More than 18 years after witnessing an up-and-coming artist named Taylor Swift perform at a nightclub in the Pacific Northwest, country star and “American Idol” judge Luke Bryan still vividly remembers being blown away by her.

During a lengthy chat on the “Club Random with Bill Maher” podcast, released on February 2, 2025, Bryan, 48, stood up for Swift when Maher repeatedly said he didn’t “get” her appeal. Bryan quipped that Swift’s music isn’t meant for Maher, 69, and noted that her massive popularity and sold-out Eras tour have been “incredible” to watch unfold.

Luke Bryan Says He Knew Taylor Swift Would Be a Massive Star in 2006

Swift’s meteoric rise to fame is no surprise to Bryan. As he tried to explain why Swift is so popular, he recalled the moment he knew that Swift was about to become a major star: at a nightclub on Halloween night nearly 20 years ago in the Pacific Northwest.

The details of his story can be traced back to Halloween night in 2006. At the time, he said he was traveling around the U.S. visiting radio stations before his first single “All My Friends Say,” which was released in January 2007. Swift, meanwhile, was promoting her first single, “Tim McGraw,” which had been released that June.

“So, I was going on a radio tour for my first single,” Bryan told Maher. “I had to fly up and be at a radio station up in the northwest. First time I’d ever been to the northwest, and it was just beautiful, just gorgeous. You know, the two volcanic mountains in the background? My ass was fired up to be up there.”

“Well, I go to this little nightclub,” he continued, explaining that he attended a showcase concert put on by the radio station he was visiting. “It’s Halloween night. And my first single, ‘All My Friends Say’ had not come out on the radio (yet). But I just went to go see a concert and Taylor Swift was on this — Halloween night — she was on this radio show. And I had just heard this song, ‘Tim McGraw’ for the first time. It was interesting to me when I heard that song.”

When Maher expressed how confusing it was that she wrote a song named after another country star, Bryan said, “Man, she crushed it with that song.”

“So, I’m standing there at that bar,” he continued, “and the radio station brings her out and I see her play for the first time. And she’s got an angel costume on with little butterfly wings and her little sparkly guitar and, like, a little halo. And I was sittin’ there watching this girl sing and man, I was like, ‘That — that may be the biggest star I’ve ever seen.’”

Shocked, Maher asked, “You knew right then?”

“Right then,” Bryan asserted, “’cause she just had it.”

Luke Bryan Says Taylor Swift Was the Best at Connecting With Fans on Social Media in Her Early Days of Fame

After Bryan’s story, Maher admitted to one song he likes by Swift, “Sparks Fly,” originally released in 2010 on her “Speak Now” album.

“Hell yeah you do,” Bryan said. “She got you on that one. So that’s all it takes!”

But Maher protested, “Well it’s not all it takes, because obviously I’ve heard the other ones.”

“Oh God,” Bryan said, rolling his eyes, as Maher tried to remember one other song he liked after attending one of her concerts.

“But really, there’s a lot of singing on a roof with moss,” Maher said, dissing one of the sets in Swift’s elaborate Eras Tour concerts.

“Listen, right after I saw her in that Halloween show,” Bryan said, “You know, the word on the street was she was out there talking to all her fans on socials.”

Bryan had noted previously that social media was a new phenomenon around the time he and Swift’s first singles were released, which allowed artists to interact with the fans.

“Nobody ever did it more than her,” he told Maher. “She earned every — she worked her butt off and earned those fans.”

When Maher admitted Swift seems like a good “human” and positive role model, Bryan nodded emphatically and said that it’s laughable that the “worst” anyone can say about her is that she’s had multiple boyfriends.

“The only thing people can say about her is she’s had boyfriends?” he exclaimed, “and then she goes and lands Travis Kelce and then it’s like, ‘Oh my god!’”

“Listen, do you know why Taylor Swift is that big? Man, when she first started, it was right when social media (began), where you could talk to your fans.