Scooter Braun Slams Taylor Swift for Taking Issues to Social Media: 'I'll Be The Bad Guy'
For the first time after a week-long silence, Big Machine Records owner pleads Taylor Swift to "sit down and talk."
Scooter Braun finally broke his silence about the Taylor Swift issue on Thursday at the 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference.
During the Q&A portion of the conference, Braun talked about his efforts and clients like Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber.
While he did not mention Swift directly while answering, Braun made it clear he was willing to have a conversation about the drama.
Variety's Shirley Halperin asked him how he handles the Swift issue since he is being described as the villain surrounding her recording label.
"I haven't talked about this in six months. Not once. I haven't made a statement about it," Braun said, "When there's a lot of things being said and a lot of different opinions, yet the principals haven't had a chance to speak to each other, there's a lot of confusion."
"I think we live in a time of toxic division, and of people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations. And if that means that I've got to be the bad guy longer, I'll be the bad guy longer. But I'm not going to participate."
Braun placed the blame on the "Lover" singer for calling her fans to take action against him and Borchetta. He added that it is a scary time when people say things and might not be in the right mindset, which could lead to horrible things.
"It's hard because I can handle it pretty easily, but when it gets to a place where there are death threats and offices are being called and people being threatened, it's gotten out of hand," Braun added.
Braun said that Swift is only making the issue bigger by continuing the arguments in public. The manager suggested that the two should resolve their "miscommunication" and avoid adding to the "narratives."
"We need to go behind closed doors and see if we can have a conversation. And if we're not having conversations, then I don't think we're going to find a solution," the 38-year-old record executive furthered.
To recall, Braun's employees receved death threats, and there came a point that they had to shut down their offices after Swift called them out on social media for allegedly not allowing her to use her songs.
Swift announced she was n'o allowed to sing her old songs at the 2019 AMA and claimed in a lengthy, emotional statement that Braun and his partner, Sctoo Borchetta, would only allow her if she does "not re-record copycat versions of her songs next year" and once she "stopped talking about the duo."
Taylor then asked her fans to "let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how YOU feel about this," which had the unintentional effect of causing fans to send threatening messages to both men.
Don’t know what else to do pic.twitter.com/1uBrXwviTS — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 14, 2019
However, in a statement revealed by Big Machine, they calrified that Swift was allowed to perform her old songs after all.
They have come to terms on a licensing agreement that approves their artists' performances to stream post-show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms. This includes the upcoming AMA performances.
