Country music superstar Zach Bryan is in treacherous waters with Taylor Swift’s fan base after he drunkenly posted a preference for Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, over her on X.
The post Tuesday night said:
“eagles > chiefs
“Kanye > Taylor
“who’s with me”
The post also denigrated the Kansas City Chiefs, the football team of Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce. It has since been deleted, and Bryan has deactivated his X account entirely.
Before it went dark, Bryan tried to save his reputation, posting, “guys I love Taylor, was listening to TTPD [‘The Tortured Poets Department’] last night and thank you aimee came on and I drunkenly tweeted that about Kanye. If anyone took it serious please know I love both artists a lot and think we’re in a really beautiful time of music.”
The song he referred to, “Thank You Aimee,” is perceived as a diss track aimed at West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, who became involved in Swift and West’s long-standing feud in 2017. One notable line goes, “One day, your kid comes home singin’ a song that only us two is gonna know is about you.” Kardashian and her daughter North West have posted videos using Swift’s songs.
While Bryan exiled himself from X, he remains active on Instagram. Very active. Early Thursday, he took to the platform, trying to make peace in a series of four Instagram story posts.
The first reads: “For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night. I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong. I know there’s a lot of stuff that clouds around Ye and I was speaking purely musically. I love Taylor’s music and pray you guys know I’m human and tweet stupid things often. Hope one day I can explain this to her. Twitter gets me in trouble too much and I’d say it’s best I stay off it. I’m sorry to any Taylor fans I pissed off or let down. Love you guys and I’m trying my best!”
Referring to his own Champagne problems, he continued to apologize in a second post: “I’ve been going through a hard time in my own life and I think I was projecting a little. To be completely honest, it just came off as rude and desensitized to Taylor. I respect her so much as a musician that the last thing I want is people thinking I don’t appreciate and love what she has done as a musician. Okay, that’s the last of it! Love you guys and hope you guys understand. Don’t drink and tweet. Don’t drink and tweet!!”
It didn’t stop there. A third story post said: “Not saving face here, but Taylor has been a force of nature for as long as we’ve all been growing up and I admire that. I’m gonna go listen to this record now” — referring to an image of her song “Castles Crumbling” that was included in the post. “I never want people to think I have a hint of malice or meanness towards anyone, ever, that’s why I’m saying all this. Everyone have the best day of all time, I love ya.”
And to finish off this manuscript, Bryan posted: “This year has been an awful lot on me in personal ways that no one knows and I’ve been trying to cope and balance too many things at once. So I’m going to take a breather from tweeting stupid stuff, finish my tour, and ground myself somehow in the midst of all this. I feel very, very blessed each day. Not taking it for granted and holding onto it has been so important to me. Okay, needed to get this off my chest, yall are the best and I’ll see you at Bourbon and Beyond” (a festival happening now in Kentucky).
While the lengthy apologies indicate that Bryan has become somewhat of a tortured poet himself, he has historically praised Swift. He tweeted enthusiastically in support of her 2022 album, “Midnights,” hours before it dropped, saying, “miss swift what are the vibes at midnight good morning everybody and happy almost sweekend, get in we’re going crying.”
He also responded to a fan who asked him about his favorite Swift song, saying, “August, for sure.” He has said his girlfriend asks him to sing Swift’s debut single, “Tim McGraw.”
The two stars have also been sparring on the charts with their most recent albums. Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” sits at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, while Bryan’s “The Great American Bar Scene” is at No. 7.
While Swift hasn’t commented on the bad blood, fans of her and Bryan alike will be asking themselves the following question about their favorite stars’ professional relationship: Is it over now?
Representatives for Bryan and Swift did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
First appeared on www.nbcnews.com