TORONTO - An aspiring Canadian musician has caught the eye of Taylor Swift, one of country music's hottest stars, by buying a billboard ad in Nashville and asking for her help.
Twenty-one-year-old Ryan Laird of Fergus, Ont., moved to Nashville in the hopes of kickstarting his music career but quickly found out that the city is full of musicians all hoping and competing for stardom.
So he took a gamble and spent his "life savings" on a billboard that read "Hey Taylor, I LOVE your music. Will you produce my album? -- Ryan," and provided his MySpace address.
"It can be a hard town to try and get noticed, there's so much creative talent," Laird said in a telephone interview.
"I just got to thinking in my sleep one night, what a crazy idea but why not just go for it."
He also went online and started his own viral marketing campaign, posting videos on YouTube and on Swift fan sites.
Swift did see the billboard and gave Laird some gushing praise during a television interview -- and even called him "cute."
"I definitely want to meet him ... I listened to one of his songs and absolutely fell in love with it, and I think he's got great melodies and he's a great writer," Swift told "E! News Weekend."
"I think he could really be great and be huge, so it'll be really cool to maybe work with him."
Laird said he was blown away and broke down when he saw the interview.
"I was just ecstatic, tears came to my eyes," he said.
"You work so hard to get your music out there and then to hear her say she thought I was really talented and she definitely wants to meet with me and maybe work together -- it was just a great feeling and I definitely can't wait to meet her."
Laird wouldn't say exactly how much the billboard cost him, only that it was "a lot" and that the advertising company gave him a deal since they liked his story.
"It wasn't cheap but I needed an interesting and unique way to reach out to her because you've got to be outside of the box these days, especially in the music industry," he said.
Laird called himself "a big supporter" of Swift's music.
"I think she's great and I (think) it could be a really cool collaboration," he said.
"Hopefully when I get back to Nashville after seeing my family over Christmas, hopefully I can get the chance to meet her and hopefully we hit it off."
