Taylor Swift's Unexpected Duet With Def Leppard

As Taylor Swift was emerging as a country star ahead of her second album, Fearless, she surprised audiences by teaming with Def Leppard for an episode of CMT Crossroads that paired country artists with performers from other genres. Swift had one artist in mind for the show: Def Leppard.

Def Leppard’s singer Joe Elliott has said Swift was a lifelong fan, noting that because she was born in 1989 and her parents were huge fans, “Throughout 1988 she heard our music in her mother’s womb, non-stop.” Swift and the band approached the Crossroads setlist as a creative experiment, each singing the other’s hits while trying on elements of the opposite style.

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