Nearly one year later, Lucy Dacus has finally confirmed that she’s the “Lucy” referenced on the title track from Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.
“I think it’s fair game to say ‘yes,’” Dacus, 29, told People in an interview published Thursday, March 27. “She actually texted me and asked for my approval.”
The “Ankles” singer went on to add that TTPD was the first Swift album she heard after meeting the pop star, 35, in real life.
“Well, I pushed play on the album just like, ‘Oh, this is so crazy,’” she recalled. “This is the first Taylor record to come out since meeting her, and listening to a friend’s record feels so much different than a stranger’s record. So I was like, ‘This is really weird. This voice that I’ve heard basically what feels like my whole waking life saying my name.’”
Fans have long believed that Dacus was the “Lucy” named in the bridge of “The Tortured Poets Department,” which many listeners have interpreted to be about Swift’s split from Matty Healy. The lyrics in question are, “Sometimes, I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me / But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave / And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen.”
Taylor Swift did a lot of name-dropping on The Tortured Poets Department — and Lucy Dacus is one of the people fans are connecting to the new album. Swift’s latest record, which was released on Friday, April 19, addressed her brief romance with Matty Healy. During the title track, Swift, 34, mentioned several friends who […]
The “Jack” in the lyric seems to be Jack Antonoff, Swift’s longtime collaborator who produced most of TTPD and who worked with Healy on The 1975’s latest album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language. Lucy, meanwhile, is a member of Boygenius, the supergroup that also features Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. Bridgers, 30, opened for Swift on some dates of The Eras Tour and duetted with her on “Nothing New” from Red (Taylor’s Version) — years after teaming up with Healy on The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form.
“It was definitely an experience,” Dacus told People of hearing her name on Swift’s album. “I sat down and I was like, ‘Huh. Wow.’ But I think that that record of hers is super openhearted, and I don’t know how many people at her level, if anyone is at her level, are writing from the heart that openly.”
Dacus had her own tension with Healy, 35, stemming from an incident where he used her name in a social media post that also included an offensive slur. In September 2023, Healy joked that he’d told Dacus her band’s name inspired him to start a group with a name combining the word “girl” and the R-slur.
“I don’t really hear from her that often,” he tweeted. In response, Dacus wrote, “You don’t hear from me at all.” After replying, “Yeah this never goes well does it,” Healy deactivated his account.
Healy and the “All Too Well” singer sparked romance rumors in May 2023 following Swift’s split from Joe Alwyn. One month later, Us Weekly confirmed the pair had gone their separate ways.
Dacus, for her part, recently confirmed that she is dating her Boygenius bandmate Baker, 29.
“It’s been interesting, because I want to protect what is precious in my life, but also to be honest, and make art that’s true,” she told The New Yorker while discussing her new album, Forever Is a Feeling, which drops Friday, March 28. “I think maybe a part of it is just trusting that it’s not at risk. Maybe a healthier way to think about it is that it’s not actually fragile.”
