Taylor Swift is returning to country radio for a new interview this weekend as she continues to publicly embrace her country roots.
Wayne D and Tay will sit down with Swift for the iHeartCountry House Party, airing Sept. 5 at 7 p.m., according to an announcement from Nashville country station 94.9 The Bull.
"🚨 TAYLOR SWIFT IS JOINING US! 🚨," the station shared on Instagram. "We’re talking all about 'I Knew It, I Knew You,' what it was like being part of Toy Story 5, and hearing how deeply the song has connected."
The first comment is whether it will be live or pre-taped with no answer.
Country music appears to be the primary focus of Swift's current promotional activity, and the singer-songwriter has talked extensively this year about the genre
that launched her career. Her latest single, "I Knew It, I Knew You," officially impacted country radio Aug. 28 and advanced to the second round of CMA Awards nominations for single of the year.
At an Aug. 18 Recording Academy conversation at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, Swift spoke directly about wanting to put more emphasis on those beginnings.
"I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get," Swift said. "And I want to honor them more and more. And I feel more tied and more loyal to them."
It was one of several times this year the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame to-be inductee has traced her songwriting back to country music and Music City. In an April video for The New York Times, she described country and folk storytelling as the first songwriting style she fell in love with, recalling how she studied songs by The Chicks and Kenny Chesney.
"That was the first thing that made me think, 'It's got to be country music,'" Swift said.
She also credited the Nashville songwriting community with teaching her the structure she still uses to tell stories across genres.
"I came up as a songwriter in Nashville, where structure is a huge part of how you effectively tell a story," she said.
Those comments have coincided with a tangible push into country music. Before releasing "I Knew It, I Knew You" in June, Swift invited select country radio programmers and on-air personalities to her family's Forest Hills home for a private listening session. The guitar-and-harmonica-tinged song later advanced to the second ballot for CMA single of the year and was promoted to country radio ahead of its Aug. 28 impact date.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Taylor Swift returns to country radio on Sept. 5 for new interview. How to listen.
