Little Big Town Reveals Taylor Swift as ‘Better Man’ Songwriter

GRAMMY-winning group Little Big Town held a special press conference live from Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium Tuesday morning (Nov. 1).

During the event, which was broadcast live on the group’s Facebook page, LBT’s Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook, and Phillip Sweet spoke about some very exciting things, including their upcoming album and current single. During a Q&A with media, the group revealed that superstar Taylor Swift wrote “Better Man.”

“We’ve been telling you guys… some of you have been asking and we told you that there was a young girl from Nashville that wrote it by herself and it’s Taylor Swift,” explained Fairchild. “She sent us this song and it was one that was really special to her and she thought of us because of the harmonies. She’s never pitched a song to somebody before. The moment that we heard it, we were like ‘man, that is the song that we’re gonna cut.”

“Immediately, we all had the same reaction,” added Sweet. “We’ve always, through our whole career, any time we’ve had that reaction to a song, we knew it felt right. This one just felt special and we’ve known Taylor since she was in high school. She’s a dear friend of ours.”

Initially, the group wanted to keep the songwriting credits under wraps, so people had a chance to listen to the story without having any preconceived notions.

“We just played it for her when we finished it and she was really, really excited,” Fairchild continued. “We said ‘hey, we’re not just going to blab this that you wrote this immediately.’ She said, ‘you know what? That’s the greatest honor as a songwriter that you can give me is that you don’t want anyone to know that I wrote this.’ We knew that we would tell eventually, and it was a hard question to dodge for awhile, and the only reason we didn’t say is because we wanted you to hear the song for what it’s worth and it’s a beautiful song. And at her heart, she is biggest pop star in the world, but she’s a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. She likes to tell a story and we didn’t want you to have any subtext there other than to hear the song and we did that.”

“Better Man” is the lead single from the award-winning quartet’s forthcoming album. The song is available for purchase HERE.

Also announced during this morning’s press conference was the news that Little Big Town would help celebrate the 125th anniversary of The Ryman with a special “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” residency. This marks the first time that any artist has ever had a residency at the famed venue. LBT will play six nights, starting February 24, the day that their much anticipated new album, The Breaker, hits stores. Tickets for “Little Big Town at the Mother Church” go on sale Friday, November 4.

Fairchild explained that the band plans to invite special guests from all genres of music, as well as up-and-coming country artists, to join them at the shows.