Producer and musician Jack Antonoff has said his new song Hey Joe is not about Taylor Swift’s ex-partner Joe Alwyn, but is actually about his father.
Antonoff, 39, who was recently nominated for a producer of the year Grammy, has co-produced some of Swift’s most famous songs, including chart-topping single Anti-Hero.
He is the lead singer of American rock band Bleachers and, speaking about their upcoming self-titled album, which includes a track called Hey Joe, Antonoff put to bed apparent rumours the song is about The Favourite actor Alwyn.
He told The Guardian: “There’s a community of people that will be preeetty disappointed when they find out it’s a meditation on my father and his friends walking the Ho Chi Minh trail in their 60s.”
Pennsylvania-born performer, Swift, 33, was in a relationship with English actor Alwyn, 32, until earlier this year when the couple split after more than six years together.
Swift has now been linked to Kansas City Chief’s football player Travis Kelce and she has been spotted supporting him at NFL games, with him appearing in the crowd during one of her concerts in Argentina recently too.
Antonoff said his band’s upcoming album explores “tribute living”, a term he coined to describe living for a late loved one.
He said: “It was about a character – myself, when I was sort of stuck – who wants to find something outside of this living-in-tribute, where every move in one’s life is for the person who can’t be here.”
He added that he wanted to look outside of the grief he felt following the death of his sister Sarah and that he started writing “songs that were extremely present”.
“I started to see my writing not beyond, but in addition to, the lens of grief,” he said.
Antonoff recently married American actress Margaret Qualley, known for film Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and TV series Maid, and photos showed a guest list comprised of A-listers that included Swift.
Alongside his work with Swift, Antonoff has co-produced albums including Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd and The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language.
The Bleachers’ new album is slated for release in early 2024 .