Travis Kelce has broken his silence on Taylor Swift buying back the rights to the master recordings of her first six albums.
During the most recent episode of his New Heights podcast—which he cohosts with his brother, Jason Kelce—the Kansas City Chiefs tight end praised his girlfriend’s announcement.
Newsweek reached out to Travis Kelce’s representative via email for comment.
The Context
Swift, 35, has been rerecording her early albums since 2021 after her former record label, Big Machine Records sold the recordings to private equity group Ithaca Holdings, an entity owned by music manager Scooter Braun. Currently, she’s rerecorded Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989, with “Taylor’s Version” attached to the end of the titles. Reputation and her self-titled debut album, Taylor Swift, have yet to be rerecorded.
On Friday, Swift announced her ownership of the master recordings after months of social media silence.
“You belong with me,” she captioned several photos of herself on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram surrounded by her albums. The caption referred to her hit song “You Belong With Me,” which was featured on Fearless.
At the time of publication, her post racked up more than 9.2 million likes—including from Travis Kelce, 35. However, he hadn’t spoken out about the news until this week.
What To Know
On Tuesday, New Heights shared a teaser clip of Wednesday’s episode to TikTok, Instagram and X.
In the now viral video, the show revealed former National Basketball Association (NBA) star Shaquille O’Neal as this week’s guest, and he played one of Swift’s tunes following his introduction.
“Our guest today is a 7’1” center from Louisiana State University,” Jason Kelce began. “He’s a 15-time NBA all-star, four-time NBA champion, three-time finals MVP, a league MVP, Olympic gold medalist and an NBA Hall of Famer. You know him as The Big Shamrock, The Big Aristotle, The Superman, Shaqtus, The Diesel, we got him, simply Shaq.”
“A.K.A. the Black Kelce brother,” O’Neal replied following the intro.
Later on in the podcast, the 53-year-old told the brothers he had to show them something, before pulling up Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” O’Neal and Travis Kelce lip-synced the song as Jason Kelce danced.
“That’s my favorite song in the world, brother,” O’Neal said. “I love it.”
“Shout out to Tay-Tay,” Travis Kelce—who has been dating Swift since 2023—said. “Just got that song back, too. Just bought all her music back, so it’s finally hers too, man, I appreciate that, dog.”
“I love you guys,” O’Neal said, to which Travis Kelce replied, “Love you, big dog.”
At the time of publication, the TikTok video racked up 1.5 million views, the Instagram post had 798,000 views, and the X clip racked up over 653,400 views
What People Are Saying
Swifties—the nickname given to Swift’s fans—quickly took to social media to praise the trio’s conversation, with many impressed that Travis Kelce knew which version O’Neal played.
X Swift fan account @everslay13 wrote in a comment with 115,200 views and over 6,000 likes: “the way travis knew it was the original version… this is so serious.. hes one of us.”
X user @corneliastagain said in a message with 25,100 views and 2,900 likes: “ngl [not gonna lie] travis kelce being able to clock a non-taylor’s version song in under 5 seconds just gave him 13 aura points.”
Instagram user @ithitsdiffpod shared in a note underneath New Heights‘ post with 510 likes: “why did this make us emotional. also Travis clocked that it was the OG version soooo fast.”
TikTok user @jesssicakes added in a reply on New Heights‘ clip with over 2,300 likes: “Travis being the real swiftie knowing that it’s the og version and said Taylor owns that one now too!!!”
What Happens Next
Swift wrapped up her wildly popular Eras Tour in December, and after a hiatus, she’s been slowly stepping back into the public eye. Recently, she dined with fellow singer Selena Gomez in New York City and enjoyed a date night with Travis Kelce in Florida.
The NFL star’s new season is set to kick off in September, with the Chiefs’ first game against the Los Angeles Chargers on September 5.
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