Taylor Swift, 36, Makes History With This Nashville Honor
Taylor Swift has another milestone to add to her already remarkable career. The 36-year-old superstar was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame on October 26, becoming the youngest person ever to receive the honor.
At the organization's 56th anniversary gala, held at Nashville's Music City Center, Swift reflected on the city that helped shape her as a songwriter and expressed her gratitude for being welcomed into what she called a "sacred club."
"It's not lost on me how crazy this is," Swift said during her acceptance speech. "I will cherish it forever because Nashville is the place that honed and polished the thing about myself and the thing about my life that I am the most proud of and the most passionate about. So to be here with you and to be getting to have this moment, I am truly grateful and it just feels like one of those amazing Nashville moments I'm going to revisit on a rainy day. Thank you so much!"
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Taylor Swift makes history as youngest inductee
Swift was inducted in the songwriter/artist category, joining the late J.I. Allison, Shawn Camp, Bruce Channel, Lyle Lovett and Lee Thomas Miller. Country Music Hall of Famer George Strait also received the organization's Career Maker Award.
Before Swift took the stage, Brad Paisley welcomed her to receive the honor. The two have a playful history: Swift joked that they had been estranged since Paisley pranked her in 2007 by unleashing live crickets on her tour bus, an incident that plagued her road life for quite some time.
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Taylor Swift credits Nashville for shaping her career
Once the laughter subsided, Swift spoke about how Nashville had fulfilled the dreams she had as a young songwriter.
"I started writing songs when I was a little kid and I knew from the time I wrote my first song that even if it couldn't be my career, it would be my passion. It would be what I centered my entire life around. Nashville is the place I went to in my middle school daydreams."
She continues, "It was the place where all the wisdom I wished to acquire existed in one place. All the lessons that I wished to learn existed in this magical place for me. And it ended up being all that and more. It ended up being everything."
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Swift also recognized several people who made a difference early in her career, including co-writer Liz Rose, her first producer Nathan Chapman and publisher Jody Williams.
"I was lucky enough to get a publishing deal with Sony Publishing when I was 14 and I just hit the ground running," she said. "I started writing every single day. I learned so much. I was like a sponge and I have really curly hair and it was yellow so I kind of looked like a sponge too. But I learned by repetition. I think you truly learn a craft when you do it over and over and over and that is what the magnificent songwriters that work in this amazing town do. There is no music community like this music community. I know. I checked all the communities. There's no one doing it."
Swift recalled writing at the Sony Fire Hall, where she could hear other songwriters working through the thin walls. She loved to imagine she was in the Brill Building, the famed New York City hub for songwriters.
Her favorite place to write, however, was the Craftsman-style house that served as the home of Jody Williams Music.
"My mom would pick me up from Hendersonville High School, drive me downtown and drop me off," she recalled.
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Those formative years, she explained, gave her the foundation to explore different genres, collaborate with artists around the world and develop her own creative approach.
"I've gotten to genre hop and travel the world and write with so many different people and in so many different ways. And the only reason I've been able to have that kind of dexterity in my creative process is because of the fundamentals and foundation that I learned here in Nashville. And I never forget that for a single second when I tell every single person I know about what we have here. And I'm so incredibly honored to be inducted into this sacred club, especially at this point in my life."
Swift's induction celebrated not only her success as a global superstar, but also the songwriting craft and Nashville community that helped her find her voice. As she made clear in her acceptance speech, Nashville will always hold a special place in her heart.
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