One of the World's Best Guitarists Explains Why He's a Swiftie

Tommy Emmanuel, once dubbed the best acoustic guitarist in the world, can't get enough of Taylor Swift.

The 69-year-old Australian guitarist recently opened up about his love for Swift in an interview with the music site The Bluegrass Situation. Emmanuel, who said he spent three days listening to Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, explained how Swift inspires him.

"Taylor, as a writer, is definitely a big influence on me," Emmanuel told the site. "Someone who achieves what she achieves is doing something beyond the norm. Even beyond talent, it's a spiritual experience, it's big, and it's deep, and I like to observe, listen, and learn from people who achieve like that."

Emmanuel described Swift's songwriting as "crying from the heart."

"Exactly. I was [writing a new song] and trying to find something that could give me the right melody to say with the chorus what I wanted to say without words, making the melody this cry from the heart," he explained. "It's-'sings melody], the chords change underneath, and so there's movement, but there's this cry from the heart right in the middle of everything."

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Emmanuel, who has also been dubbed as "an acoustic guitar phenomenon,"  mainly sat in band sessions before breaking out as a solo artist. He's a three-time Grammy-nominated artist, winning Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella in 2024 for "Folsom Prison Blues."

Swift, of course, recently made history after racking up a handful of accolades at the iHeartRadio Music awards and later earning the top spot on Billboard's Top Women Artists of the 21st Century retrospective.

Just a few months ago Billboard announced Swift as the top overall artist of the last 25 years, so her ranking atop the latest list comes as no surprise.