Emily Poe Stumler, who previously played violin on Taylor Swift’s first ever tour with her daughter, gives an account of Andrea Swift’s resolve to make sure her daughter receives the life she desires.
From the sweet farm kid who ran around barefoot with her wild tangle of white-blonde curls to a global mega-star, Taylor Swift has secured her billionaire status, recorded 16 full-length albums and is freshly engaged to her American footballer fiance Travis Kelce.
And a woman who was with her during her early years of fame claimed that this was Taylor’s “driven and determined” strategy. When the country singer, age 17, was promoting her demo CD around Nashville in search of a record deal, Emily Poe Stumler was hired as Taylor’s fiddler in 2006.
“She was so driven, even at that age”, says mum-of-two Emily, now 40, who was just a few years older than the teenaged Taylor when they went on tour for the first time. She should always be as well-known as she became, according to the plan.
Now Emily reveals for the first time the incredible impact Taylor’s mum Andrea Swift had on the young girl, and how her support meant the world as Taylor negotiated transitioning from “the weird kid with no friends” in middle school to the young popstar winning her first VMA Award. “If there was no Andrea, there would be no Taylor Swift,” says Emily bluntly. “She saw her daughter’s vision and she sacrificed her life so Taylor could do what she wanted in life.”
Andrea, who had worked as a mutual fund marketing executive before having Taylor and her younger brother Austin with their father Scott, gave up her high-flying career to manage the young Taylor’s music affairs, using the skills she’d built up in her previous male-dominated industry to secure deals for Taylor.
She was also raising the teenage Taylor, Emily, and the rest of the band on their leopard print tour bus, which Cher had previously hired because it was outfitted with leopard print. “We were all living on top of each other – I was in the bottom bunk, Taylor was in the top bunk, and it was like having a little sister who was also my boss”, remembers Emily.
It was all so strange and crazy that Andrea attempted to do everything she could with the management side. Normal teenagers have conflict with their parents, but since we were all bus passengers, there was no room for conflict. I do remember Andrea telling me off constantly for having a messy bunk, though”!
Emily and Taylor shared many of her biggest “firsts,” including the first time a fan recognized her. “We were in a department store and the assistant looked at her ID and said, ‘ oh, Taylor Swift, that’s the name of my favourite singer’. And Taylor said, “That’s me!” She was so excited afterward because she wanted to share her music with others and get them to like it.
Taylor has since gone on to win 14 Grammys, but Emily was there when she bagged her first ever CMA (Country Music Association) Award for Best New Artist – and they celebrated with McDonald’s. She exclaims, “We had performed at the CMAs, and Taylor had won.” Taylor wanted fries, and we all piled back on the tour bus. So we tried to get this enormous bus through the Drive-Thru”!
It’s possible to be challenging but also very enjoyable on the road. “It was like having a sleepover with a high school friend every night”, Emily recalls. Taylor and her band set the stage for her opulent 2023-24 Eras Tour, which featured 149 three-hour shows that span five continents, and performed more than 300 shows in one year as she fought to launch her musical career.
“You live out of a suitcase for a year, and tour buses are very luxurious when you’re not slumming it!” – it is hard to be constantly on the move”, says Emily. But for Taylor’s entire career, which has spanned 20 years, both her and Andrea’s lives. Although it’s difficult for her, it has been very rewarding.
Off-stage, Taylor was still a teenage girl finding her feet. Today, there are stylists and a sizable entourage, but Emily recalls that we all spent the day getting ready for the pre-show bus. Taylor was much smaller than me, so I couldn’t wear her clothes because I was the only woman in the band. But I remember I gave her my earrings when she was on The Jay Leno Show for the first time”.
Emily assisted the young singer in maintaining her feet on the ground while Taylor taught her the virtues of pure determination. “I was a very loyal friend to her at a time when her life was going crazy, and I think I taught her that life can be fun, and we can do regular people things and have fun – hanging out at the mall, going to the cinema.
Even though that’s not how life is now, I hope she continues to try that. I acted like a sister to her, really, really.
Emily and Taylor parted ways in 2007 when the young singer’s songwriting started going in a more poppy direction”. There was a natural breaking point because I played country fiddle. Why would you want things to last forever, and sometimes not?
There are online rumours that Taylor’s song Breathe was penned about the end of her friendship with Emily – but the chief deputy prosecuting attorney for Harrison County in Indiana refuses to be drawn”. How flattering to think that I deserve a song because I spent so much of her life! She laughs .
After Emily stopped touring and departed for law school, the pair didn’t communicate, but she now wishes the former 35-year-old star best wishes. I hope she looks back on those early years of her career as fun if we bumped into each other now, because I believe we would think about it all those years ago and how fun we had, “she says.
” They were a whole lot of work, but also you only get the ‘ first’s once, and I was there for so many of those. The first album she released, playing the Grand Ole Opry, a live country music radio station from Nashville. How cool was that, and how much does life now look to her.
With Taylor’s next studio album, Life of a Showgirl, due to be released on October 3 – her first since winning back the master rights to her entire back catalogue after a protracted legal battle – Emily says the talented singer seemingly hasn’t changed from those early days.
She recalls writing down lyrics in the back of the bus while always holding a notepad and pen in hand. I remember when she wrote Fearless, she came off the bus and just started playing it during soundcheck and everyone was going along with it. That was a cool moment, and the audience adored it when we played it live.
And Emily isn’t bothered by Taylor’s fervent support of Swifties from all over the world. Even in those early days she’d be selling nearly as much merchandise at shows as the headliners, and we were supporting, “she remembers.
Girls “liked her, they connected to her, and they wore her face or the lyrics on their shirts,” which meant getting customers’ money for her goods.
She has already given me some insight, so I’m not surprised if she grows as much. To be unapologetically who you are, like Taylor is, that’s a big thing”.
