Susan Lang, the mother of Jeffrey Lang, is speaking out after Taylor Swift’s new song “Ruin the Friendship” sparked speculation that it’s about her late son.
“Anytime Swift would write a song, Jeffrey Lang was the first to hear it,” Susan told The Tennessean in October 2025. So when she first listened to “Ruin the Friendship” from Swift’s 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl, she immediately recognized the story being told. “That after all this time, she hasn’t forgotten about him,” Susan shared. “She’s keeping his name alive.”
The song, a standout track on the new album, finds Swift revisiting her teenage years in Middle Tennessee. She reflects on a friendship she wishes had turned romantic, singing about “glistening grass from September rain” and driving “85 / Gallatin Road and the lakeside beach / Watching the game from your brother’s jeep / Your smile miles wide.” In the chorus, she confesses that she should have kissed her friend, even though there “was not an invitation.”
Although Jeffrey isn’t mentioned by name, fans quickly began to connect the dots — and Susan agrees it’s about him. Taylor and Jeffrey grew up together in Hendersonville, and their bond was special.
“They were really good friends. That’s rare these days. They hung out at her house a lot. They were always joking around with each other,” Susan recalled to the outlet. She even added that she wasn’t sure if Jeffrey ever felt the same way romantically toward the now-global superstar, but the friendship was undeniable.
Tragically, Jeffrey died suddenly in November 2010 at age 21, just days after Swift released her album Speak Now. At the 2010 BMI Awards in Nashville, where Swift was honored as Country Songwriter of the Year, she publicly thanked Jeffrey and spoke about his death. In “Ruin the Friendship,” Swift recounts hearing the news from her close friend Abigail Anderson Berard: “Goodbye / And we’ll never know why,” she sings, followed by the heartbreaking line, “But I whispered at the grave, Should’ve kissed you anyway.”
Hearing the song for the first time brought back a wave of emotions for Susan Lang. Her immediate instinct was to reach out to Taylor to express her gratitude. “Her first thought was that she wished she could contact Swift to thank her for the song,” the article noted.
