Exclusive:Oscar-winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice says he would turn town global pop phenomenon Taylor Swift if she asked him out because ‘every time she falls out with somebody the poor bloke gets slaughtered in her next song

Legendary lyricist Sir Tim Rice has joked that he would turn town global pop phenomenon Taylor Swift if she asked him out because ‘every time she falls out with somebody the poor bloke gets slaughtered in her next song’.

The 79-year-old, whose celebrated works include Evita, Chess and The Lion King, admitted that he gets ‘depressed’ by modern pop music.

The Oscar-winning lyricist gave a wide-ranging interview about the musicians, films and books that he loves – and the ones that he’s not so much of a fan of.

Sir Tim, who has written for musical theatre since the 1960s and is one of few to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award, is best known for his collaborations with Elton John and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

He spoke to The Times about how early rock’n’roll by the likes of Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly used to cheer him up in his early teen years.

But he added: ‘One of the things that depresses me today about a lot of pop music is that so many of these songs seem to be pretty miserable in a very ‘me me me’ way. I was listening to Traitor by Olivia Rodrigo — she’s a great singer and there’s some great musicianship, but you think, “They sound really unhappy.”

‘And Taylor Swift: every time she falls out with somebody, the poor bloke gets slaughtered in the next song. In the unlikely event that Taylor Swift asked me out, I would say no.’

Fortunately for Sir Tim, the 34-year-old Swift is in a high-profile relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce – who has confirmed he will be supporting the pop star on her Eras Tour in Europe this summer.

The couple have been all but inseparable since Swift returned to the States having completed the Australia and Asia legs of her monster Eras Tour last month and recently came back from a sun-filled vacation on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera.

Pictures showed them totally at ease and enjoying time together on the beach.

Sir Tim’s remarks come as Swift officially reached billionaire status on Tuesday. She climbed to fourteenth place on the Forbes 2024 rich list after amassing a $1.1billion fortune.

Away from Swift, Sir Tim also declared PG Wodehouse as his favourite author, revealing that the Jeeves and Wooster novels influenced him and Lloyd Webber’s work.

He said his favourite piece of music was Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony which he described as ‘typically Scandinavian and slightly chilling, but very warm on the inside.’

Sir Tim also opened up about the lyric he wished he had written which was Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran.

The lyricist described the music as ‘a wonderful rock’n’roll song with a very clever, witty lyric about life as a pissed-off teenager.