A special Taylor Swift song not previously included on any of her albums will have a new home on her re-recorded version of Red.
Billboard confirms the ballad “Ronan,” written for a young boy who lost his battle with cancer, will be on the track list when Red (Taylor’s Version) is released on November 19.
Taylor initially released “Ronan” in 2012 as a charity single available only on iTunes. It was inspired by the blog of Maya Thompson about her son, Ronan, who passed away from neuroblastoma in 2011 when he was nearly four years old.
Thompson, who’s credited as a co-writer on the song, posted on her blog last week that Taylor had reached out about including the song on Red.
“Red was an album of heartbreak and healing, of rage and rawness, of tragedy and trauma, and of the loss of an imagined future alongside someone,” Taylor wrote in part, according to Thompson. “I wrote ‘Ronan’ while I was making Red and discovered your story as you so honestly and devastatingly told it…As my co-writer and the rightful owner of this story in its entirety, your opinion and approval of this idea really matters to me, and I’ll honor your wishes here.”
Thompson says she “of course” gave Taylor permission to include the song and expressed how touched she was to have it be part of the album.
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