“I Thought I Was A Made Artist”: Charlie Puth Has Reacted To Taylor Swift Saying He Should Be A “Bigger Artist” In One Of Her Songs

For reference, much of TTPD is believed to be about Taylor's controversial relationship with British singer Matty Healy, who she started publicly dating less than a month after she ended her six-and-a-half-year romance with Joe Alwyn.

Taylor and Matty were only together for a matter of weeks before, TTPD suggests, he ghosted her. However, Taylor’s songs also appear to confirm that she and Matty had actually been in an on-again, off-again situationship of sorts since 2014.

The Tortured Poets Department’s title track is among those believed to be about Matty, and appears to give listeners an insight into the time they spent together in Taylor’s apartment when they were dating. 

Neither Taylor nor Matty have a connection to Charlie, who first broke into the mainstream back in 2015 thanks to his hit collaboration with Meghan Trainor, “Marvin Gaye.”

That same year, Charlie wrote, co-produced, and was featured on “See You Again,” a tribute to Paul Walker that was also included on the Furious 7 soundtrack. The song was a huge success and was nominated for several awards, including three Grammys. 

"These last couple weeks have been really crazy for obvious reasons,” he wrote at the time. "This is a song I wrote about my friend called 'Hero.’ Sometimes I get a little nervous being overly honest in my music which is why this was sitting on my hard drive for awhile."

"But I think someone out there was giving me a sign that I needed to release it,” Charlie pointedly added. “So.... I Declare 'Hero' will be out everywhere on May 24th as the first single of my new album. Thank you for your support... You know who you are."

“Are you like: ‘Wait, I thought I was a big artist, Taylor?’” the hosts asked, to which Charlie responded: “I thought I was a made artist.”

“But I appreciate the compliment,” he quickly added. “I take it as a compliment.”

Charlie said that he met a friend for lunch who had heard an early leak of the album and told him that Taylor had mentioned him. Charlie said: “My brain immediately went to ‘Oh, like in an interview or something. That’s cool. I love Taylor Swift.'”

When he realized it was in a song, the star prepared to find out that it was fake. Charlie remembered thinking: “I’m going to wake up tomorrow and it was just a big joke that someone was playing on me because someone thinks I shouldn’t be a bigger artist, so get the biggest artist since the Beatles to say that I should be a bigger artist. Ha ha ha.”

But when the album was released, Charlie heard the song for the first time while brushing his teeth. He told Rolling Stone: “My first thought was, like: ‘Wow. She said my name.’ She kind of said it like P-O-O-T-H. And I just cried, dude.”