Taylor Swift stopped traffic—literally—when she shut down Hollywood Blvd. Thursday.
For her Jimmy Kimmel Live! concert, the 24-year-old musician performed "Shake It Off" and "Out of the Woods," which both appear on her first pop album, 1989. When the singer-songwriter sat down with Jimmy Kimmel, the host kicked began by reading Swift a few glowing reviews from The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Time. "When I hear stuff like that, I just don't have any control over my body," Swift admitted. "I care! People who say they don't care are lying. Everyone cares! Everybody cares what The New York Times and Rolling Stone say." The former country artist added, "Time magazine, oh my god!"
Swift is "not nervous" about how fans will react to 1989 when it drops Tuesday, explaining, "I'm more confident about this album than I've been about any of the other ones I've put out, which is a really nice feeling. But it's almost like you're releasing this thing into the world that you've spent two years with it, and it's just been mine for two years and now it's everybody else's. I'm like sending it off to college."
The singer also confirmed that while she was recording the album, she only let people listen to it using headphones due to her "irrational fears of security invasion, wire taps," and "people eavesdropping."
"For almost two years, the album existed on my phone, which is covered in cat stickers and the volume buttons don't really work that well because there's candy stuck in there," the "Style" singer told Kimmel.
Swift has been releasing snippets of 1989's lyrics online to build hype for its release. As such, Kimmel decided to decipher what she's singing about. "One night, he wakes / Strange look on his face / Pauses, then says / 'You're my best friend' / And you knew what it was / He is in love," the comedian read aloud. Swift said she co-wrote the track with fun.'s Jack Antonoff, "who's dating my friend [Lena Dunham]." She explained, "I wrote it as kind of a commentary on what their relationship has been like."
Kimmel then read lyrics from another song: "You always know how to push my buttons / You give me everything and then nothing." Swift asked, "Oh, what are you gonna do with this one?" Kimmel then did his final lyrical reading: "If I don't do my laundry tonight I'll probably do it over the weekend." Swift shook her head and told him, "That is not mine. That one will be a little less critically acclaimed, I think."
The "Welcome to New York" singer also cringed when Kimmel mentioned that eight seconds of static topped Canada's iTunes charts. "It was a mistake," Swift said. "It went No. 1 and I went, 'What is going on?'" Kimmel then joked, "It just goes to show, you really don't need to work that hard on this stuff."
She later got revenge on Kimmel's music booker, who threw her out of the studio years ago. Swift said, "I remember it vaguely, but looking back, all's well that ends well, because I think of it like this: I think you probably would have gotten in more trouble with Jimmy had he wondered out and been like, 'Why is there this random 14-year-old tiny child sitting here with a guitar case? What's happening here?'"
Kimmel, in retaliation, had the music booker thrown out.