Randy Newman, 82, Sang With Taylor Swift at the ‘Toy Story 5’ Premiere—Here’s What He’s Up to Now
The beloved composer sang with Taylor Swift at the 'Toy Story 5' premiere — here's his quiet life now
Key Takeaways
- Randy Newman, 82, recently performed with Taylor Swift at the ‘Toy Story 5’ premiere.
- Newman wrote "You've Got a Friend in Me" out of fear—and it became iconic.
- Newman has scored over 10 Disney and Pixar films since the original ‘Toy Story.’
By now you’ve probably seen the videos of Randy Newman and Taylor Swift singing the hit song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” at the Toy Story 5 world premiere. It was heartwarming, nostalgic and just what the world needs right now. But after the performance, you may have found yourself wondering, “What has Newman been up to since the first Toy Story movie came out 31 years ago?” Well, we have everything you need to know about the singer’s quiet life below.
The early days of Randy Newman
Newman was born in November 1943 in Los Angeles, California. Growing up, he was always interested in music, and even helped compose the soundtracks for Norman Lear’s Cold Turkey (1971), Ragtime (1981), Parenthood (1989) and Maverick (1994), but it wasn’t until he was hired in 1995 as a composer and performer by Pixar for Toy Story that his career really began to skyrocket. In that film he wrote “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” “Strange Things” and “I Will Go Sailing No More,” all of which became instrumental parts of the film.
“Pixar was almost the anti-Disney, that they didn’t want to do musicals, or princess movies, or have magic and those types of things… I would say Randy is as important as Tom Hanks or Tim Allen,” Tom MacDougall, the executive vice president of music at Walt Disney Studios, told NPR in 2019. “If we didn’t have his music in there, you would feel it, for sure. And you might not even want to make it without him.”
Randy Newman becomes a Disney legend
Following the first Toy Story film, Newman continued to work with Disney and Pixar, his films including A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), The Princess and the Frog (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Monsters University (2013), Cars 3 (2017), Toy Story 4 (2019) and, of course, Toy Story 5 (2026).
Despite all of those accolades, it’s his hit song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” that has truly cemented his status as a Disney, music and film legend. “I mean, there’s no competing with Toy Story, in terms of the reach of it,” Newman told NPR. “It inevitably appeals to hundreds of millions that I wouldn’t appeal to.”
As for how that song came to be? Newman said it was made out of fear. “It started a terror in my stomach; it was so different from what I’d done,” he told NPR. “When I step off, I think it’ll be the songs that are mentioned more; when the obituary in the Courier Journal is there, I think it’ll be ‘singer-songwriter.’ But I’m not sure. I’ll never know.”
Randy Newman now
Newman is now 82 years old and still writing, composing and performing. As mentioned above, he even recently performed with Swift, who wrote a song called “I Knew It, I Knew You” for the upcoming Toy Story film, at the Toy Story 5 world premiere.
“I would just love to say, it means the world to me to be a small part of the universe of these films, and Toy Story 5 is my favorite of all of the Toy Storys,” Swift told the crowd at the film’s premiere on June 9. “I’m so lucky that I get to be a part of this, and I want to thank all of the creators at Disney and Pixar for all the work they put into this film. It’s insanely beautiful. It’s a masterpiece. We’re so lucky to get to have this film out. Your work is amazing, and I hope you’re all so proud of yourselves. If you’re in this room and you worked on this film, thank you so much.”
Is Randy Newman married?
Newman has been married twice, first to Roswitha Schmale from 1967 to 1985, then to Gretchen Preece since 1990. He has five children, all of whom he probably watched Toy Story with at one point or another.
Be sure to catch Toy Story 5 in theaters on Friday, July 19.
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