Taylor Swift’s “Hey Stephen” is about Stephen Barker Liles, a member of the country duo Love and Theft. Liles has said in public interviews that the two met through Love and Theft’s 2008 tour as an opening act for Swift, and that each of them ended up writing a song about the other around the same time. The Stephen Colbert and Stephen King names that sometimes come up trace back to a comedy segment, not to a factual disclosure.
Who Stephen Barker Liles is
Liles is one of the members of Love and Theft, a country group that performed as an opening act on part of Swift’s 2008 touring schedule. The song’s subject is identified through his account, which is the only firsthand identification of the song’s subject in the public record. Swift herself has not, in the material available, given a detailed, on-the-record breakdown of the song’s real-life inspiration beyond the joking remarks discussed below.
How the connection formed on tour
In a September 5, 2024 interview with Kentucky Downs and The Mint, Liles recounted that Love and Theft was chosen as an opening act for Swift and that the musicians spent time together on the road. He described the two becoming close enough to talk regularly. The tour is the context he gives for the friendship; he does not describe a romantic relationship, and the interview does not establish one.
What Liles says about the two songs
Liles’s account centers on an exchange. He says Swift told him she had written a song about him, and his memory of the moment is direct:
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“I knew she’d written a song about me, because we talked a lot. She said, ‘Hey, I wrote a song about you.’ I was like, ‘That’s weird. I wrote a song about you.’”
A 2021 report also recounts Liles describing the songs as written around the same time. Those two accounts are consistent with each other, but they both rest on Liles’s recollection; Swift’s side of the exchange comes to us through his retelling.
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“Try to Make It Anyway”
Liles names his own song as “Try to Make It Anyway.” Readers who want the reciprocal-song story in one place can treat that title as the answer to the question of what he wrote in return. It is his identification, and it is the only title he is documented as naming for that exchange.
The Stephen Colbert and Stephen King joke
Many searches for this song also surface a 2021 appearance on Stephen Colbert’s program, where the host joked about whether “Hey Stephen” was about him. Swift said on the show that she first recorded the song in 2008 and denied that it was about Colbert. She then claimed the song was about Stephen King, and that was the punchline. Contemporaneous coverage records her line: “I’ve never revealed this before to anyone, but ‘Hey Stephen’ is about Stephen King.” That line belongs to a comedy segment and should not be read as a factual disclosure. It does not overturn Liles’s identification of the subject.
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Why the question resurfaced in 2021
The song drew renewed attention in 2021 with the release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift’s rerecording of her 2008 album. The rerecording put the track back in front of listeners and prompted the questions about its subject that continue to circulate. The rerecording context explains why the song was being discussed then; it does not change who the song is about.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is and is not established
- Established by public accounts: the song is about Stephen Barker Liles of Love and Theft; the two groups toured together in 2008; Liles says he and Swift each wrote a song about the other at about the same time.
- Not established: a dating relationship between Swift and Liles; Swift’s private thoughts about the song beyond what she said in the comedy segment; any confirmed detail about the songs’ lyrics beyond what the people involved have said publicly.
- Not a factual answer: the Colbert and King names, which came from a joke on television.
Because the identification rests mainly on one person’s recollection, the most accurate phrasing is that Liles is the person the song is about according to his own account and the public record around it, rather than a fact Swift has confirmed in detail.
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