John Mayer just performed his 2013 song “Paper Doll” during a concert in Sacramento on April 8 (the same day news of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s breakup dropped), and a video of him chatting about the song—which is rumored to be about Taylor—is making the rounds.

“I wonder if people don’t like it because it sounds a little pissed off,” John said while introducing the song, going on to admit that “there’s something about it that’s a little bitchy. There might be. I try not to get bitchiness into songs, it’ll happen sometimes.” He added, “I guess I don’t do it very well. Sarcastic bitchy. But I didn’t really see it. I guess it is sort of a little bit like bleh.”

People have long speculated that “Paper Doll” is a response to “Dear John,” and Swifties are calling out the timing:

Just gonna drop some lyrics here….

You’re like twenty-two girls in one
And none of them know what they’re running from
Was it just too far to fall
For a little paper doll
Fold a scarf, Moroccan red
Tie your hair behind your head
Strap into some heels that hurt
You shoulda kept my undershirt

Anyway!

As E! News mentioned, John spoke about the song during an Instagram Live in 2019, saying, “One of the tenets of being a singer-songwriter…is: We don’t talk about who the songs are either inspired by or reference. And when ‘Paper Doll’ came out, 100 percent of the people believed it was about somebody and the person that they thought it was about brought a certain amount of a superficial pop culture back and forth.”

He then noted that “the song didn’t get the credit it deserves. I had to let it go.”

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