Taylor Swift discussed songwriting and Beatlemania with Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife and muse of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Swift, 28, interviewed British model Boyd, 74, for Harper’s Bazaar.
During a wide-ranging conversation, the 1989 singer asked Boyd, who inspired Clapton’s song Wonderful Tonight and the Beatles’ Something, how it felt to be described as a muse.
Boyd replied: “I find the concept of being a muse understandable when you think of all the great painters, poets, and photographers who usually have had one or two. The artist absorbs an element from their muse that has nothing to do with words, just the purity of their essence.”
The conversation then moved on to Swift’s own songwriting techniques. Boyd asked what inspires the 1989 singer.
Swift replied: “There are definitely moments when it’s like this cloud of an idea comes and just lands in front of your face, and you reach up and grab it. A lot of songwriting is things you learn, structure, and cultivating that skill, and knowing how to craft a song.
“But there are mystical, magical moments, inexplicable moments when an idea that is fully formed just pops into your head. And that’s the purest part of my job.
“It can get complicated on every other level, but the songwriting is still the same uncomplicated process it was when I was 12 years old writing songs in my room.”
Boyd, one of Britain’s leading models in the 1960s, met Harrison on the set of A Hard Day’s Night when she was 19.
The pair later lived together in London, an experience Boyd described as “terrifying” and revealed she was once attacked by female fans of the Beatles as she left one of their concerts.
Boyd married Harrison in 1966 but they divorced in 1977. She then tied the knot with Clapton in 1979 but they divorced in 1988.
Harrison died in 2001 following a battle with lung cancer.