On tour with Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift: So today, I spent the first half of my day at rehearsals and then the next half of my day is gonna be spent at this Elle photo shoot.

Taylor Swift may look the part of a Hollywood princess, but she doesn't act like it. Here she is at a grocery store posing for a magazine shoot.

Taylor Swift: I'm going to be posing in a couture dress in a grocery aisle because they said pick where you spend a lot of time and where you're most comfortable and I really love grocery stores.

Hoda Kotb: You get a lot of press for being the good girl. You're not in the tabloids.  You're not drunk, stumbling down on the ground.  You're not flashing, you know, your business all over the place.  And that, somehow, makes you unique.  Do you find that odd, that's the unique thing among 19-year-olds?

Taylor Swift: I have always felt a little strange about it being so unique that I'm not a train wreck. Like, this weird fluke that I'm not-- partying all the time and, you know, drunk in this interview.

Hoda Kotb: Have you ever smoked a cigarette?

Taylor Swift: No.

Hoda Kotb: Ever had a glass of alcohol?

Taylor Swift: No (laughs).

Hoda Kotb: Do you ever think about, like, "I wonder what that tastes like?" 

Taylor Swift: I'm just not very interested. People talk to me a lot about, "Why don't you ever rebel?"  And I feel like I do rebel. To me, rebelling is-- is that rush you get when you sing a song about someone and you know they're in the crowd.  Like, that's a really fun rebellion for me.

Music: Hey, Stephen, I know looks can be deceiving, but I know I saw a light in you...

Taylor Swift: Honesty is a big theme for me.  And sugar coating isn't really my style.

Hoda Kotb: Mm-hmm.

Taylor Swift: If something happens to me, you're going to hear about it. I only know how to write songs about my life.

The song "Forever And Always" is an emotional beat in Taylor's personal story, detailing her highly publicized breakup with teen heartthrob Joe Jonas, a painful episode in her life that she opened up to Ellen Degeneres about last fall.

Taylor Swift: I'm not even going to be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18.

She's much more tight-lipped about it now.

Hoda Kotb: I'll just name some people/ We'll just play a word game. Zach Effron.

Taylor Swift: Amazing guy.  All around amazing guy.

Hoda Kotb: Okay.  Justin Timberlake.

Taylor Swift: (gasp) I love Justin Timberlake.  (laugh) He's so nice.

Hoda Kotb: Joe Jonas.

Taylor Swift: We have to do that one?

Hoda Kotb: If you want to. 

Taylor Swift: How 'bout, that was last year, this is this year.

Hoda Kotb: You do write about things that-- that are authentic. The whole Joe Jonas thing.  Putting that thing on paper, did that just flow right outta you? 

Taylor Swift: I write songs about what I go through.

Hoda Kotb: Yeah.

Taylor Swift: it's just like any other song that I've written.  It's about a person.  And-- that person then becomes a character in a song.

Mock interview:

Hoda Kotb: I'm sitting down with Taylor Swift.

Even I became part of the show when Taylor asked me to tape a mock interview to use for her tour.

Mock interview:

Taylor Swift: I'm so excited.

Taylor Swift: It starts out with Hoda and I in these maroon chairs and what we'll do is we'll have the video play and then on the stage when the video stops playing we'll have one of my backup dancers recreate her hair and her outfit and be sitting with her back to the audience. Like the whole song. I'm doing an interview and basically the song is like, I have a meltdown in an interview.

Mock interview:

Hoda Kotb: I heard that when you write songs you include the names of the actual guys you've dated.

Taylor Swift: Yeah, I do.

Hoda Kotb: If you are naming the guys you dated in your songs, why do you think any guys going to want to date you?

Video   Taylor Swift’s band: Meet Paul Hear how lead guitarist Paul joined Taylor Swift's band. Dateline NBC

Taylor Swift: I guess that in that situation, I just figure if guys don't want me to write bad songs about them they shouldn't do bad things.

Music: “Forever And Always:”

Was I out of line, did I say something way too honest

made you run and hide, like a scared little boy.

I looked into your eyes

Hoda Kotb: There's so much emotion in the whole thing/

Taylor Swift: Oh yeah, that's an emotional one.

Hoda Kotb: When you're in the front, right?! And the whole chair throwing, I'm into the whole thing. I'm into the whole stammering, stumbling...

Taylor Swift: It's like you're my therapist. It's awesome. You get to feel a lot during that song.

Taylor is definitely not shy about sharing her feelings. Her songs are melodic versions of her diary. No topic off limits, no emotion too raw, no relationship too private.  She writes about her lowest lows...

“You're not sorry”

you don't have to call, anymore

I won't pick up the phone

this is the last straw

don't wanna hurt anymore

And her best days...

“The best day”

I love you for giving me your eyes

staying back and watching me shine and I didn't know if you knew

So I'm taking this chance to say

That I had the best day with you today

Andrea Swift: The first time that she played The Best Day for me-- was Christmas Eve. She had made this edited music video. I'm looking on the TV and this video comes up with this voice that sounds exactly like Taylor's.   And I looked over at her and she said, "I wrote it for you, Mom."  And that's when I lost it.  And-- and I've lost it pretty much every time I've heard that song since.

Hoda Kotb: You and your mom have a very cool relationship.

Taylor Swift: It's a different kind of friendship than the cool mom who tries to party with her daughter. She's my best friend. And we're definitely never gonna go clubbing together.

Clubbing is not Taylor's style, period. In fact, she still lives with her parents and younger brother Austin in this Nashville house,  and she still writes songs right here in her bedroom. And when we got a tour of Taylor's house, we also got some inside info on some of her secret quirks.

Taylor Swift: I like organizing things.  I like organizing my closets, so that I know where everything is.  And-- and I used to color code it.  You know-- (laughter)--

Hoda Kotb: You did? You really col-- color coded your closet?

Taylor Swift: Yeah, I-- I used to do that.

Hoda Kotb: You're "that girl."

Taylor Swift: I was "that girl."  I don't really color code any more.

With only weeks to go before her big tour kick-off, who has time for that?

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