The New Issue: Taylor Swift's Secrets of a Good Girl

The world's biggest new pop star is a little bit country, a little bit rock & roll, and all control freak. What's behind Taylor Swift's drive for success? Vanessa Grigoriadis hangs out with the Grammy-nominated, chart-topping 19-year-old superstar for Rolling Stone's new cover story to talk awkward middle-school memories, how Joe Jonas broke her heart, and how Swift transformed herself from a hard-working kid growing up in Pennsylvania into Nashville's favorite adopted daughter.

Grab the new issue today for the full story, and check out our first-ever story on Taylor, Country Lolita, right away. Plus, get a look at photos from the Rolling Stone cover shoot by Peggy Sirota in our Taylor Swift cover shoot gallery. And come back later this week for even more Swift — including photos from her family album, a gallery tracking her rise from hopeful to headliner, an exclusive Q&A you won't see in the magazine and video of Swift getting a first look at her first RS cover.

And don't miss The Story Behind the Taylor Swift Cover Story, where Grigoriadis opens up about her time with the teen sensation. Grigoriadis, who tailed Taylor everywhere from the set of CSI, where she was filming a guest appearance, to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's L.A. mansion to her Nashville home, where an afternoon snack of cookies and milk turns into a near disaster. So is Swift the good girl she claims to be? Grigoriadis says yes: "She really is that girl in the tiny little bedroom at home writing songs about the things she hopes and dreams and feels."

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

More Song Stories entries »

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