Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney's close friendship from note to inspiring lyrics

Will Taylor Swift and Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney perform together in Liverpool on Thursday to mark her 100th Eras Tour show?

There is talk of something exciting set to take place during Swift's tour date on 13 June at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium. The musicians have been long-time friends and have often drawn comparisons because of their amazing singing careers, vocal talents, and level of fan devotion they have inspired. Plus, they are both in the billionaire music club after McCartney was named in the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List.

From inspiring songs to a special handwritten note, we take a look at the friendship that has blossomed between Swift and McCartney over the years...

Performing together

Back in 2015, the singers took to the stage to perform together on Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary afterparty.

They performed one of each of their songs, choosing The Beatles' I Saw Her Standing There and Swift's Shake It Off. Jimmy Fallon and Blues Brothers 2000 stars Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi joined them on stage at the event.

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The friends had high hopes of sharing the stage at Glastonbury in 2020 but it was cancelled because of the COVID pandemic. McCartney told Swift he had a secret plan to invite her on stage with him. Swift told the Beatles star: "Wow, it would’ve been so fun to play Glastonbury for the 50th anniversary together."

Swift inspired McCartney's song

McCartney's song Who Cares? on his 2018 solo album Egypt Station was inspired by Swift and her connection with her young fanbase. The singing legend revealed his admiration for the musician and how her relationship with her fans has moved him.

"I was actually thinking about Taylor Swift and her relationship to her young fans and how it’s sort of a sisterly thing," McCartney told the BBC in 2018.

"And I was imagining talking to one of these young fans and saying, ‘Have you ever been bullied? Do you get bullied?' Then I say, ‘Who cares about the idiots? Who cares about all this? Who cares about you? Well… I do.'"

Swift and McCartney open up to each other in interview

Swift and McCartney teamed up for an intimate interview for Rolling Stone magazine series Musicians On Musicians. They interviewed each other, getting the other to open up about their lives as well as their careers in the music world.

It was something of a McCartney family affair too: McCartney's daughter Molly took the photographs for the shoot, while his other daughter Stella had designed Swift's clothes for the shoot too. It was shot at McCartney's MPL Studios office in London, in early October 2020 for the November cover of the magazine.

In their honest conversation, Swift shared her high regard for three-times married musician McCartney being open about his love life in the public eye.

She told him for the magazine: "I know you have done a really excellent job of this in your personal life: carving out a human life within a public life, and how scary that can be when you do fall in love and you meet someone, especially if you've met someone who has a very grounded, normal way of living."

Additionally, Swift shared that McCartney was the loveliest person she had ever met. She wrote on social media at the time: "It only took one day to confirm what I had suspected for years: Paul McCartney is the loveliest person alive."

McCartney's gift to Swift

Last year, Swift revealed a special gift that McCartney had given her. She has a framed note from the singer hanging in her bathroom in her New York City apartment. It has a Beatles lyric written on it. The handwritten note in her bathroom read: "Take these broken wings and learn to fly."

The personal gift come to light during Swift's interview for Person of the Year 2023 with influential magazine TIME.

Staying in touch

Fast forward to now, the pair remain firm friends. McCartney even stopped by Swift's suite with her starry friends to say hello at the Superbowl 2024 when she was cheering on her lover Travis Kelce.

They were pictured together in the stands while the singer watched Kelce's team Kansas City Chiefs win against the San Francisco 49ers.

Taylor Swift's friendship with Stella McCartney

Swift has a good friendship with McCartney's fashion designer daughter Stella and they have worked together a number of times. For her album Lover, the friends worked together on complementary merchandise 'Stella x Taylor' with Swift saying their collab was "so much fun".

Swift wore McCartney's designs for both album covers evermore and folklore. In a sweet message, McCartney detailed her friendship with Swift saying their projects were a "precious gift" and that it had felt "incredibly special" designing for her pal.

She wrote on Instagram about working together: "When a friend comes to you, explaining she needs help styling and finding pieces to reflect her new secret project, it’s a precious gift. Creating the collection was effortless — a rare moment full of warmth and ease, at a time when friendship is more important than ever."

She went on: "Knowing someone well makes creating something for them easier. With Taylor, everything happened so naturally; the pieces I made reflected the effortless emotionality of her album. Complementing a friend’s creation is rare and precious and feels incredibly special."

Swift gushed about her friend too saying her fashionable friend was "so creative" after enlisting her on a secret project. She said: "Stella is so creative. I told her I had a secret project and she designed clothes that were EXACTLY what I imagined. I drove to her office, picked them up and took them into the woods."

Most recently, they were reunited between Swift's Eras tour. During some of her downtime, Swift went to see Cara Delevingne's play in the West End and McCartney was there too. The fashion designer captured Delevingne and Swift hugging backstage on camera, while the singer was wearing McCartney's label.

It was this super sweet moment that first got fans thinking, will Swift take to the stage with Sir McCartney during the UK leg of her Eras tour?