When Taylor Swift hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time in November of 2009, she discussed plenty of things in a very catchy and memorable “Monologue Song.” According to former SNL writer Seth Meyers, none of the writers had anything to do with it. Taylor wrote it herself and pitched it to him and Lorne Michaels.
Speaking to Howard Stern on October 30, Meyers said, “It really speaks to what a force of nature she is and the depths of her talent … here’s a 19-year-old who … nobody is really helping out. Nobody gave her a manual on how to do it. And yet, she came to us and said, ‘I wrote a song for the opening monologue.’”
He continued, “And I remember saying, ‘Oh God, that’s great.’ And she said, ‘Can I play it for you?’”
Meyers told Stern he took Taylor into Lorne Michael‘s office, and she performed the song for them.
“She sings this song, which is not only a beautiful song by a beautiful singer: It’s a perfect SNL monologue, fully formed,” Meyers recalled. “And it was, to this day, I’ve sort of never had a moment like that where someone brings you a fully gift-wrapped present and it’s exactly what you needed it to be.”
Meyers added that he wished, at the time, he would’ve told Taylor what they had written for her — which they ditched in favor of her song — so she would know “how much f****** worse it was.”
“Like, ‘Not only is your song great. But you can’t even imagine how s***** what we were doing for you is compared to how great what you did for yourself is,’” he said.
(Howard Stern video contains uncensored profanity.)
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