Conan Gray Explains Why Taylor Swift Is His 'Number One' in New Interview

Conan Gray called into Apple Music on Tuesday (April 7) to chat about his new album Kid Krow, his love for Taylor Swift and more.

"She's my number one. She's my number one above all," Gray told host Zane Lowe of the superstar. "She's just my songwriting icon, and I'll never understand how she does what she does. She's just amazing. She just recently, literally four days ago, put my song, 'Wish You Were Sober' on her Instagram Story. I literally lost my mind. She DM'd me afterwards. She was so, so sweet. She told me that my album was perfect, which I was like, 'Taylor, that's all you need to say. I can die now.'"

According to the rising pop star, the validation from his idol took him completely by surprise. "She never told me anything before. She never said anything to me. It just happened," he said. "I logged into my phone, and it was just everywhere. I was freaked. I hadn't reached out to her at all. She just popped in and just said, 'Hi,' and told me that my album was great. I weirdly, I wrote a paragraph so f--king fast. I wrote it so fast because there's so many things that I'd wanted to say to Taylor Swift my whole entire life. She raised me."

"My first YouTube video I ever watched was a Taylor Swift music video," he continued. "I just said everything I needed to say and I was like, 'Bye.' She's just incredible. What do you even say to Taylor Swift after she just tells you that your album is good? I don't know. You just say, 'Thanks. You're literally perfect.'"

During the chat, Gray also opened up about releasing his long-awaited debut LP in the midst of a global pandemic. "It's been interesting, just because I wasn't expecting to release the album out of my bedroom," he told Lowe. "But it was also kind of perfect in the sense that I wrote the whole album out of my bedroom, and so to release it in a time where all of us were in our bedrooms felt weirdly perfect. Obviously, the situation of the world is not perfect. I think if the album does anything in a sense of giving any catharsis for people who feel trapped in their spaces or feel lonely, I think that's like it's done everything it can possibly do."

Check out more from Gray's at-home Apple Music interview below.