Jay Leno Says Taylor Swift Helped Him Defuse a Road Rage Incident

Jay Leno just recalled a road rage incident from more than a decade ago that had a surprisingly heartwarming ending, and it was all thanks to Taylor Swift.

The 74-year-old brought up the anecdote during an appearance on TMZ’s Merry Elfin’ Christmas holiday special that aired on Fox on Monday night. "I'll tell you a road rage story involving Taylor Swift," he said in the clip. "I'm in traffic, a guy behind me—beep beep beep—I’m driving one of my old cars, you know. So I go, 'Go around me, go around me.'"

Leno explained that while driver did eventually go around him, he inexplicably flipped him the middle finger as he passed. "So I pulled up to the light and I looked at the guy, and I go, 'What was that all about?'" he continued. "He starts swearing, and that's when I laid into him. I said, 'Let me guess. What are you 52, divorced, your kids hate you, you’re bald? What was your greatest day? In high school?'"

Savage words from Jay Leno, and suffice to say, they hit their mark. "And the guy starts crying. 'No, you’re right, man,'" he remembered. "I go, ‘Wait, wait, wait.'"

At that point, Leno said that he got out of his car and got into the other driver's vehicle to talk things out. "I said, 'Look, I got Taylor Swift on the show next Wednesday. Do your daughters like Taylor Swift?'" he told the guy, who responded: "Oh, they love Taylor Swift!"

To further defuse the situation, Leno offered the man two tickets to The Tonight Show to see Swift, as well as to meet her backstage. "So the guy shows up and the girls are like ecstatic, I told Taylor the situation, she gave him swag, she talked to the girls—I mean, she was the nicest person. The guy, his kids liked him again!" he quipped.

It's unclear when exactly the incident occurred since Swift appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno more than a half-dozen times before he retired for good in early 2014, but all these years later, the singer's kindness had clearly left a mark. And hopefully that dad has learned his lesson about flipping people off in traffic.