{"id":308465,"date":"2025-10-16T16:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308465\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:20:13","slug":"shes-keeping-his-name-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/308465\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018She\u2019s Keeping His Name Alive\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the glitz and glamor of Taylor Swift<\/a>\u2018s The Life of a Showgirl, one song, \u201cRuin the Friendship,\u201d throws listeners a truly devastating curveball as the pop star sings about losing a former classmate way too soon \u2014 and according to Susan Lang, the track is about her late son Jeffrey.<\/p>\n

In a recent Tennesseean<\/a> interview published after the release of Swift\u2019s Billboard 200<\/a>-topping new album, Susan shared how she felt after hearing track six on the record for the first time. The Tennessee resident\u2019s son attended Hendersonville High School with the singer, but he died suddenly in 2010 while studying biology at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, according to the publication.<\/p>\n

More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really good friends,\u201d Susan said of her son and Swift. \u201cThat\u2019s rare these days. They hung out at her house a lot. They were always joking around with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

On \u201cRuin the Friendship,\u201d the 14-time Grammy winner reminisces on a crush she once had on a friend back when they were both teenagers. The track is sweet and wistful until it takes a somber turn in the third verse, which finds Swift singing, \u201cWhen I left school, I lost track of you\/ Abigail called me with the bad news\/ Goodbye\/ And we\u2019ll never know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not an invitation\/ But I flew home anyway\/ With so much left to say,\u201d Swift continues in the final chorus. \u201cIt was not convenient, no\/ But I whispered at the grave\/ \u2018Should\u2019ve kissed you anyway.’\u201d<\/p>\n

In the interview, Susan marveled at how bittersweet it is that \u201cafter all this time, [Taylor] hasn\u2019t forgotten about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s keeping his name alive,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Arriving on Oct. 3, The Life of a Showgirl quickly became Swift\u2019s most successful album yet in terms of opening-week numbers. The LP sold more than four million copies<\/a> in its first seven days, setting a new record for the biggest debut for an album ever in the modern era, beating out previous record-holder 25 by Adele.<\/p>\n

Swift has not commented on who inspired \u201cRuin the Friendship,\u201d but fans were quick to trace the lyrics back to Jeff. One photo<\/a> that\u2019s been circulating online shows a teenage Swift wearing a camo shirt and flat-ironed hair, posing next to her late classmate, who sports a backward baseball cap.<\/p>\n

Listen to \u201cRuin the Friendship\u201d below.<\/p>\n

\"Billboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Billboard VIP Pass<\/p>\n

Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid the glitz and glamor of Taylor Swift\u2018s The Life of a Showgirl, one song, \u201cRuin the Friendship,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":308466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,156097,156096,3571,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-308465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hendersonville-high-school","10":"tag-susan-lang","11":"tag-taylor-swift","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}