On her last album, Taylor Swift was inspired by her birth year, 1989. But on her just-released, internet-breaking new single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” she’s partying like it’s 1991. Pop-savvy fans of a certain age may be surprised to see three names alongside Swift and Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff in the song’s credits: Richard Fairbrass, Fred Fairbrass, and Rob Manzoli.

Yes, the guys from Right Said Fred.

Right Said Fred today (Photo courtesy of A Badge of Friendship PR) More

“Look What You Made Me Do” interpolates, albeit subtly, the verse of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy,” and now the trio’s catwalk-strutting ’90s dance hit has been, quite out of the blue, introduced to an entire new generation. And the trio’s singer, Richard Fairbrass, is as surprised as anyone else.





Yahoo caught up with the famously shirt-eschewing frontman over the phone from his home in England to discuss how it feels to be a new member of Swift’s squad, his thoughts on cases like the “Blurred Lines” lawsuit, and if he’ll ever hop onstage with Taylor when Right Said Fred release new music and tour the States in the coming months.

Yahoo Music: I think lots of people were surprised to see your names in the songwriting credits. The obvious first question is, how did this come about?

Richard Fairbrass: Well, they approached us a while ago, and they didn’t have any real details because they were, understandably, very nervous about stuff getting leaked on the internet and gossip going around and killing the moment for them. So they were quite cagey about what they were going to do. But basically, they said they’d like to work with the track, and we let them get on with it! We weren’t very paranoid about it, to be honest. And I completely understood their unwillingness to be open about it or when they were going to release it. So I didn’t hear the track until this morning! I heard it along with everybody else.

What did you think of the song?

Well, what I really liked, the first thing that got me, were the lyrics. I thought the lyrics were really interesting. Not fluffy, a little bit dark and cynical and angry. It seemed to me that she was drawing a line under her past: “That was the old me.” And there’s a thing in the song about how she’s “dead” and that kind of stuff. She’s obviously addressing things in the past that have bugged her, and it seems to be that the song is declaring her intent to move on. I like that it was not all “I want your body, baby” and all that nonsense.

That’s ironic, because I think a lot of people think of “I’m Too Sexy” being an “I want your body, baby” kind of song…

I know they do. That’s partly our fault. When you’re a kid, you don’t know what you’re doing. You have no clue about how what you do will be interpreted in 10 or 20 years’ time. If I’d known the consequence of taking my shirt off in that video, I would not have done it! It’s a bit like Jim Morrison, who did something even more extreme at a gig, and then was confronted with the expectation of doing it at every show!

Do you think “Look What You Made Me Do” will introduce Right Said Fred to new fans?

Yes, it’s good, because a song like “Sexy” — despite its sales — has been slammed by people who think that it’s not cool. That it’s not a “serious” song, so it can be easily dismissed. What Taylor has done is remind people that maybe there’s more content to it than they imagined. That’s what pleases me.

Artists interpolating other artists’ songs has become a hot topic. No one wants to end up in a “Blurred Lines”-style legal battle. Do you think Taylor gave you credit as a preventive measure, to make sure you wouldn’t sue?