Taylor Swift has never been one to take disparaging comments lying down. On Sunday night, the pop star delivered a shot back across the bow at Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, who had previously insinuated that Swift doesn’t perform live vocals.
“I tell you, man, you don’t want to suffer the wrath of Taylor Swift,” Grohl said from the stage at London Stadium over the weekend. “So we like to call our tour the ‘Errors Tour.’ We’ve had more than a few eras, and more than a few fucking errors as well.”
“That’s because we actually play live,” Grohl continued, tempting fate. “What?! Just saying... You guys like raw, live rock ‘n’ roll music, right? You came to the right fucking place.”
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Playing yet another sold-out evening of the Eras Tour later that day, Swift came to her own defense as she addressed the crowd. “What you just did is an unforgettable moment in not just my life, but every single one of our crew,” Swift said.
“The band that’s going to be playing live for you for three and a half hours tonight,” Swift continued. “They deserve this so much and so does every one of my fellow performers, and you just gave that to us so generously. We’ll never forget it.”
It’s certainly true that Swift, as is common practice among almost every major pop artist, uses backing instrumental and vocal tracks to supplement her live performances in stadiums. And fans on her subreddit have acknowledged this reality while simultaneously coming to her defense.
“It’s not healthy to sing for 3+ hours straight as often as she does,” one Swiftie posted last year. “Taylor’s voice isn’t a real powerhouse, so it makes sense. It’s also why she sounds best in the acoustic sections. It will never bug me when people are using strategies to stay healthy. Ever.”
Another fan wrote, “We all know Taylor isn’t here to be a vocalist. She’s an amazing singer-songwriter who has a great stage presence and who knows how to tell a story. That’s what I want to see. If she uses a backing track to get her through the concert, I’m personally OK with that.”
But for the most part, Swift’s vocals on the Eras Tour are indisputable. There’s ample evidence to back that up: She (and her band) are definitely performing live.
As for Grohl’s “Errors Tour” joke, if he were just a little bit more clocked into Swiftie parlance, he would know that devoted fans of the singer-songwriter have been diligently noting instances of live mishaps at the Eras Tour for months, and calling the resulting compilations the Errors Tour on their own.
Last May, a particularly notable live mishap saw Swift pausing her onstage rendition of “Bad Blood” to call out a security guard who, according to onlookers, had been roughing up fans.
“She’s fine!” Swift yelled at the guard at the concert; this particular one was taking place in Philadelphia. “She wasn’t doing anything! Hey, STOP!” This interaction went widely viral.
Another more lighthearted error took place last year as Swift introduced a new band member to the audience onstage—and swallowed a bug in the process. The crowd gasped as she choked before recovering.
