Little Big Town said they wanted fans to like new single “Better Man” for itself before revealing Taylor Swift wrote the breakup song.
The country quartet revealed the identity of the song’s writer during a news conference in Nashville announcing a new series of shows at the Ryman Auditorium.
According to The Washington Post, when a reporter asked about the authorship of the new single, lead vocalist Karen Fairchild responded, "Some of you have been asking, and we told you there was a young girl in Nashville who wrote it by herself. And it’s Taylor Swift."
Although Swift has made a definite move toward pop with her album “1989” in 2014, she got her start in the country genre before crossing over. Swift had previously stated she would not release a new album this year (she normally releases a new album every two years) because she needed a break.
Fans speculated the new song came from Swift’s recent breakup from Scottish DJ Calvin Harris (she broke up with subsequent boyfriend Tom Hiddleston in September, but it was amicable and too recent to be the subject of “Better Man”).
“We’ve known Taylor since she was in high school. She’s a dear friend,” band member Phillip Sweet said at the news conference. “[‘Better Man’] felt like it belonged to us and we made it our own,” he said, the Post reported.
Fairchild added, “We wanted you to hear the song for what it’s worth. At her heart, [Taylor Swift] is the biggest pop star in the world, but she’s a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee, and she likes to tell a story.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.