Sombr reveals surprising advice Taylor Swift gave him on handling hate comments
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Sombr has opened up about his admiration for Taylor Swift and also shared the piece of advice he received from the pop icon on handling hate comments.
The 21-year-old singer, whose real name is Shane Michael Boose, recently gave an interview to ELLE, published on Tuesday, September 22, in which he talked about the moment when he learned that Swift called him “the future.”
Sombr thought Taylor Swift calling him 'the future' was AI
The 14-time Grammy Award winner, during her Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction speech, had reportedly said, “A lot of my late-night debates with my friends about the state of the music industry involve me saying very loudly, 'Sombr is the future, and he does it all on his own and he doesn’t need that AI! The kids are fine!’”
Recalling it, the young songwriter told the publication, “Just waking up to hearing she name-dropped me on the radio, I was like, ‘Huh, is this AI?’”
Sombr shares what Taylor Swift told him about dealing with hate comments
Later in the interview, Sombr praised Swift as he revealed, “One of the best pieces of advice the legend has given me, the person I look up to most, has given me. The amazing pop star. Is that if these hate comments go away, maybe you’re not at your peak anymore.”
“I think it’s a privilege to be receiving these and rise above it. Ever since she gave me that advice, it’s really changed my perspective and has helped,” the ‘Back to Friends’ hitmaker added.
Sombr says he now refrains from reacting to criticisms
But when Sombr was asked to address a 2025 incident that put him in a negative light after he allegedly inappropriately behaved in front of fans at one of his early shows, he simply replied, “I wouldn’t respond now.”
“I was a teenager when I was kind of just pushed into the spotlight. All of a sudden, this is one of my first instances of being hated on a larger scale. I thought I needed to defend myself,” he stated, referring to his then TikTok response.
Further explaining himself, Sombr called himself an “awkward kid” who does not “know what to do in weird moments. That video kind of woke me up.”
“I was like, ‘Wait, yeah, that is weird.’ If you still choose to look at me in a type of way because of that, so be it, but just know that that doesn’t represent me as a human. I plan to never say or do something that would even make someone uncomfortable again,” he told Elle.
