Having watched global capitalism look like it might almost meltdown during the early days of last week, the idea of conversing with a 21-year-old multi-millionairess seemed very sensible indeed; so I took myself and my camera guy to Chicago to talk to Taylor Swift.
If you haven't heard of Taylor Swift, you've probably been spending too much time stockpiling weapons and burying gold in your backyard. Go on, get out a little more. A country star originally, Swift sold more albums last year than any artist in any genre.
She is currently on a world tour that will take her to New Zealand in March. Do you know where you'll be on a certain day of a certain month next year? Taylor Swift does.
She's a monstrous talent, a multi-instrumentalist who has a youth's belief that life can be lived in public.
After being misused by famous dirtbag, musician John Mayer, she did what any girl who has the ear of America would do; she wrote a song called 'Dear John' that essentially anoints him as the King of the Douchebags. Now that's revenge.
So I felt a little afraid of Taylor, as we lingered met in her T-Party room, a place that she has created for fans to meet her after the show.
I'm not convinced that the similarity between the phrase "T-Party" and "Tea Party" the right wing rump of the Republican party that is so vocal and prominent now has been lost on Taylor's team.
The values of her songs are conservative, but spunky, a kind of post feminist strut. Later a teenager would tell me, without irony, that Taylor had given her 'girl power'.
Adding, or taking irony away from any exchange is also a way of controlling it.
The room reminded me I was here on Taylor's terms. Decorated by herself, it's a shrine to the lengths to which clever musicians must go to nowadays ensure that the experience of being a fan is textured, intimate, and personal.
The last three values may have something to do with Taylor Swift's popularity, and her immense wealth. Later I met teenagers who had dressed as teacups (T-cups to join the T-party, geddit?) to get into that room.
Even later still they made my ears bleed with their piercing screams.
When they saw me, hunched over, grimacing and crippled by their adoration, they nudged their friends and made pitying faces.
I like to appear diffident and above such nonsense, but as usual -in the T-Party room- my brain was playing the requisite static it plays before a celebrity interview. Will she be in a good mood? Will she be playful, or self-important? If things go poorly, will she write a song about me?
Then, as per all such stars, there was a change in the room's atmosphere, signified by a rustling and activity on the periphery. A tall slim young woman appeared. Hello Taylor.
The answers to my brain's queries? She was. She was playful, but serious; happy to do her version of a NZ accent, then a British one. As to the possibility of a song 'Dear Tim', well, let's see.
Taylor Swift talked candidly about the things she worried about, about the thousand details that go through her head before a show, about her fear that this time will pass so quickly, and be lost forever.
She knows that being 21 is unique, and that being 21 and the CEO of Taylor Swift Inc. has risks.
Time passes (yes) swiftly, and will never return. She told me she made decisions based on how the 85-year-old Taylor would evaluate the results; a policy that seems at once wise, and sad.
What's fascinating is that no matter how much Taylor Swift presents herself to her audience as an ordinary person, both via me, and later on stage; it's clear that by any measure, she's not.
She's both unique, and enigmatic. She seemed to be figuring out how to be the absolute best she could be at everything. That's what's made her the artist she is, and the businesswoman too. I'm not convinced it makes her happy, or if she's even interested in common happiness.
Perhaps that's the difference between those extraterrestrials we call 'stars', and us, the people who look up to them, and pay for this privilege.
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