It’s a weird kind of immortality, being the subject of a timeless song.

12 celebrities who inspired hit songs — and how they feel about them now

It's a weird kind of immortality, being the subject of a timeless song.

and Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications.

EW's editorial guidelines

June 19, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Dave Coulier; Carmen Electra; John Mayer. Credit:

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty; Lizeth Ramirez/Getty; Valerie Terranova/WireImage

When you date a musician, you run the risk of becoming the subject of a song — for better or for worse. And when you're a celebrity, that math is a little riskier because there's a good chance *everyone* will know that song is about you. Hopefully, you end up with a beautiful ballad and not a banger about your breakup.

Just ask Carmen Electra, who recently opened up to ** about her relationship with the late Prince and the song he wrote about her. According to the *Scary Movie* star, "everyone knows" that "I Hate U," from the album *The Gold Experience*, was written about her.

Although it's a diss track, Electra says, "I actually have always loved that song because he's really saying, 'I love you. That's why I hate you. I hate you so I love you.'"

Countless songs have been written about specific celebrities, several of which have become infamous ("You're So Vain," anyone?). Given that some celebs would prefer to keep their private life a little more private, we're not always privy to reactions like Electra's. Luckily, when it comes to these 12 celebrities, we know exactly what they think about the famous songs they inspired.

Warren Beatty

Warren Beatty at the 2016 San Diego International Film Festival.

Vivien Killilea/Getty

Carly Simon's 1973 hit "You're So Vain" fueled speculation about its unnamed subject for *years*, though many suspected that she was singing about Warren Beatty. The actor was known to be something of a cad back in his heyday, before he married Annette Bening.

Simon's lyrics — "You're so vain / You probably think this song is about you" — read like a coy dare to anyone bold enough to claim the song is about them, which Beatty did in 2007. "Let's be honest," Beatty told the *Express*, "That song is about me."

The musician finally addressed the mystery in a 2015 interview with PEOPLE. "I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren." In keeping with the song's theme, she added, "Warren thinks the whole thing is about him!"

Dave Coulier

Dave Coulier on NBC's TODAY on Nov. 13, 2024.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Rumors that Alanis Morissette's searing "You Oughta Know" being about* Full House* star Dave Coulier, whom the singer dated in the early '90s, have been so persistent that there's an entire *Curb Your Enthusiasm* episode built around them.

Morissette has never confirmed Coulier as the song's subject — she said "about six people" have "taken credit for it" in 2019 — but Coulier himself certainly thinks their relationship informed the breakup anthem's lyrics.

In 2022, the comedian recalled his first listen to *Jagged Little Pill*, which featured "You Oughta Know" as its lead single. “I went to the record store, bought the CD, and I went and I parked on a street, and I listened to the whole record,” he said. "I thought, ‘Ooh, I think I may have really hurt this woman.’”

Carmen Electra

Carmen Electra at the Intuit Dome on May 16, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif.

Lizeth Ramirez/Getty

While promoting her cameo in *Scary Movie* (2026), Carmen Electra took a moment to reflect on her relationship with the late pop icon Prince, who she claims penned his song "I Hate U," about her. According to Electra, "everyone knows [it was] written about me." In

"I Hate U" was the lead single from Prince's 1995 album *The Gold Experience. *In it, he sings about how he "never thought that you would be the one."

Despite its incendiary lyrics, Electra embraces the song. "I actually have always loved that song because he's really saying, 'I love you. That's why I hate you. I hate you so I love you.' You know what I mean? It just is so deep to me, because I think it's probably the first time he publicly said 'I love you' to me."

Taylor Lautner

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Taylor Swift will be the first to tell you she's got a long list of ex-lovers, and she's written songs about several of them — including Taylor Lautner. The *Twilight* star dated Swift in 2009 and was the rumored inspiration behind her song "Back to December," on the 2010 album *Speak Now*.

In an interview that same year, Swift said it was the first time she'd apologized to someone in a song. "This is about a person who was incredible to me. Just perfect to me in our relationship,” Swift explained. “And I was really careless with him. So this is a song full of words that I would say to him, that he deserves to hear.”

Lautner confirmed that "Back to December" was about him in 2016, during a Facebook Live appearance with his *Scream Queens *costars Lea Michele and John Stamos. "Didn’t she write a song about you?" Michele prodded, to which Lautner coyly replied, "That’s what she does. She writes songs."

Michele joked, "I think it was the one about a sweater and a hat, right?" prompting Lautner to clarify, "It’s called ‘Back to December.’"

John Mayer posts 'please be kind' message ahead of Taylor Swift's *Speak Now* re-release

Temporary rock stars: The best celeb portrayals of musicians in videos

Josh Groban at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles.

Frazer Harrison/Getty

When Katy Perry released "The One That Got Away" in 2010, many speculated that the song was about Josh Groban, who dated the pop star in 2009. Perry didn't confirm it until 2017, when she referred to her fellow musician and former beau as "the one that got away" during a livestream ranking of her exes.

Groban responded during an appearance on *Watch What Happens Live* in 2018. "I was not expecting that," the singer said to host Andy Cohen. "That was a double take and a spit of my coffee when I saw that."

"It’s very sweet of her to say that. I’m very flattered by it. But I was very surprised by it too," Groban continued, before admitting that he initially questioned whether the song was really about him. "I never owned a Mustang. I don’t have a tattoo. Are you sure that’s about me?"

David Harbour

Lily Allen and David Harbour on June 10, 2024, in New York City.

Sean Zanni/WireImage

In 2025, Lily Allen released *West End Girl*, an album that appeared to take aim at her ex, *Stranger Things* actor David Harbour. In October of that year, the English pop star told *The Times* that while the stories spun in her lyrics aren't "all true," she added that "there are definitely things I experienced within my relationship that have ended up on this album."

The lyrics find Allen labeling an ex as "sex addict" who led a "double life" and "went astray" during their relationship.

In a June 2026 interview with *Variety*, Harbour was diplomatic when asked about the album. "It was weird," he said. "I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that."

He added, "Stories are complex. And that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience."**

Nick Jonas at a 'Power Ballad' screening on May 19, 2026, in New York City.

Steve Eichner/Variety via Getty

Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus dated for two and a half years before breaking up in 2008, the same year that Cyrus released the breakup anthem "7 Things."

In a 2018 interview with BBC Radio 1's *Breakfast Show*, Jonas finally addressed rumors that the track was about him. Though Cyrus "never directly" confirmed it to Jonas, he revealed that the dog tag she wears in the music video was a gift from him.

"I was actually flattered, to be honest," Jonas added. "It's there forever, and I know it's about me."

Cyrus confirmed it in a 2021 post on Instagram celebrating the 13th anniversary of "7 Things." She tagged Jonas in a photo of the two of them, with his face covered up with a cartoon drawing, and an excerpt from her memoir, *Miles to Go*: "I was angry when I wrote '7 Things.' I wanted to punish him, to get back at him for hurting me. It starts with a list of what I 'hate.' But I'm not a hater. My heart knew from the start that it was going to turn into a love song."

Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal performing as No Doubt on May 1, 2015, in New Orleans. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

It's common knowledge among No Doubt fans that "Don't Speak," the ballad from the So-Cal band's 1995 breakout album *Tragic Kingdom*, is about Gwen Stefani's breakup with bassist Tony Kanal. As Stefani revealed in a 2010 interview with *The Independent*, the original version was "more upbeat, more of a ’70s rock-type thing" featuring lyrics about her happy relationship.

But when Kanal broke up with Stefani, they had to revise the song. "Eric and I went into the garage, stubbornly and very irritated about the situation, and sat down and rewrote the verses and lyrics," Stefani said, referring to her brother and former bandmate Eric Stefani.

“We had so many different versions of that song prior to the one we had recorded for *Tragic Kingdom,*” Kanal told *American Songwriter* in October 2024. “We had been playing different versions of that song at shows during those years. What you hear is probably like the third or fourth version of it."

“We just kept working on it," Kanal continued. "I think when Gwen and I were breaking up, the lyrics then became just about our breakup. Because it was so real, and we were living it.”

John Mayer in New York City on Aug. 18, 2025.

Valerie Terranova/WireImage

John Mayer's many famous exes include Katy Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Simpson, and Taylor Swift, the latter of whom allegedly wrote her 2010 hit "Dear John" about the "Gravity" singer. "Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?" Swift croons in the song.

Mayer was candid when discussing the song with *Rolling Stone* in 2012. “It made me feel terrible,” he said. “Because I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.” He went on to call it "cheap songwriting."

When asked about the aforementioned lyric about the singer being "too young to be messed with," Mayer replied, "I don't want to go into that."**

Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks in New York City on Nov. 16, 2024.

Taylor Hill/WireImage

It was heartbreak that fueled Fleetwood Mac's 1977 landmark album *Rumours*, which was inspired in part by the breakup between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

Buckingham wrote the hit single "Go Your Own Way" about Nicks, who objected to particular lyrics in the song. “I very, very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do,” she told *Rolling Stone* in 1997. “He knew it wasn’t true. It was just an angry thing that he said. Every time those words would come out onstage, I wanted to go over and kill him."

Nicks, meanwhile, channeled the breakup into "Dreams," which she later described as a counterpart to "Go Your Own Way."

"I can just go right back to what pushed me toward writing those words," she recalled to *The New Yorker* in 2022. "And I always laugh because Lindsey [Buckingham]’s 'Go Your Own Way' and my 'Dreams' are, like, counter songs to each other. I’m, like, 'When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know,' and he’s, like, 'Packing up, shacking up’s all you want to do.' Both songs kind of mean the same thing — it’s really about our breakup. He’s looking at it from a very unpleasant, angry way, and I’m saying, in my more airy-fairy way, we’re gonna be all right. We’ll get through this."**

Britney Spears

Britney Spears at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 28, 2016, in New York City.

Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake's highly publicized relationship began in 1999 and ended three years — and one notorious set of matching denim outfits — later. After their breakup in 2002, Timberlake released the single "Cry Me a River," along with the infamous music video featuring a blonde woman who conspicuously resembles Spears (and even has a similar tattoo).

Though Timberlake never addressed the specific inspiration for the song, Spears said she basically gave him permission to release the video. "He called me up and asked me if it was okay. I can't believe I'm telling you this right now. But who cares," she confessed to *Rolling Stone* in 2003.

"He called me up and wanted to supposedly get back together or whatever, but behind it was, 'And by the way, you're in a video that's coming out.' That kind of got slipped in. 'Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal.' So the record label called and said, 'If you want to change this, you can.' I had the power to say no to the video. But I didn't, because I thought, 'Hey, it's your video.'"

Spears added that she wasn't aware of the music video's actual contents and hadn't seen it prior to release. "Then it came out, and I said, 'I should’ve freakin’ said no to this s--t!'" she explained. "So he got what he wanted. I think it looks like such a desperate attempt, personally."

Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen at the 2024 Green Carpet Fashion Awards in West Hollywood.

Frazer Harrison/Getty

John Legend's "All of Me," from the 2013 album *Love in the Future*, is famously dedicated to his wife, model and host Chrissy Teigen. The musician and the model met in 2007 and got married in 2013, a couple of weeks after the album was released.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

"The first line of it is 'What would I do without your smart mouth,' so if that's not about me I don't know what is," Teigen told *The Huffington Post* in 2013. "I did cry when I heard it. I'm emotional, but like I don't really cry at things like that so yeah, it was beautiful. And live it's pretty unreal."

- Celebrities & Creators

- Celebrity Dating & Relationships

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Celebrity”