Emily Yahr

A thorough and heartwarming tribute to a superstar’s origin story. Yahr deftly wields a reporter’s precise pen digging up juicy details on Swift’s earliest years and contextualizing the emotional weight many feel for this beloved artist. As a fan since those early days, even I learned so much from The Debut Years. This book is perfect for the sentimental, well-seasoned fan or the curious one who is new to the fold.

Sarah Chapelle, New York Times bestselling author of TAYLOR SWIFT STYLE

Taylor Swift has achieved generational stardom through relentless change. And yet it all goes back to that teenage girl writing songs after school and practicing guitar until her fingers bled. Yahr illuminates these early years with deep reporting, incisive understanding of the Nashville world Swift came up in, and chatty prose rich in untold stories. A must-read for any Taylor fan or music lover.

Nora Princiotti, reporter for THE RINGER and author of HIT GIRLS: BRITNEY, TAYLOR, BEYONCÉ, AND THE WOMEN WHO BUILT POP'S SHINIEST DECADE

'It was so obvious she had something. You know, she was 13, and she had that sparkle. So much sparkle dust around her' - Renee Bell, head of A&R at RCA Records 
 
Meet Taylor, 2003. She's a teen who came to Nashville with blisters on her fingers from learning to play a 12-string guitar. In every room she enters, she’s the youngest person (by decades) and often the only woman. And if anyone asked if she could see herself becoming the biggest superstar on the planet, her answer probably would have been yes. 
 
Writing alongside industry veterans after school, Taylor Swift’s song-writing ability set her apart. But her origins are more complex than a teen tapping into a new generation of country music fans. It’s a story of taking risks, like walking away from powerhouse label RCA to strike out with an unknown, unfunded new label, and of trusting her instincts when no one else did. 
 
Washington Post reporter Emily Yahr pulls back the curtain on the country music industry?from executives who said yes to Taylor (and those who regret saying no), to collaborators like Scott Borchetta, Nathan Chapman, and Liz Rose, to Nashville itself. Intimate and immersive, Yahr takes us to iconic locations like Music Row and The Bluebird Cafe, as well as to Hendersonville High and the Swifts’ own lakefront house. 
 
Taylor Swift: The Debut Years tells the definitive origin story of today’s biggest star, with never-before-published interviews. Taylor’s decade in Nashville shaped her as a musician, and ultimately changed country music itself long after she left the genre.

Emily Yahr

Praise for Taylor Swift: The Debut Years

A thorough and heartwarming tribute to a superstar’s origin story. Yahr deftly wields a reporter’s precise pen digging up juicy details on Swift’s earliest years and contextualizing the emotional weight many feel fo ...

Taylor Swift has achieved generational stardom through relentless change. And yet it all goes back to that teenage girl writing songs after school and practicing guitar until her fingers bled. Yahr illuminates these ...

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