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

“Weird”

Hanson | 1997

Accomplished tunesmith Desmond Child co-wrote "Weird" with the three brothers that make up Hanson. Credited for dozens of cuts, including songs by Kiss, Cher, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith, Child told Rolling Stone that "Weird" holds a special place in his heart, "because it's about being different--and I grew up poor, I grew up being Latin, I grew up being gay, and now I'm fat!" The song was included on Hanson's 1997 album Middle of Nowhere, which sold more than ten million units.

More Song Stories entries »

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