Role Model wanted to sing a version of “Nothing New,” the melancholic Taylor Swift Red (Taylor’s Version) vault track that features Phoebe Bridgers, that he could do a little two-step to while screaming out the chorus — adding a dash of drunken coziness to Swift’s ruminating after a night of imbibing in a few too many. And so “Nothing New (Tucker’s Version)” was born, with Role Model debuting his live cover of Swift’s song on Australian radio station Triple J’s “Like a Version” series.
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“Standout song for me,” says Role Model, aka Tucker Harrington Pillsbury, in an accompanying interview clip with the station released on Thursday (March 13) while he’s on the road with his band, playing sold-out shows in Brooklyn and Boston this weekend and returning as opener on Gracie Abrams‘ Secret of Us Tour this summer.
He stumbled upon the Red-era song while working on his sophomore studio album, 2024’s Kansas Anymore.
As Role Model recalls, “I was constantly adding songs to my playlist, like a music inspo playlist, and this one I came across. I had no idea Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers were on a song together. I’m scared to say it, but I think Phoebe brought me into the Taylor Swift world — which is great.”
Watch Role Model’s Live Cover of “Nothing New”
“She’s incredible,” he says of Swift. “She’s one of the best songwriters of our generation.”
“Nothing New,” a song that didn’t make the cut on the original Red album in 2012 but resurfaced amidst the 2021 re-recording of the set, has Swift contemplating her shelf life as a promising young pop-country star; verses are traded with Bridgers, who also lends harmony to the chorus and bridge. Swift and Bridgers brought the song to the stage for the first time on May 5, 2023 in Nashville, the first of several nights the Punisher singer-songwriter joined the lineup of the The Eras Tour.
“I love the chorus and [how] it changes slightly every time,” says Role Model of “Nothing New,” explaining why he went where he did with his interpretation of the tune. “It just feels good, like, ‘I’ve had too much to drink tonight’ — I wanna scream it and dance to it. So that’s why we added drums and a little bit of twang to it. I wanted to bump up the tempo just a little bit, add drums and bring it into the world of Kansas Anymore. Just give it a little warmth and a slight dance-y groove, and some twang. We had the peddle steel come in. I just wanted to be able to do a slow two-step to it.”
Though “Nothing New” is written from the perspective of a girl in the spotlight worrying it’s only a matter a time before a fresher face takes her place (“People love an ingénue,” Swift remarks, a sad line with dry delivery, after Bridgers sings, “Are we only biding time ’til I lose your attention?”), Role Model can empathize with the lyrics as an artist.
“I have said this many times before,” he shares. “People’s attention spans are very short, and they’re getting shorter. I try not to bathe in the attention that I’m getting now in this place of my career, which is, I guess, probably, the best place I’ve been in my career. I try not to shower myself in that because I know people are gonna forget at some point or move on, and there’s gonna be a nice, shinier little Tucker that comes along and outdoes me. I get it. I relate to Miss Taylor.”
Role Model arrives at the 15th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards at The Wiltern on Feb. 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Jerod Harris/Getty Images
Role Model once met Bridgers at Coachella, but humbly assumes she doesn’t remember it. He hasn’t met Swift, though between this performance circulating and his tour with Abrams, he’s arguably now in the pop icon’s orbit, at least tangentially. An opener on Swift’s Eras Tour, Abrams ended up co-writing and recording the Grammy-nominated duet “us.” with her, a highlight on her The Secret of Us album.
Of his hope to meet Swift someday, Role Model, who in February released a few new songs (including “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out,” seen below) via deluxe album Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye), says, “I would love to. I would love to.”
For someone who didn’t really identify as a fan of Swift until “Nothing New,” he’s got a reasonable grasp on the power of Swifties. His polite plea to those who hear his cover: “Just don’t hate me. If you don’t like it, I understand. If you liked it, thank you so much — I’m honored. I’m scared of both of you in the best way, so go easy on me.”
“Send hearts,” he says with optimism, making the signature heart hands Swift’s fandom knows.