With Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) officially let loose on the world, many Taylor Swift fans are back in their anti-John Mayer era, if they ever truly left.
In case you’re not up to date on Taylor Swift’s discography—or are still cursing Jake Gyllenhaal‘s name as you blast “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)“—it’s widely believed that the Speak Now breakup ballad “Dear John” was written about the “Gravity” singer, who dated Swift from 2009 to 2010 when he was 31 years old and she was 19.
If the updated “All Too Well” lyric, “You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine. And that made me want to die,” sent Swifties running to Gyllenhaal’s Instagram comments section back in November 2021, imagine their response to being reminded of the chorus from “Dear John”:
There’s a reason Swift referred to the song as the “most scathing” track she’s ever written and fellow Swift ex-Taylor Lautner joked that he was “praying for John” ahead of the re-release. Obviously, it wouldn’t be surprising if John Mayer was worried about it—and that appears to be the case.
Though he didn’t reference his ex directly during his recent show in Boulder, Colorado, he did have the message “Please Be Kind” written in the sky in bright purple lights, which just so happens to be the color associated with Swift’s Speak Now era. You can see the photo in the final slide of his latest Instagram slideshow, posted on July 6.
