You’ll Never Guess Which Taylor Swift Song Was Inspired by a Drive with Travis Kelce

At this point, it’s basically expected that Taylor Swift pulls inspiration straight from her real life, whether it’s relationships, friendships or career moments. So it’s not exactly surprising that a few tracks on The Life of a Showgirl were inspired by her fiancé Travis Kelce (hi, “Wood”). But she just revealed there’s another song that was kind of inspired by him and it’s definitely not one I think anyone would’ve guessed. The song? “Elizabeth Taylor.”

In a new profile with The New York Times, Taylor, 36, opened up about her creative process and shared the surprisingly casual moment that helped spark her song.

“There are so many different ways that a song begins in my world,” the singer explained, before diving into the story. “I'm riding in the car with Travis,” she began. “I go on and on in explaining to Travis, like, why I love Elizabeth Taylor so much. She fought for artists' rights. She was exploited in so many ways, and yet she kept her humanity. She kept her humor. She kept her passion for life.' I was just going on and on.”

And if you’ve ever gone down a hyper-specific pop culture rabbit hole mid-conversation, this next part will feel very relatable.

“I was like, ‘Her eyes were violet. Some people said they were blue. Some people said they were violet. I think they were violet.' We get home. He gets out of the car and I'm just in my head just this intrusive melody…. And I'm just scrambling to open my record app on my phone," Taylor added.

That fleeting moment turned into “Elizabeth Taylor,” which features the lyric, “I cried my eyes violet, Elizabeth Taylor,” and appears as the second track on her 12th studio album, released in October.

While the song isn’t directly about Travis, he has inspired other tracks on the record, most notably “Opalite.” During an appearance on Capital Breakfast in October 2025, Taylor revealed the track is essentially a love letter to the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, and, fun fact, it’s also his favorite song on the album.

“I had written down the word 'opalite' because I learned that it's actually a man-made opal, just like diamonds, and so Travis's birthstone is opal,” she explained. “I've always fixated on that. I've always loved that stone.”

Taylor added, “And I thought it was kind of a cool metaphor—that it's a man-made opal and happiness can be man-made too.”

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