“After all this time, she hasn’t forgotten about him. She’s keeping his name alive,” said Susan Lang, the mother of Swift’s childhood friend, Jeff Lang, who died in 2010.
Following speculation, it has now been seemingly confirmed that Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl track, “Ruin the Friendship,” is about her childhood friend who passed away.
The pop star dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. The sixth track, “Ruin the Friendship,” had fans in their feels, with the emotional lyrics referencing Swift’s secret crush on a close high school friend, whom she reveals later died. Fans shared that they believe the song is about Swift’s childhood friend, Jeff Lang, who tragically passed away at 21 in 2010.
Now, Lang’s mother, Susan Lang, is weighing in on the track in an interview with The Tennessean, sharing that not only did she know the song was about her late son, but that it brought an emotional reaction.
In the soft pop track, Swift — who attended Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee, with Lang — sings about a friend in high school, whom she has feelings for, and expresses her regret that she never took the opportunity to kiss him before he died. The song also includes references to Nashville.
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“It was not / an invitation / but should have kissed you anyway / And it was not convenient / But your girlfriend was away / Should have kissed you anyway,” she sings the chorus.
Susan Lang shared her thoughts on the song, telling The Tennessean that she immediately wanted to find a way to reach out to Swift, 35.
“That after all this time, she hasn’t forgotten about him,” Susan said. “She’s keeping his name alive.”
Susan — who said she has a photo of her late son and Swift together hanging in her Hendersonville home — added that Lang and Swift “were really good friends.”
“That’s rare these days. They hung out at her house a lot. They were always joking around with each other,” she recalled.
In the bridge of “Ruin the Friendship,” Swift laments about losing touch with her friend after high school, before Abigail, Swift’s longtime BFF, called her and said the friend had passed away.
“When I left school, I lost track of you / Abigail called me with the bad news / Goodbye, and we’ll never know why,” she sings. “It was not an invitation / But I flew home anyway / With so much left to say / It was not convenient, no / But I whispered it at the grave / ‘Should’ve kissed you anyway.'”
The Grammy winner ends the song by sharing that she wished she had “ruin[ed] the friendship” by making a move and telling her crush how she felt.
“My advice is always ruin the friendship / Better that than regret it / For all time,” she sings. “Should’ve kissed you anyway / And my advice is always answer the question / Better that than to ask it / All your life.”
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Back in 2010, Swift opened up about losing Lang during her acceptance speech 2010 BMI Country Music Awards. At the time, a then-20-year-old Swift revealed she performed at her close friend’s funeral the day before.
“Yesterday, I sang at the funeral of one of my best friends,” she said. “And he was 21, and I used to play my songs for him first. So I would like to thank Jeff Lang.”
Swift is believed to have previously referenced Lang in the 2021 Red (Taylor’s Version) vault track, “Forever Winter,” something fans pointed out following The Life of a Showgirl’s release.
“WAIT RUIN THE FRIENDSHIP???? IS THIS A CONTINUATION OF FOREVER WINTER?????? I CANNOT DO THIS RN,” a fan wrote on X.
“ruin the friendship being forever winter 2.0. i am not okay,” a second fan said, while another wrote, “Ruin the Friendship is connected to Forever Winter and I’m sobbing.”
Many fans shared a throwback photo of Swift and Lang together in their reactions — see above — with the heartfelt shot appearing to match the description of the photo Lang’s mother has displayed in her home.
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