Taylor Swift memorializes Arizona boy at Phoenix-area concert
Aug 19, 2015, 3:59 PM | Updated: 8:37 pm
(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
PHOENIX — Superstar Taylor Swift honored the memory of an Arizona boy with cancer who inspired one of her songs at her Phoenix-area concert Tuesday.
Swift wrote the song “Ronan” after reading about Ronan Thompson, a boy who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a terminal pediatric cancer. He died just before his fourth birthday in 2011.
“She started reading my blog that I write, RockstarRonan.com, and she basically took the words from my blog and my very own words kind of about what we’ve gone through and she put them into a song for us,” Ronan’s mother, Maya, told KTAR News 92.3 FM after her son died.
Swift first performed the song at a 2012 “Stand Up to Cancer” telethon, but replayed it at her concert at Gila River Arena on Tuesday. Before she did, she told the audience a little about how Maya.
After the show, Maya and her guests were able to go back stage and greet Swift.
If you’ve never heard “Ronan” before, you can watch Swift sing it below. We have to warn you, though, it’s a bit of a tearjerker.
