Originally appeared on E! Online
Marc Maron said goodbye, goodbye to a chunk of change.
The podcast host shared how much it cost him to use Taylor Swift’s ballad “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” in his upcoming comedy special — “Marc Maron: Panicked” — as the song plays a big part in ending his stand-up routine.
“I think it came out to $50K, around that,” Maron explained on Vulture’s “Good One” podcast July 25. “I did everything I could to get the joke in front of her.”
While the 61-year-old knew he had to have the song in his show, he wasn’t quite sure how to secure the rights, so he reached out to Swift’s friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff.
“I know Jack Antonoff enough to text him, and he’s the co-writer on that song,” Maron added. “I said, ‘I don’t know what’s proper or how to do this, but we’re running out of money on this thing. It’s probably going to come out of my pocket. Is there anything you can do about this song or talk to Taylor?’”
READ: Taylor Swift Supports Travis Kelce in Happy Gilmore 2 With Cheeky Nod to His Shirtless Honey Scene
Antonoff suggested he go through the proper channels and see what happened there — and luckily for the comedian, it worked out, even with the $50,000 price tag for using less than a minute of the track.
“It was doable,” he said of the cost. “We made enough money. It was tight, but because of the ticket sales for the special, we were able to get that song.”
But for Maron, it was worth it to be able to use the heartbreaking song, which was originally a bonus track on Swift’s 2022 album “Midnights.”
“My relationship with that song, and just the fact that I’m playing it on my phone,” he said. “It had to happen.”
And he’s not the only one who has been adamant about having a Swift song in their project, as author Jenny Han personally reached out to the 35-year-old about using her music in Amazon’s adaptation of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
“I wrote a letter. I wrote her like a handwritten note,” she shared on the “Open Book” podcast in January. “And then I just said how much it would mean, not just to me, but I thought to the fans.”
She added, “That was the gift I really wanted to give, because I’m like, ‘They’re gonna go crazy.’ And then we were so lucky to get more than one.”
PHOTOS: Taylor Swift, 2019 American Music Awards
