Imagine that! Taylor Swift might be one of the most popular celebrities on the planet, but even she blended right in when it came to renting a New York City pad.
The 29-year-old singer’s former landlord David Aldea opened up in an interview with Vulture published on Tuesday, August 27, about how he initially had no idea who she was.
“I’m afraid to tell you this, but I will tell you this: I really didn’t know her,” the former Soho House executive told the outlet. “I’m just not a pop culture guy, and I even said to someone, ‘I’m meeting a person named Taylor Swift who wants to rent my home.’ Now, mind you, I knew her songs because I had them on my running playlist. I just didn’t match the name to the song. I know, it’s silly.”
The townhouse would go on to serve as a muse for Swift’s new song “Cornelia Street” from her recently released Lover album. The tune is seemingly an ode to the time she spent at the NYC place with her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
“We were in the backseat / Drunk on something stronger than the drinks in the bar / ‘I rent a place on Cornelia Street’ / I say casually in the car,” Swift sings. “We were a fresh page on the desk / Filling in the blanks as we go.”
Aldea recalled the first time Swift laid eyes on his townhouse. “She walked in, and I’ll never forget this — she said, ‘Oooh, it’s so crafty,’” he said. “And in Taylor-speak, that means ‘I like everything’ … She was an absolute delight to deal with.”
As for the outside space that Swift mentions in the song, Aldea explained that it’s likely in reference to the “space off her master bedroom” that he “set up as sort of an outdoor living room.”
He added: “And there’s artificial turf on the ground and stuff, so it felt like you were outdoors but indoors, and there was a fireplace outside. It was very, very private.”
Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania native slayed the opening of the 2019 VMAs and took home multiple awards including Video for Good and Video of the Year for her song “You Need to Calm Down.” A source told Us Weekly that Swift plans to head to London post-show to spend time with Alwyn, 28.
