Is Gracie Abrams' "Death Wish" About Taylor Swift? Aaron Dessner Weighs In
“I ruined your plans of some grand self-promotion.”
Even before its official release on Daughter From Hell, Gracie Abrams’ song “Death Wish” has been a hot topic among Taylor Swift fans. In the ferocious power ballad, Abrams takes aim at an impossibly charismatic manipulator, describing how they made themselves “bulletproof” in the eyes of the public, but it’s just a “faux fantasy” hiding a “evil” truth. Listeners have been going back and forth about the possible inspiration for the cutting lyrics since Abrams debuted the song live over a year before its official release, and now, her producer and Swift collaborator Aaron Dessner has clarified the true meaning.
Way back in March 2025, Abrams surprised her fans by performing a heartbreaking new song at a London concert. Before launching into “Death Wish” for the first time, Abrams explained that it was inspired by “a mega narcissist” that her friend had dated: “A sincere friend of mine was recently dating someone who kind of sucked. And I was listening to them talk about it a lot, and so this song is about that,” Abrams declared.
Despite this insight, many fans have interpreted the “Death Wish” lyrics to be about Abrams’ friend and collaborator Swift, citing several potential allusions to Swift lines. While Abrams has only ever expressed love and admiration for Swift, whom she joined as an opener for the Eras Tour, some choice lyrics do seem targeted.
“You poured the wine, there's poison in it,” Abrams sings, calling to mind the wine-fueled night she and Swift co-wrote their duet “Us.” Another line — “Your light of a million suns burns through people / And bridges and cities 'til ash covers ground” — could be a nod to the world-conquering success of Swift’s Eras Tour. Perhaps the most damning line involves Abrams revealing she has looked up to this person, but was turned off by their proclivity for feuds: “You're everything I'll never be, you live to look for enemies.”
Since its official release, “Death Wish” has been frequently compared to Olivia Rodrigo’s “The Grudge,” another confessional track that was widely rumored to be about a fallout with Swift. But despite all this speculation, the perfect mediator has squashed the theory. Aaron Dessner, who both produced “Death Wish” as well as tons of Swift’s own songs, definitively denied Swift was the inspiration for “Death Wish.”
“Definitely not,” Dessner told Billboard when asked about the Swift theory. “It was written at a time when [Abrams] was writing about a friend’s ex, being in a bad relationship. So it was kind of about that person, I think. I wouldn’t even actually know who that person was.”
Dessner’s explanation matches up with what Abrams told her fans about the song all the way back in early 2025 when she first unveiled it.
