Daily Times

Scooter Braun is finally addressing the dramatic situation involving Taylor Swift and Scott Borchetta. In recent months, Taylor Swift has spoken openly about her feud with Braun and Borchetta. She’s used social media as a tool to convey her displeasure with the two men and to implore her fellow musicians to support her in this ongoing dispute. Naturally, many of those musicians have come to her aid, whether it be via social media or in public spaces.

All the while, Scooter has chosen to remain silent on the matter. He acknowledges this while speaking at the 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference, co-sponsored by Variety and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. “I haven’t talked about this in six months. Not once. I haven’t made a statement about it,” he said.

Scooter reveals his belief that publicly addressing the situation won’t do anything to bring it to an end. He explains, “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.”

He adds, “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.”

Scooter also reveals he wants to sit down and have a “closed door” discussion with Taylor to hammer out their issues. Braun says he genuinely believes much of the controversy stems from “miscommunications,” which he won’t discuss because he doesn’t want to “add to the narrative.”

Despite his desire to put an end to this saga, he says this drama is taking a toll on him personally. “It’s hard, because I can handle it pretty easily, 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 shares. “Right now we’re in a scary time where people say things and then people might not be in the right mindset and do really horrible things. And we’re inciting all of this by continuing these arguments in public. We just 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 resolution.”

His comments come just days after Swift announced she was declined the right to sing her old music at the 2019 American Music Awards. She claimed in a long, emotional statement that Scott and Scooter told her “they’ll allow me to use my music only if I do these things: If I agree to not re-record copycat versions of my songs next year (which is something I’m both legally allowed to do and looking forward to) and also told my team that I need to stop talking about him and Scooter Braun.”

She 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.

In the days following, it was revealed by Big Machine records, in a statement not authorized by Dick Clark productions, Taylor would be allowed to perform her old catalogue at the award show after all. “The Big Machine Label Group and Dick Clark Productions announce that 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,” Big Machine Label Group said in a statement on Monday. “This includes the upcoming American Music Awards performances.”