Taylor Swift attends the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Joe Alwyn probably can’t go to The Black Dog pub in London anymore. That’s because Swifties have been flocking to the establishment ever since Taylor Swift referenced it in a song of the same name on her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, leading a representative for the bar to hint in a new interview that the Conversations With Friends star has definitely stopped in before.
While speaking to Sky News earlier this week, The Black Dog’s social media manager Lily Bottomley confirmed that the bar has been packed with fans ever since the “Fortnight” singer’s new album dropped Friday (April 19).
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“I don’t want to give too much away,” she added when asked if the pub’s owners have scanned old security footage for signs of Swift’s ex-boyfriend. “We do have a certain blond regular who frequents.”
One of the rawest tracks on Tortured Poets, “The Black Dog” finds the pop star lamenting a recent heartbreak with the hook, “Old habits die screaming.” Fans speculate that Alwyn, whom Swift dated for about six years before news of their breakup emerged last year, inspired the lyrics.
“Your location, you forgot to turn it off,” she sings on the track. “And so I watch as you walk into some bar called The Black Dog/ And pierce new holes in my heart.”
“I just don’t understand how you don’t miss me,” she continues. “In The Black Dog, when someone plays ‘The Starting Line’ and you jump up/ But she’s too young to know this song.”
After ending things with Alwyn, Swift started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last summer. The athlete is another rumored Tortured Poets muse, with fans suspecting that “The Alchemy” and “So High School” were both written about him.
Listen to “The Black Dog” below.
