It says a great deal about my detachment from the modern world that I had never heard of Travis Kelce. His name first came to my attention last week when it was announced that he had become engaged to the pop singer Taylor Swift. I then learned that he was a tight-end for the Kansas City Chiefs. I have no idea what a tight-end is – I’d assumed it was something to do with ducks, but apparently not – but I have heard of the Kansas City Chiefs, an American football team, so the big story is Taylor Swift is marrying tight-end Kelce Selce. Okay, then.
My ignorance of modern culture plumbed new depths when I managed to get into a conversation about Ms Swift, whereupon it dawned on me that I cannot name even one of her songs. I am quite sure I have heard her music, somewhere, somehow, but that’s as far as it goes.
I do realise that I am not exactly your typical ‘Swifty’, as Ms Swift’s fans are known. Her fans appear to be very young and very female and I might just feel slightly out-of-place at one of her shows, unless my motives were more akin to those of Gary Glitter. But am I really interested in the news that she is getting married?
Of course not, but I guess there are many millions of people who are. Although hardly anyone except for pensioners buys a newspaper these days, one must assume many of our seniors are fascinated by Taylor and Travis’s impending nuptials. And many others purchase the celebrity magazines like Hello! and (I had to use Google to find another) and OK! It’s all over the TV and radio news, too. Is there something inherently wrong and even mad about the fascination with the private lives of celebrities?
Well, I’m well above reading about all this celebrity tittle-tattle, except that when I delve a little deeper, maybe I’m not. As a self-admitted music obsessive, the lives of my favourite artists should be irrelevant and yet in ways that I had not particularly thought about I have some interest.
I followed the late Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s life throughout much of my own and read all about his mental health struggles. That took me into the realms of his private life and there can’t be a Brian Wilson book I haven’t read. I know about his upbringing, his wives, his aforementioned ill-health and obviously above all, I hope, his music. And speaking of his wives, after he married Melinda Ledbetter in 1995 he started making new music and touring the world. Whether it was for purely selfish reasons, I followed his marriage and subsequent music renaissance with great interest. When she died in 2024, I feared for him, given his fragile mental state and later dementia. He died earlier this year.
When Steely Dan genius Donald Fagen lost his wife Libby Titus in 2024, seven years after the death of his songwriting partner Walter Becker, I feared for him, too. Steely Dan remain my favourite band of all time and, again very selfishly, I crave new Steely Dan and Donald Fagen music. I feared that without both of those people in his life, that might be the end of his professional life. Hell, I felt sorry for a man I met for one fleeting moment back in 1974. But with music, isn’t there something that makes you feel you know someone, that lets you into their life and that you can be part of it? If I can feel that way about artists I love, why can’t others feel they know Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce?
Thinking about it, I was sad when Paul McCartney lost the love of his life Linda. What was that all about? The greatest musician of the 20th century, along with John Lennon, whose music I adore to this day and I am mourning the death of his wife? But I was doing exactly that. My feeling is that this is the human being in me.
Don’t we feel emotion when we hear about good and bad things happening to people we like and admire but do not know? A football manager loses his daughter to suicide, a cricket player loses his wife to cancer, a famous actor succumbs to dementia: are we not meant to care? I suppose my reaction to the impending union between Mr Kelce and Ms Swift is little more than a “good luck to you”, in some kind of distant way, but some people will feel genuinely happy. Can’t we just let them?
From my point of view, I suppose I will have to undo my sense of complete disbelief into how people give a toss about the lives of, say, the royal family because millions genuinely care. Many were worried about Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis and many more remain extremely concerned about King Brian’s continuing cancer treatment. Others celebrate the weddings and babies of more minor royals. Maybe this isn’t quite as mad as I thought it was, maybe it’s just that we care more about our fellow man and woman than we thought we did? There are much worse things going on in the world.
