Scooter Braun Breaks Silence on Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has had plenty to say — and nothing good — about music mogul Scooter Braun in the past six months, as well as her former label head Scott Borchetta, who is now Braun's business partner. While Borchetta has tried to give his side of the story involving various disputes with Swift, Braun has remained remarkably silent the entire time.
Until now: On Thursday (Nov. 21), Braun finally broke his silence on the matter. Speaking on stage at The Hollywood Chamber's 2019 State of the Entertainment Industry Conference, Braun alluded, without naming names, that he desired to clear the air.
"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," he said. "I’m not going to go into details here, because it’s just not my style. I just 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 I don’t like politicians doing it. I don’t like anybody doing it, 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 made it clear that he'd like to have a real conversation "behind closed doors," which he thinks could solve the issues easily. "It’s something I’ve wanted to do for six months," he clarified, adding that he himself can handle negative publicity personally. "But when it gets to a place where there’s death threats and there’s offices being called and people being threatened...it’s gotten out of hand," he noted.
Braun also clarified that he "disagreed" with the entire conflict, but that he kept his silence due to a refusal to enter into a public dispute. "I’m not going to add to the narrative. I just want to fix things and set a better example for people."
Swift turned up the volume on her feud with Braun on Nov. 14 by posting an open letter to her fans, asking for their help in putting pressure on Borchetta and Braun to allow her to play her back-catalog songs at the upcoming American Music Awards on Nov. 24. Swift's former label, Big Machine, was acquired by Braun earlier this year and owns Swift's past albums, and there has been considerable acrimony between Swift and the label since she departed and signed a new deal with Republic in November of 2018.
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