Speaking to MTV News while promoting her new album Hopeless Romantic, Michelle Branch (yeah, as in “Everywhere” Michelle Branch) recalled a moment when she met Taylor Swift back in 2007—when the pop icon was just launching her music empire.
“I turned a corner and she was standing there,” Branch recalled. “She freaked out, like, ‘Oh my god, I’m a huge fan of yours. I learned all your songs. You’re one of the first people who made me want to play guitar.’ It’s crazy to see what she’s gone on to do, and to know that I had some kind of hand in inspiring her early on.”
Taylor’s Michelle Branch fandom hadn’t faded by 2011, when she covered “All You Wanted” during her Speak Now tour. And, to be fair, it’s not just Taylor Swift who was inspired to pick up a guitar and pour her heart out after listening to Michelle Branch’s earnest breakup songs. Branch says many people credit her with inspiring them to get into music.
“To this day, people tell me, ‘I bought a guitar because of you,'” she said. “I think the biggest form of flattery is hearing that you inspired someone to start playing music themselves. I mean, that’s why I picked up the guitar. I heard a record, it changed my life, and I had to learn how to play guitar. It’s nice to hear that the torch has been passed on in that way.”