Taylor reveals country star's wild tour bus prank

She's the biggest pop star on the planet, with a shelf full of Grammys and a stadium tour that broke every record going.

But there's one country star who once got the better of her.

And she's waited 19 years to tell the world about it.

Taylor Swift was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame on Monday night, and the 36-year-old used her moment on stage to settle a very old score.

The culprit was in the room. In fact, he was the one inducting her: country star Brad Paisley.

Thousands of them

Back in 2007, a teenage Taylor was opening for Paisley on his Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour, between her first and second albums.

Paisley, his band and his opening acts were famous for pranking each other. This one went a step too far.

"I'm really surprised to see you here, actually, because we've been estranged since 2007," Swift told him from the stage at Nashville's Music City Center. "I think you know why."

"He took a tour prank too far. Filled my entire tour bus with live crickets. Thousands of them."

"For months, I couldn't sleep. Just chirp. Chirp chirp. Chirp all night. I considered buying a pet lizard to eradicate the problem. It was a dark time."

He stands by it

Of course, the "feud" is a joke. Paisley had just given her a glowing introduction.

"All of us were like, 'How is this teenager doing this? How is she so brilliant?'" he told the room, according to Variety.

Swift let him off the hook. "I think we can let bygones be bygones," she said. "Yeah, I think we're good now."

Paisley was not about to apologise. "I also stand by the crickets on the tour bus as a legit truly boss prank," he posted the next day.

The two are clearly close. According to E! News, Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, were guests at Swift's wedding to Travis Kelce in July.

Swift is now the youngest member in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame's history. In June, she was the youngest writer inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York.

She signed her first publishing deal in Nashville at 14. On the night, she name-dropped the receptionist at one of her old writing haunts, whose boyfriend used to drop by. "His full name is Eric Church, just for clarity."

They've been married "like 20 years now," she added.

Lyle Lovett, Bruce Channel, Shawn Camp and Lee Thomas Miller were inducted alongside her.

So was the late J.I. Allison, of Buddy Holly's band. They were called the Crickets.