Joe Alwyn Addresses Theory He Inspired Taylor Swift’s ‘The Black Dog’

The first song Taylor Swift collaborated with her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwynthe ballad appears in the 2020s Folklore in duet with Good Iver. At the time of the album’s release, Joe was credited under the pseudonym William Bowery, although Taylor confirmed that William and Joe were one and the same during his Disney+ concert film, Folklore: Long Pond studio sessions.

Taylor revealed that Joe wrote the entire piano part, as well as singing: “I can see you standing there honey/With his arms around your body/Laughing but the joke ain’t funny at all.” She went on to say that the favorite actor was “always acting and inventing things and kind of creating things,” but the couple might never have worked together if not for the COVID-19 shutdown.

“I was like, ‘Hey, this might be really weird, and we might hate it,'” she explained, “‘Because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, Could we just try to see what it would sound like if we wrote this song together?'”

The result of their professional collaboration? Winning Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys.

“We are so proud of ‘Exile,’” Taylor exclaimed. “All I have to do is think up some lyrics and come up with a heartbreaking, heartbreaking story to write with him.”