Taylor Swift signed her first publishing deal in Nashville at the age of 14. About 22 years and 14 Grammys later, she joined the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame along with Lyle Lovett, Shawn Camp, Lee Thomas Miller, Bruce Channel and J.I. Allison.
Swift added another honor to her trophy wall with her second hall of fame induction this year and was celebrated at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala on Monday in a crowded ballroom full of artists, writers and country music elite.
“I knew from the time I wrote my first song that even if it couldn’t be my career, it would be my passion,” Swift said.
She described soaking up the lessons from other writers like a sponge, learning how to push through writer’s block and write about the human condition, even when her writing partner was hungover or going through a divorce.
Swift recalled her mom would regularly pick her up from high school and drop her off at a publishing house on Nashville’s Music Row, where she poured out her emotions to one of her first co-writers, Liz Rose. She later would meet Nathan Chapman, who produced her self-titled debut album in 2006, released 20 years ago this month.
Swift, who took her talents to a much wider audience beyond country music, said her ability to “genre hop” was because she had learned the fundamentals of songwriting in Nashville.
“I’m so incredibly honored to be inducted into this sacred club,” Swift said.
Brad Paisley, one of the first major artists to take her on tour after her debut album, introduced her as “the voice of a generation.”
He joked that Swift “went to Brad Paisley High School” as a 17-year-old traveling the country while on tour with him. Swift later recounted that Paisley took a prank too far in 2007 when he filled her bus with thousands of crickets.
“For months I couldn’t sleep. Just chirp, chirp, chirp,” she said.
Lainey Wilson performed a bluegrass version of “Love Story” with fiddle and stand-up bass from Swift’s second album, “Fearless.”
Swift wasn’t the only big star to be celebrated, as George Strait, the lauded “King of Country Music,” was given the Career Maker Award from the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Strait, a Country Music Hall of Famer, is known for picking great songs from other songwriters and sending them to the top of country charts for five decades.
Surrounded by songwriters on stage, Strait was predictably succinct in his speech as he sent out his thanks for all the writers who sent songs to him over the years.
“They made my career,” Strait said. “I didn’t make theirs.”
Lovett spent his speech naming mentors and artists and writers who took a chance on him.
“I am humbled just to be in the room with these amazing Hall of Fame songwriters and amazing recording artists,” Lovett said. “It is such a privilege to be able to go through your life and do what you want to do.”
Allison, who died in 2022, was a member of Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets and co-wrote hits like “That’ll Be The Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Camp, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, fiddle and more, co-wrote songs like “Two Pina Coladas” for Garth Brooks and “How Long Gone” by Brooks & Dunn, as well as hits for Blake Shelton and George Strait and many bluegrass songs.
Channel co-wrote “Hey! Baby!” a song that would become part of the movie “Dirty Dancing” but also a country hit for Anne Murray and many others. Miller co-wrote award-winning songs like “You’re Gonna Miss This,” performed by Trace Adkins and “In Color,” performed by Jamey Johnson.
