halfway through. I just remember thinking, ‘Are you the catalyst for the most fun times ever?’ Is it your willingness to get up and play music that makes everyone feel like this is a thing that can happen tonight?”
McCartney revealed that another star got the musical proceedings that night into gear: “I mean, I think it’s a bit of everything, isn’t it? I’ll tell you who was very … Reese Witherspoon was like, ‘Are you going to sing?’ I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ She said, ‘You’ve got to, yeah!’ She’s bossing me around. So I said, ‘Whoa,’ so it’s a bit of that.”
