Taylor Swift: Jay Z Helped Kanye and Me Make Peace

Sometimes, Taylor Swift says she gets an idea for a song in her head in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep until it’s done. The same thing happened with her infamous letter to Apple.

The singer shared the story behind her industry shaping message that got Apple Music to compensate artists during its three-month trial period in an interview with Vanity Fair, whose cover she graces for the September issue. She says she only consulted one person before posting the letter online: her mom.

Swift also shared details about how she came to be on good terms with Kanye West after he interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. “I feel like I wasn’t ready to be friends with [West] until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me, and he wasn’t ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me,” she said. Swift befriended Jay Z, and it was important to him to have Swift and West on better footing, she explained. “And then Kanye and I both reached a place where he would say really nice things about my music and what I’ve accomplished, and I could ask him how his kid’s doing.”

Read more at Vanity Fair.