Taylor Swift is known for her strength on stage, but on the New Heights podcast, fans saw something even more powerful: raw emotion and a full-circle moment that’s been years in the making.
During her appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s podcast with his brother Jason, the pop icon opened up like never before, and broke down in tears as she shared the moment she regained full ownership of her master recordings.
“I hit the floor, bawling”: Taylor opens up about her lifelong mission
While most of the episode centered on Swift’s upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl (out October 3), the real heart of the conversation came when she revealed how much it meant to take ownership of her original music — the songs she wrote, performed, and made famous.
She said she had been saving since her youth, hoping one day she could own her work — a goal that became even more urgent after Scooter Braun’s firm acquired her former label in 2019, taking ownership of her master recordings. At the time, she described the sale as “stripping me of my life’s work.”
But this year, everything changed.
No lawyers, just family — and one very important phone call
Swift explained that, after wrapping her record-breaking Eras Tour, she quietly worked behind the scenes to negotiate with Shamrock Holdings, the private firm that owns the masters to her first six albums.
She didn’t bring attorneys. She brought her mom and brother.
“I wanted them to see what this meant to me,” she said.
The talks were delicate. Emotional. Personal. But finally, a breakthrough.
“A couple months after the Super Bowl, I get a call from my mom,” she recalled through tears. “She’s like, ‘You got your music.’ I very dramatically hit the floor, bawling, weeping, like ‘Really?’”
And the first person she told? Travis.
“He was playing video games. I told myself, ‘Go tell him in a normal way.’ I walked in and said, ‘I got my music back.’ And I was just crying. I was in heaven. This changed my life.”
A love story that keeps delivering
Fans flooded YouTube with praise after the episode aired, saying they had never heard Taylor speak so openly and candidly for so long. One wrote, “I don’t think the Kelce brothers realize what a gift this was.” Another added, “Travis and Taylor are the definition of ‘you’re not too much for the right person.’”
Swift even reflected on how poetic it felt to share this moment with a man who truly gets her. “This kind of love? My teenage self dreamed about it,” she said. And when one fan wrote, “I’m the luckiest man in the world,” fans everywhere were crying right along with her.
Reclaiming more than music
The fight to regain her masters wasn’t just about money or control. It was about self-worth, artistic freedom, and a decade of work that helped shape music history.
Now, with The Life of a Showgirl on the horizon and her past fully back in her hands, Taylor Swift is more empowered than ever and she’s reminding fans that sometimes, the most powerful victories happen offstage.
