Taylor Swift Reveals Death Threats
Taylor Swift is undoubtedly one of the most famous faces in music, perhaps in all of pop culture, but that fame comes with a price. The 24-year-old admits that she had to get 24-hour security after several men threatened her and her family.
"I fought the idea of having security for a very long time, because I really value normalcy," she tells Esquire magazine. "I really do. I like to be able to take a drive by myself. Haven't done that in six years."
Swift says it wasn't until she realized her life, and the lives of the ones she loves, were at stake that she finally hired extra protection.
"Because just the sheer number of men we have in a file who have showed up at my house, showed up at my mom's house, threatened to either kill me, kidnap me, or marry me," she explains. "This is the strange and sad part of my life that I try not to think about. I try to be lighthearted about it, because I don't ever want to be scared. I don't want to be walking down the street scared. And when I have security, I don't have to be scared."
The perennially happy songstress vows to not let the constant security presence derail her day-to-day living, or her encounters with friends and fans.
"I just have to wake up in the morning and say, 'How am I feeling today?'" she notes. "If someone asks for a picture, am I gonna feel imposed upon today because I'm dealing with my own stuff? Am I gonna take my own stuff out on some innocent 14-year-old today and be in a bad mood?"
"I try really hard not to take bad days out on other people," she continues. "Because I will get asked for an autograph, and I will get asked for a picture, and there will be someone with their cell phone filming me at a restaurant. If I'm not in the mood for that, I just kind of stay in. And that's fine. Those days don't happen very often. I try really hard to keep it light. Joy, enthusiasm, excitement -- those are sort of my chief attributes."
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