An intoxicating mix! Kelsea Ballerini wanted to enjoy Taylor Swift‘s new album, Folklore, with a drink in hand, but she needed the Grammy winner’s advice on the best alcoholic beverage.
“I texted her yesterday and I’m like, ’Alright. Am I red wine-ing? Am I Manhattan-ing? Am I tequila shooting?’… Like, where am I going?’” the “Hole in the Bottle” singer, 26, told Mix 104.1’s Karson & Kennedy Talk with Famous People on Tuesday, July 28.
Ballerini added, “She was like, ‘red wine … buckle up.’”
The “Homecoming Queen?” singer — who is a self-proclaimed “super fan” of Swift, 30 — admitted that she still hasn’t fully listened to the album.
“I’ve only given it a quick listen this morning while having coffee,” she said. “So, I really need to give it the listen it deserves before talking about it.”
However, Ballerini said that she’s a fan of Swift’s ability to shift genres and collaborate with artists such as The National’s Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and songwriter Jack Antonoff.
“It shows her artistry and her sense of songwriting to just be able to swing the pendulum back and forth on different genres and different collaborators,” she explained. “It still holds up, it’s crazy. Not a lot of people can do that.”
Ballerini has been a member of the “Blank Space” singer’s BFF squad for years. The “Miss Me More” songstress told Billboard in 2017 that Swift has even given her songwriting advice.
“[Taylor]’s just really good at being yourself,” she said at the time. “That’s always been her advice — go with your gut, go with your heart, follow that and not anything else.”
One year later, Ballerini showed her appreciation for Swift when she covered the Pennsylvania native’s song “Delicate” via Instagram.
“Love her as a human but damn do I love her as a songwriter,” she captioned the post. The “Shake It Off” singer replied, “KELSEA THIS IS angelic, wonderful, exquisite, lovely, excellent.”
Swift surprised fans when she dropped her eighth studio album — which was recorded in quarantine amid the coronavirus pandemic — on Friday, July 24.
“Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen,” she wrote in a lengthy note one day earlier. “I wrote and recorded this music in isolation but got to collaborate with some musical heroes of mine. … Before this year, I probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time, but the times we’re living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed. My gut is telling me that is you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world. That’s the side of uncertainty I can get on board with.”
