Hey, remember when Father John Misty decided to cover Ryan Adams’ covers of Taylor Swift’s 1989? Remember how he did them in the style of The Velvet Underground? Then, remember how he took them down because Lou Reed’s ghost told him to in a dream?
It all happened late last month, so you shouldn’t have to think too far back. Anyway, according to a new interview with Father John Misty himself, the whole thing was one epic troll. Yes, Father John Misty just wanted to see if anyone would actually report on the situation.
Speaking to Louisville’s 91.9 radio station, via Consequence of Sound, Father John Misty, real name Josh Tillman, explained that he decided to take on ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Welcome to New York’ after hearing his tour manager listening to Adams’ 1989 cover album.
Tillman apparently knocked out both of his covers in the space of about 60 minutes, which is pretty impressive considering the quality of the compositions and the fact that he claims to have never really listened to Swift’s originals.
Shocked by the amount of attention his covers received in the press, he decided to pull them down. Inevitably, this led to even more public attention, including from Swift’s people, who allegedly reached out to Tillman to get him to put the covers back up online.
Tillman, ever the master troll and sensing a golden opportunity, decided to issue a lengthy, detailed statement recounting how Reed’s spirit came to him in a dream and warned, “Delete those tracks, don’t summon the dead, I am not your plaything.”
“I was annoyed at the media,” he told the station. “I was like, ‘These people will print anything’, so I went and gave them the most fraudulent, the most blatantly absurd, unprintable piece of surrealistic nonsense – and they printed it!”
Check out the full interview below.
