Calvin Harris and John Newman are friends and collaborators. I know many of you will be WHO-ing Newman, but he’s British singer/songwriter with a great voice and, as I just said, he’s worked with Calvin Harris several times. Most recently, Newman and Harris worked together on “Olé,” Calvin latest single which may or may not be about Taylor Swift. Well, Newman was doing an interview a few days ago and he ended up talking about Calvin and Taylor and how sordid that whole thing was. He threw some excellent shade at Taylor!
Taylor Swift’s treatment of ex Calvin Harris has been branded “brutal” — by his best pal, John Newman. “Love Me Again” singer Newman was by the DJ’s side throughout the messy split, which led to a war of words after it emerged that Swift had ghost-written Harris’ hit “This Is What You Came For.” Fans discovered her involvement after Newman innocently tweeted his congrats on the song’s success to Harris, vocalist Rihanna and Swift — before deleting and reposting the message without mention of Tay. The revelation sparked a public spat between Harris and Swift over why she was uncredited.
We caught up with Newman ahead of his Apple Music Festival gig at London’s Roundhouse. Talking about the tweet incident for the first time, he admitted he is no longer in contact with his pal’s ex. He said, “From her side? Yeah, it did get brutal. I’m like Calvin, happy to take a back seat. I like my music to do the talking. When I tweeted that, there was a text almost immediately from Calvin. He was like, ‘Down. Now.’ And then it all came out anyway. No I’m not [friendly with Swift anymore], I don’t agree with what’s gone on … but I shouldn’t comment further. I wouldn’t know her well enough, weirdly. She’s in another world.”
Newman, one of the nicest guys in the industry, seemed unfazed when we asked him if Harris was worried that queen of the revenge song Swift might go into uncomfortable detail about the pair’s relationship on her next album. Laughing off our suggestion that she’d name her next release “The Calvin Chronicles” (we think she should, and follow up with “The Tom Hiddleston Tomes”), he said, “Let’s hope not. I really like her music so they’ll be great songs either way. But I’ve had uncomplimentary things sung about me by exes. You get on with it.”
“From her side? Yeah, it did get brutal.” Ah, yes. Taylor tried to play her games and slam Calvin Harris… until Calvin went off on Twitter, and then she got suspiciously quiet. I also like “I don’t agree with what’s gone on” and “she’s in another world.” Those statements could be interpreted a few different ways, but to be fair, I think the “she’s in another world” is more about Taylor being in another world of being famous, as in she’s crazy-famous and Newman can’t even comprehend it. Or maybe he’s saying Taylor lives in her bubble of “I Heart T.S.” t-shirts and blind-item songs.
At the end of the interview, Newman says his brain tumor has come back – he had a brain tumor removed in 2012, and he went on to recover and perform again, but now the tumor is back and he needs surgery again. I hope everything goes well for him.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN.
First of all I hope the surgery for him goes well. Cannot even imagine getting a tumor removed once let alone twice.
Second I agree with what he said and that’s what the summer of receipts were really. People have been saying she’s sneaky for years but this summer everyone refused to roll over for the Taylor train. You reap what you sow. She’s not a teen anymore she’s an adult and frankly her behavior towards people is embarrassing and high school. Sad because I thought she was really maturing in 2014-15 but nope.
So sad about his health issues. He’s so young. I really hope they can get the tumors out and he can have a good, healthy future.
I agree…. Newman seems like a good egg. Good ole Swifty has been slowly rebuilding her PR image, one donation at a time, hasn’t she? I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth but lets face it, those publicized donations are pure PR gold. By the time she releases her next album she’ll be all polished up while the GP will be saying Kimye who?
Well at least donating in the great scheme of things is actually doing the world some good.
Taylor may be a lot of things people hate, but donating no matter how public shouldn’t be used against her.
I hope he recovers fine.
To be fair – Swifty has always been a generous charitable donor, its just its now being made a big deal of as she needs the good PR. I understand that a lot of it in the past went under the radar.
so if her charitable donations went under the radar before why not now? Because she’s got an agenda so I agree with Elias, she’s polishing her profile if she wasn’t we’d still know nothing about her donations.
TAYLOR gets away with so much. America’s sweetheart. Yea right, everybody’s catching on to her bull shit and soon she’ll fade. Can’t wait!!
Why do guys continue to get into relationships with her when there is such a public trail of wreckage from every past one she has had? Who looks at that and says yep, that looks like a good time right there, sign me up??
I was wondering the same thing too. At the rate Taylor Swift is going with her relationships she is going to end up alone because no man is going to want her.
That’s great then she’ll claim I’ve always been a lesbian to stay relevant.. What a joke. And her bullshit music sells. I have an open mind to every kind of music out there, but her SINGING IS way overrated. STRUM AWAY TAYLOR STRUM AWAY!
Why are you assuming that she needs a man to complete her? That’s a bit sexist, don’t you think? She’s married to her career and probably isn’t into giving her energy to a long-term relationship, and that should be just fine.
Who looks at Calvin Harris and says the same thing?
I don’t understand your post. What do you mean?
The ugly mess of his breakup with Rita Ora? His own love of Twitter drama? Not to mention how he initially tried to roll out his breakup with Swift until she showed up with Tiddles?
There’s a public trail of wreckage for both Swift and Harris. It actually made them a perfect match – everyone knew that when it imploded these two would make sure it was as petty as possible.
Bridget, thanks for mentioning Calvin’s past relationships. I was not aware he has baggage too, because we are always so focused on Taylor. It must be because she is more famous than him.
Because it falls into the “Taylor Swift narrative”. People get so caught up in the Taylor Swift hate that anyone on the other side of her must therefore be a poor, sad victim. She can be overly calculating AND Calvin Harris can also be an insecure douche at the same time.
So what Taylor narrative do you prefer?
I literally just said in the comment you replied to.
Definitely me, that clusterf$ck was not all Swift’s doing, Harris participated wholeheartedly, he was as petty and as aggressive as she was and if I remember correctly he was the one that started it. I mean if anything else they proved to be a match made in heaven (or hell)
John Newman is the one who let the cat out of the bag (which may people suspected) that Taylor swift wrote the song when he tweeted congratulations to Taylor and Rihanna for the song. Which Calvin told him to take down as soon as he found out John had tweeted it. Bloggers asked Taylor’s people if she wrote it and they said yes. I can not understand how he could get so upset that he put out the line of tweets he did after it came out she wrote it. She never made a statement or a tweet about the whole mess. If she had not recorded it before she took it to him he would have probably tried to pull on Taylor what he did on Rita Ora
Is it possible she pays them to be with her. A contract of sorts.
Like with Hiddles, maybe it was I will make you famous by getting your name out there.
I don’t know , just wondering and letting my imagination run free. 🙂
i dont think she pays them. all of them are rich and the PR boost will also bring them money.
i dont think all of them but most of them are gay.
Was wondering the same thing, Chef Grace.
Men who actually want or need attention. They probably just think that negative attention is still attention and so for them a song or two isnt a bad thing. I dont think its a coincidence that most of them come in widely perceived as closeted and seem to leave with an established hetero cred.
why do people get in relationships with Chris Brown? because they care more about fame and money. or they think “it wont happen to me”.
i mean if i was a guy i would never think she is actually interested in me but only in a pr boost and song material.
You think it’s only women that marry for money?
RE: “She’s in another world.” >>> I definitely think that’s in relation to her level of fame.
However, given what he saw with her treatment of his friend, I assume he’s not that interested in knowing her any further. While Swift has been very good in her business calculations, that level of control seems to extend to her personal life–to the point of manipulation. Who needs enemies with a friend like that?
Although I agree with your point, perhaps Mr. Newman should not have made his opinion public. What if Taylor and Calvin get back together? Is he not going to interact with her?
It sounds like he and Taylor were never that close to begin with. So I don’t think there’s any love lost there. Plus, he also said he’s enjoyed some of her music. This interview was a classic example of giving an honest opinion, but remaining cordial. I think that’s something he would do in the event she and Calvin reunite–although that seems unlikely. Also, he’s dealing with a health scare, so I think this is all so far down the list of things he actually cares about right now.
I think all bets were off whe ch said he would never collaborate with her after she had ghostwritten such a big hit. I honestly think it may have remained secret but after that she got mad…and I don’t really blame her.
Ummm… no. That was the narrative her people put out there to justify her moving so quickly on to Hiddles. The fact is, she wanted to write under a pseudonym. Calvin shouldn’t have been expected to spill the beans on their collaboration in that interview, when her intention was to remain under that pseudonym for the time being. He wasn’t being a douche in that particular instance — he was protecting her privacy and keeping mum as she intended in not writing under her own name.
She used it later to make him look back and he came back swinging, which was understandable under the circumstances since she made the choice to be a ghostwriter in the first place.
Wishing him a speedy and successful recovery!
Lol at the rebranding of Calvin Harris as the sensitive victim of Maneater Taylor.
My thoughts exactly Bridget. People seem to have short memories when it comes to Calvin and all he said following the break up with Taylor.
CH didn’t really show his fangs until that fateful day Twiddledom reared up its ugly head, did he? I’d be pissed as hell if my ex publically popped up less than 2 weeks after we broke up…..
Agreed! He was so spiteful with Rita Ora – would not let her perform their song on a major awards show. He’s a bad-breaker-upper (I still miss Seinfeld so much.)
@Elias – are you kidding? As soon as they broke up he was leaking about how he dumped her because she was basically the human equivalent of granny panties. Only after she unveiled Tiddles did his tone change to all of the ‘she must have cheated’ (which she didn’t – people who care far more than I do actually compared her and Tiddleston’s schedule after the Met Ball). His message when they broke up was flat out gross and condescending.
He made it pretty clear she directed the tabloid narrative, Bridget. She dumped him for another guy. He said as much after the truth came out. You can’t take tabloid smut as his word.
@originaltessa: that’s not correct, though. He put out a lot of really unflattering stuff in his own attempt to control the narrative but got outplayed so he turned it into ‘I’m so sad’. And it’s easy to dismiss stuff as “tabloid smut” when it doesn’t fit with the narrative you like – ie Taylor is so mean and sneaky, and anyone that falls in her path is a sad sad victim. The only difference was that Harris read the writing on the wall quickly and course corrected.
Thanks Tessa 🙂 You beat me to the punch…..
What punch? You can go back and look at all the Calvin Harris posts here, for goodness sake. And you’re proving my point – people pick and choose narratives they want. CH spent the 2 weeks before she unveiled Tiddleston as painting her as a sad cat lady he just wasn’t into banging.
You guys love mentioning the Rita split but never mention she cheated on him…I wouldn’t allow my cheater ex to use my work and if that’s petty well too bad. I’m team Calvin on this all the way.
I think he owned the songs and it was within his right to withhold them – Ora massively, massively screwed up. But it was still petty on his part.
Nah @bridget that’s not it. Nobody thinks he’s innocent. But she’s even worse. She pretends to be nice, goes behind people’s backs, but with him at least what you see is what you get. His biggest fault is he has these huge kneejerk reactions like a petty little boy. But at least he owns it, he did say he did the wrong thing. When did she ever apologies for attacking various exes and what she did to Kanye. She always plays the victim, even though history shows she’s anything but.
He hasn’t ‘owned’ anything, but when he at least gets close to it it’s only when he’s caught dead to right. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: he is absolutely as petty as Swift.
I guess my overall point is, he’s abstaining because he got outplayed and embarrassed, not because of some sort of personal growth. And yet because people dislike Swift so much, they’re giving CH that credit he doesn’t deserve.
Jeeeze Bridget… Take your swiftness down a notch or… TEN. Nobody knows just who was planting all of the “leaked” BS stories. NO ONE. Most of the “stories” websights post are nothing but clickbait crap. The only true marker you should go by is what is posted on verified SM accts or actual interviews like what Newman gave. Not some webloid quoting some “insider or un-named friend”. P.S. I hear tumblr calling……………….
Wait, didn’t Calvin at first try to say Taylor was too needy and was talking about marriage and babies and he wasn’t ready? Then when she started dating Tom his entire story changed. That’s how I remember it anyway, seems like he tried to use her “needy” image against her then she made him look stupid by dating another man so soon and he changed his tune to make people feel sorry for him. All of this is incredibly childish on both sides, lol.
I am not into the take down of Taylor Swift. I hope he recovers quickly.
— after it emerged that Swift had ghost-written Harris’ hit “This Is What You Came For.” Fans discovered her involvement after Newman innocently tweeted his congrats on the song’s success to Harris, vocalist Rihanna and Swift — before deleting and reposting the message without mention of Tay. The revelation sparked a public spat between Harris and Swift over why she was uncredited.–
Oh, so it was Newman’s tweet that started the whole thing? Not Taylor’s camp? I wonder why the op still with the ‘Taylor slam Calvin’ narrative?
Why is it so hard to believe that Calvin was hurt by this abrupt break up? Maybe she was needy and wanted children and he wasn’t ready. So? All he said initially was there was “nothing but love and respect between two people.” Then the rebound heard round the world came out and he didn’t sit back and take it.
Good for him. He very well may be a bit immature, but It’s kind of obvious she’s a nightmare dressed as a daydaream. She’s just living up to her own hype.
Blessings and health to this young man. May he recover quickly.
“She’s a nightmare dressed as a daydream”
This.
I wish him well. Even a benign brain tumor can cause lots of harm.
These silly dramas exhaust me sometimes. Off topic, but I really like the striped t-shirt dress she’s wearing in the photo above.
Lets think about this. Either Taylor or Calvin or both decided it was not working and they split. happens thousands of times a day and not particularly brutal. Then John Newman put a tweet out congratulating Taylor Swift and Rihanna for the song. Calvin told John to take the tweet down as soon as he became aware of it. The tweet had already been seen by bloggers who already suspected the song had been written by Taylor. They ask Taylor’s people in in fact she did write it, they said yes. Calvin proved he should not be on twitter with many nasty rants. “I am not sure why he was so dead set in taking credit for a song he did not write” Also not sure what Miss Swift did that was so terrible.
According to recent medical statistics , brain tumours in the under 40’s is the only cancer that is on the increase. I can’t help but think it may be that generations constant mobile phone use is triggering it.
@KanyeKardashian. It’s not sexist. It’s how she comes across.