Jack Antonoff had no choice but to shake it off when a fan asked him to sign a poster referencing William Bowery, a.k.a. Taylor Swift‘s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
The funny encounter took place during a signing session at Rough Trade Berlin on Saturday, August 31. A fan approached Antonoff, 40, with a poster in the style of the “22” shirt that Swift, 34, wears during her performance. Eras tour and read the text aloud to him: “Who is William Bowery anyway?”
In response, Antonoff shrugged his shoulders and laughed: per X video. The fan later shared a photo of the autograph Antonoff gave her, which included the word “folklore.”
The Grammy winner was in Berlin for a Bleachers show on Friday, August 30 a Reddit posta fan in the audience held up a similar William Bowery sign during the concert, and Antonoff laughed again in response.
As Swift fans know, William Bowery was the alias Alwyn, 33, used when he collaborated with his ex-girlfriend on several songs from her albums Folklore, Always And Midnights. While fans speculated that Bowery was actually Alwyn, Swift only confirmed his identity in November 2020 when she spoke about it in the Disney+ documentary. Folklore: the long pond studio sessions.
“I came in and thought, ‘Hey, this could be really weird, and we could hate this.’ [but] Since we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, can we just try to see what it’s like when we write this song together?'” Swift said, adding that Alwyn wrote the “entire piano part” for “Exile” on Folklore. “He just sang it, like the whole first verse is… I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that.”
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn leave Zuma in New York City on October 6, 2019.
Jackson Lee/GC imagesBecause he is credited as a co-writer FolkloreAlwyn also took home a Grammy in 2021 when Swift won Album of the Year for the LP, which was co-produced by Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner.
While accepting the award, Swift gave a rare shout-out to her then-boyfriend. “Joe is the first person I play on every song I write, and I had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine,” she said at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in March 2021.
Despite his successful foray into songwriting, Alwyn said he didn’t expect more music compositions in his future. “It’s not my plan, no,” he said Elle magazine in April 2021 when asked if he would be interested in writing more songs.
Swift and Alwyn split in April 2023 after six years of dating. After a brief affair with The 1975’s Matty HealeySwift moved on with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Alwyn, meanwhile, sparked dating rumors The brutalist costar Emma Laird in March.