Taylor Swift has spent years navigating life as one of the biggest music stars in the world, and the wife of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce revealed how she handles things when they become “unmanageably big.”
The 14-time Grammy winner, who married Kelce in July 2026, opened up about the coping mechanisms she uses during a career-spanning conversation for “The Icon Sessions,” presented by the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing.
Swift explained that she reminds herself that she chose this career and continued choosing it as her fame grew — because making music remains worth everything that comes with it.
Taylor Swift Reveals Her Coping Mechanism for ‘Unmanageably Big’ Fame
Swift said she has developed several ways to deal with the attention and expectations that come with her career.
“I go through several processes and coping mechanisms that I’ve gone through over the years,” Swift said. “And one of them is saying, ‘You chose this. You chose this every day. You could have opted out of this any day before it got unmanageably big.’ And I decided not to because I love it that much.”
For Swift, her desire to continue making music outweighs the challenges that come with the level of fame she has reached.
“That’s just where it begins and where it ends,” Swift said. “Everything that comes with this ultimately is worth it as long as I get to still make music.”
Swift also explained that she tries not to allow outside perceptions of her to interfere with her creative decisions.
She described music as being rooted in “emotional truths” and reflected on hearing earlier in her career that she did not necessarily have a “valid perspective” for a particular genre or audience.
“I realized that I’m making music because I’m playing for the fans,” Swift said. “I’m putting this out for people who care about it and who look to music as a way to cope with their life in the way that I did.”
Swift added that releasing music cannot be about trying to win approval from everyone.
“I think that if you can actually go through all those checkpoints and realize that putting out music you’ve made that you love so much is not the path to universal validation, if you’re still doing it, then you love it for the right reasons,” she said.
Taylor Swift Returns to the Piano as Fans Look for Her Next Move
Swift also performed during the Grammy Museum event on Tuesday night, playing a nearly eight-minute mashup of “I Knew It, I Knew You” and “All Too Well” on her Eras Tour piano.
Fans also got another look at her wedding band from Kelce during the show.
The performance arrives nearly a year after Swift released her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” in October 2025.
Swift has not announced a 13th studio album, but fans continue to watch for the Easter eggs she has become known for placing in appearances, videos and other projects.
During an August 2025 appearance on Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, Swift explained that the clues she intentionally plants are about her work rather than her private life.
“There are dos and don’ts. I’m never going to plan an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life,” Swift said. “It’s always going to be toward music or something that I have coming up. A plan I have coming together. Something that you don’t know I’m saying for a specific reason that you’ll hear later and go back and go, ‘Oh, my God.’”
Taylor Swift Shares the Private Reminder She Gives Herself When Things Get ‘Unmanageably Big’