#ll speech

It's when I'm in front of a crowd like this that I get really sentimental. I don't know why, but ever since I was a little kid, I've been thinking about when I was going to be like 80 years old. I always thought like: "When I'm 80 years old am I gonna look back on this decision? Like, what will I think? Will I look back and laugh?" I think when I'm 80 and I probably don't get to play stadiums anymore... I think I'm gonna look back on nights like this and think "Oh, that was so great. I can't believe I got to do that." So this is one of those crowds. And, you know, I like the fact that we've grown up in a time, or at last we exist in a time now, where I can keep track of what you guys are doing even if I'm not on tour. I can check in and see your Tumblr or your Instagram or your Twitter and see what you guys are up to, and I guess you guys might have ways of also seeing what I'm up to. I love seeing your milestones because I've been on tour and playing for you guys since I was sixteen; I'm twenty-eight now. So I got to see you guys go through so many changes. You know, I've gotten to meet someone when they're eight and meet them when they're graduating from high school, and it's a trip. It's so fun. And I've also seen you guys go through heartbreaks and things like that. We've seen each other's ups and downs over the years, and that's one of the things that I think is really bonding, at least on my end. So I wanna play a song that is for me always gonna be you.

A lot of you I’ve met before, a lot of you I have to meet yet; like, its gonna happen at some point. We do meet and greets before the shows and after, and the cool thing about us living in this time is that once I meet you, I can then keep track of you–not in a creepy way–in a friendly way. I promise. I can keep track of you online and kind of see what you're doing. It's crazy when I could've met someone when they were ten, and then seen them go through all these life changes, and see the pictures of them graduating high school. And it's just so cool to see people's lives change, the good times and the bad, the ups and downs, and just sit there and be like 'Wow, they got married', 'Oh my god, she had a baby', 'Oh my god, he's so happy with his boyfriend; they're getting married.' And, you know, through other means you guys-- probably whether you want to or not--are able to keep track of what's going on in my life. And I love that we have that thread that connects us, and that thread is music. Years ago I wrote this song with you guys in mind, and for me it's always gonna be you, this song.

There was a girl in my meet and greet today who said--and she said it pretty casually--no matter how casual you say it, I always get really blown away when someone says something like, 'I've listened to your music since I was nine and I'm twenty-one now.' I'm like, 'you're an adult now! You were nine.' And I think that--it's so surreal to me. I understand how time works, I understand calendars, I understand people get older. But I think because my music is so personal, it's almost like you guys are the people who felt like continuing to read my diary for that many years, and that is so great. And over the years I've gotten to see so many people who've been-- I mean, I've seen so many familiar faces in the crowd tonight already. I've gotten to see people go through the phases of their lives. and you've obviously, like, it's a lot more easy to see this pretty public life I've got going on, so you've definitely seen ups and downs that I've gone through. And here we are in this stadium, and we're all sitting together, and it makes me feel so, so good and so... I don't know,  it feels so weird to say, it feels so supportive, the fact that you guys would be here tonight and be so excited to be here. Just thank you.

So I do meet and greets before the show and after the show and for me, like, I know how time works; I get it. I completely understand that we get older and we move through different phases of our lives, and that's inevitable. But when someone comes up to me and says 'I've been listening to your music since I was ten,' and then they're like an adult, I'm always completely--I find it really surreal, no matter what. I'm never like, 'Oh, yeah, that seems normal.' It just always seems really, really shocking in the best way to me that somebody would wanna listen to my music maybe when I was sixteen and they were ten or whatever and that we would continue to do this, and so I think that is so cool and so wonderful, so if you've been coming to concerts for a long time, thank you for doing that. Thank you for caring. And if you have been coming to concerts for two years, or if this is your first show of mine, thank you too. That's amazing. Nice to meet you. And I guess it feels so interesting and nice of you to care about the music because my music has always been very confessional about my life, and it sort of feels like if you've been coming to my concerts for a while, you're one of the people who cared about reading my diary for about thirteen years, so it's just so awesome. And a while ago I wrote a song that for me has always expressed that comradery, that feeling that I feel when I look out into a crowd of people and you guys are singing the words, and it just fills me with an absolutely inexplicable sense of joy, but this is me trying to verbalize it in a song.

It's been really fun to kind of grow up with you. Like, I meet people before the show and after the show, and it's so cool when someone will say 'I've been listening to you since I was 12' and they're, like, a full adult. It's also cool when someone says 'reputation is your first album that I bought.' That's awesome too. There's no thing that you guys say to me that's nice that I don't appreciate. I appreciate it so much.