On tour with Taylor Swift

As she rehearses for her big tour kick-off in Evansville, Indiana, Taylor Swift sings about change -- something that has become very familiar to this young teen and her proud parents, Scott and Andrea, since she first burst on to the music scene three years ago.

April 2, 2009, Los Angeles, Calf.

Taylor is just one week into rehearsals when she breaks for a blitz of pre-tour promotion. Dateline gets a peek inside it all.

There's a photo shoot for tour sponsor LEI jeans, and interviews with Access Hollywood, and The Tonight Show.  Then it is time to glam it up and zip over to the red carpet premiere of "Hannah Montana: The Movie"...

Paula: The red carpet closes at 6:30 and we have 30 minutes of travel.

Taylor Swift: We need to go.

Paula: So we need to move.

Taylor Swift: Thanks, you guys! OK, when we get off the stairs we need to bolt. We need to literally gallop. Ooh, it's a conscious effort to inhale & exhale. I'm going to completely need to undo this dress.

Paula: It's that bad, huh?

Taylor Swift: Nah, I'll be fine. I'm being dramatic. (looking at phone) Late to the Hannah Montana premiere.

Paula: Are you tweeting?

Taylor Swift: Yes, I am.

Off cam: What's your Twitter?

Taylor Swift: It's @taylorswift13.

Taylor swift 13 is Taylor's personal twitter. The viral star has some 500,000 followers on twitter and more than a million friends on her MySpace blog.

Taylor Swift: I am shopping for bikinis online for the summer because I can't really go shopping anymore because I don't have time (laughs) so I just wrote a novel of a blog and then posted it. It's really hitting me that I get to go on my first headlining tour. With a big stage. There are a bunch of new people you're going to see with us this year. First of all, we have six new dancers who can point their toes and twirl and stuff with the best of them.

In the midst of tour preps, Taylor takes Dateline inside her top secret rehearsal space - hidden inside a warehouse near her home in Nashville -  for an exclusive preview of how the show is coming together.

Taylor Swift: Call for band and dancers to the stage, curtain will come and lock you out in about 5 seconds.

Taylor's mom, Andrea, is still dazed by her daughter's remarkable talent.

Andrea Swift: Honestly, the musical end of it, not one bone in my body. My mother was an opera singer so it completely skipped a generation and jumped over me, landed right on Taylor. I still sometimes see that little two-year-old in the backseat in the car seat.

If the pipes you hear in these private home movies are a natural gift, Taylor's drive and her fierce determination stun everyone. At the tender age of 11, she convinced her mom to take her on a trip from their home in Pennsylvania to Nashville's famed music row.

Taylor Swift: I was just dead set on Nashville ever since I saw a TV special about Faith Hill, and it said that she went to Nashville.

So, with this demo CD in hand, the little girl with big dreams began knocking on some of country music’s biggest doors.

Taylor Swift: My mom and my little brother all went to Nashville and-- drove up and down Music Row. My mom would stop in front of a record label.  And I'd run in and--

Hoda Kotb: No, you did not.

Taylor Swift: --hand them my CD, to the receptionist.  And I'd be like, hi.  I'm Taylor.  I want a record deal.  Call me.

Hoda Kotb: (laughter) Oh, God.  How'd that go over?

Taylor Swift: It was sort of like, aw, little girl.

Hoda Kotb: Ain't she sweet?

Hoda Kotb: Did you hear back from anybody?

Taylor Swift: I think I got a call from someone and they were like, just wanted to let you know we got your CD, and we wanted to say keep trying. That's when I learned how to play guitar.  And I started writing my own songs. I would find time to write either in class (laugh), which-- you know, when the teachers would conduct random notebook checks, (laugh) you can imagine their surprise when it's algebra on this side of the page and (sings) "Drew looks at me" (laugh) on the other side of the page. 

Those same sweet, heartfelt lyrics we see Taylor singing during rehearsals are what first got noticed by RCA records -the label behind famous names Like Cristina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and Dave Matthews.  Taylor was only 14.

Taylor Swift: I played them a few songs.  And they said that they wanted to sign me to a development deal. A development deal is an in-between record deal.  It's like, a guy saying that he wants to date you but not be your boyfriend.  (laugh) You know, they don't wanna sign you to an actual record deal or put an album out on you.  They wanna watch your progress for a year.

But at the end of that year, a major letdown. RCA took a pass on Taylor.

Taylor Swift: They wanted to shelf me.

Hoda Kotb: OK, that's a bummer.

Taylor Swift: --keep me in development till I was probably about 18. So I walked away from the biggest record label in Nashville.

By then, Taylor had convinced her family to move to Nashville, where she kept writing songs and playing wherever she could, still hoping for that one lucky break.

Taylor Swift: I had this-- this big showcase at the Bluebird Café. And all of these record labels showed up. And at the end, this guy named Scott Borchetta came up to me.

Video   Meet Liz Here's how backup singer Liz first met Taylor Swift. Dateline NBC

Scott Borchetta: I remember sitting there just kind of--(closes his eyes) just - is this gonna hit me? And it absolutely did. And so I went and met with the family after that. 

Taylor Swift: He said, "I have good news and I have bad news."Scott Borchetta worked at Universal Records.  And so, he goes, "The good news is that I wanna sign you to a record deal. The bad news is that I'm no longer with Universal records."

Hoda Kotb: Oh no.

Taylor Swift: He then explained to me that he wanted to start up his own brand new record label.  And that he didn't have a name for it.  He didn't have a building for it.  And he didn't have a staff for it.  But he had a dream, and would I go on board? I went with my gut instinct which-- which just said, say yes. 

Hoda Kotb: That was a giant leap of faith, wasn't it?

Taylor Swift: There are a million ways it could've gone wrong, (laugh) yeah.

Borchetta called his little record label “Big Machine.”And within no time, the neophyte record president and his ingénue were on the fast track to music fame.

Scott Borchetta: I think it was in August of 2005, Taylor played me a song called “When You Think Tim McGraw.”  She finished the song and I said, "Do you realize what you just have written?  Do you have any idea?" That was that moment of, "Oh my God."  And the grenade dropped in the still pond. 

Just three years later, Taylor's record sales have topped 7 million.

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