- A man shared in an essay for The New Yorker that Taylor Swift’s discography helped him survive his time in prison.
- Joe Garcia, who was imprisoned for murder, expressed how Swift’s album “Midnights” aided his reflection before an upcoming parole hearing.
- In his candid essay, Garcia revealed his experience of spending over a decade in prison.
Fans of Taylor Swift have long attested that her music has been instrumental in helping them overcome various struggles.
During her teenage years, Swift’s lyrics resonated with fans, resembling the words written in their own diaries. As these fans matured alongside Swift, now 33 years old, they credit her with guiding them through challenges in adulthood, heartbreaks, devastating losses, and medical diagnoses.
Now, in an incredibly candid essay, a man reveals how Swift’s discography provided solace during his years in incarceration.
Joe Garcia, aged 53, narrates that he first learned about Swift while in jail shortly before receiving a life sentence for murder. He initially wasn’t very impressed, favoring artists like Prince instead.
In 2013, Garcia’s good behavior led to him being transferred to a lower security prison. There, he and his cellmate would listen to the top 40 hits on a pocket radio.
Garcia shares, “During that time, I heard tracks from ‘Red,’ Swift’s fourth studio album, virtually every hour. I was starting to enjoy them. Laying on the top bunk, I would listen to my cellmate’s snores and wait for ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ to come around again.”
Emma McIntyre/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Garcia reflects on how the songs reminded him of his past loves, including a sweetheart who visited him in jail. He found meaning in Swift’s 2019 song “Daylight,” where she expresses, “been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night, and now I see daylight.”
Garcia kept up with Swift’s music over the years, finding resonance with songs from the albums “1989,” “Lover,” and lately, “Midnights.” He identified with the song “Anti-Hero,” where Swift acknowledges that she is the problem.
Garcia is soon to face a parole board, and he reveals that Swift’s discography has propelled him to reflect on similar questions. He writes, “In ‘Karma,’ Swift sings, ‘Ask me what I learned from all those years / Ask me what I earned from all those tears.’ A few months from now, California’s Board of Parole Hearings will ask me questions like that. What have I learned? What do I have to show for my twenty years of incarceration?”
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