Taylor Swift, 'Fearless' (Sessions)

AOL: What's the strangest thing that a fan has ever given you?

SWIFT: This guy gave me a big turtle shell with my face painted on it -- that was definitely a first! Then it's always awesome when someone walks up and they're like, 'I got a gift for you -- got that done last week,' and it's my name tattooed on his arm. It's such an honor to be tattooed on someone's body, because that's permanent! I just want to walk up to him and be like, 'I really hope that this whole career thing works out for me so that two years from now you're not really embarrassed of that.'

AOL: Who would we be surprised to know is on your iPod?

SWIFT: I'm a big Lil Wayne fan -- I love him, Kid Rock, Jesse McCartney -- it's like a complete Jesse McCartney phase, all of his albums. I have this giant Jesse McCartney playlist right now. So that's probably my big shocking music fascination right now.

AOL: What do you do when one of your songs comes on the radio?

SWIFT: I'll listen to it, but I want to check the other radio stations to make sure that one of the songs I really love isn't on. If there's a song that I'm a big fan of, I'll change it to that. But if nothing else is on, I'll turn it up and be like, 'Yes!' I still have that moment. That never gets old when your song is on the radio.

AOL: You've recently said that any guy you date now is starting to realize that they're probably going to end up in a song. What else should any guy you date know before going into the relationship?

SWIFT: I'm not typically the girl that dates a lot of guys or is in relationships a lot. Most of my life I've been single. If I meet somebody who's great, I'll make an exception, but I'm really happy being alone. I'm happy being single. I don't feel a sense of emptiness if I don't have a boyfriend. I think that that's an important thing to carry into a relationship, because if you need the other person -- if you're like, 'I need to talk to you! Why didn't you call me back?' -- if you're that girl, then nobody's going to want to date you. So I think that it's important that whoever I date be an independent person, because I'm a really independent person. I have this rule: I don't call a guy first. You can't ever send two text messages in a row. If they don't answer your text messages, then that's fine. Don't stress it out and send another text message. I think that it's important to be confident in who you are, because the best thing you can bring to a relationship is a whole person.

--Melinda Newman