Taylor Swift explains how ‘Honey’ turns pet names into powerful movements

Taylor Swift She gives fans an idea of ​​what makes “Honey” one of the most personal and pivotal songs on her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” During the record-breaking “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” event at AMC Theaters over the weekend, the pop icon revealed how the song helped shape the direction of her entire record, transforming painful lyrics into something unexpectedly beautiful.

Swift told her fans that “Honey” was one of the first songs she wrote for the album, and immediately indicated that she was entering a new creative territory. “‘Honey’ is one of the first songs we made for this record,” Swift shared. “We knew we were really heading into new territory, because it looked different from things we’d made before.”

She continued, “It was the first song that made us feel like, ‘Oh, this is a brand new album, yeah, let’s go with this.'” She explained that the energy of the song helped set the tone for the bold, genre-changing sound that defines “The Showgirl Life.”

Swift also revealed that the inspiration for “Honey” came from a surprisingly bad place, where her experiences with pet names were used as thinly veiled insults. “I came up with the idea for the lyric based on the times I’d been called ‘honey’ in my life, and it was usually like, ‘You can’t do that, honey,’ or ‘I wouldn’t try that, honey,’” she said. “It’s done in this passive-aggressive, critical way.”

This observation became the emotional core of the track: how words meant to sting can be repurposed into something tender when they come from love rather than judgment. “If someone honestly calls you honey, it turns out great,” Swift laughed. “I use a lot of pet names that sometimes become a weapon in culture, like ‘Not a good look, honey,’ and I wanted to explore how different they feel when someone means them kindly.”

Ultimately, “Honey” embodies one of the album’s central themes of transformation. Swift said the song reflects how a new person can enter your life and change the meaning of words, memories and emotions that were previously painful.

“It’s about experiences in the past that were sarcastic and cold and mean,” she explained. “And then someone comes into your life and reuses the exact same words, turns them into candy, and that feels so good.”

During a recent radio interview, Taylor Swift revealed that her 12th studio album was such a closely guarded secret that even her record label wasn’t aware of it until it was completely finished.

said the Grammy Award-winning artist BBC Radio 2 host Scott Mills said the project, which was released on October 3, was created in complete secrecy by her internal team, who waited until the artwork was finished and the music was ready for distribution before sharing it with the label. “The album was actually a surprise to my record company,” Swift admitted. “We kept it under wraps until everything — the visuals, the songs, the rollout — was ready to go.”

Swift explained that she prefers to keep her creative process private so that the final product feels like a real moment to fans. “I really want my music to be a surprise to my fans,” she said. “And I love finding clever and fun ways to present those surprises so that it feels like entertainment.”