American singer Zach Bryan has apologised after “drunkenly” making some shady comments on X (formerly Twitter) about Taylor Swift and pissing off legions of Swifties.
On Tuesday, the country music star took to X, writing: “Eagles> Chiefs, Kanye > Taylor, who’s with me?”
As you might have guessed, the tweet hit a dissonant chord with Swifties around the world. Not just because of the obvious diss to Taylor and her long-standing beef with Kanye West, but also because of the shade towards her boyfriend Travis Kelce who plays for the NFL football team, the Chiefs.
Zach must have felt the furore of the Swifties pretty quickly because he deleted his X account shortly after.
Zach took to his Instagram Stories a few days later with a lengthy apology for his inflammatory Tweet.
“For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night. I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong,” he wrote, alongside an image of the Tortured Poets Department album art.
“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.”
Zach noted that X gets “him in trouble too much” and that it was best he “stay off it” before apologising to the Swifties directly.
“I’m sorry to any Taylor fans I pissed off or let down. Love you guys and I’m trying my best!”
Zach continued his apology in his next Story, noting that he has been going through a difficult time.
“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 desensitised to Taylor,” he continued.
“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 for music.”
He then encouraged his fans not to drink and Tweet — which is truly advice I can get behind — before praising Taylor for being “a force of nature”.
“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,” he wrote.
He ended his big apology on a vulnerable note.
“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,” Zach continued.
“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. Not taking it for granted and holding onto it has been so important to me.”
Well, hopefully by now the Swifties have cooled off and given the 28-year-old singer a bit of a break. After all, I think we’ve all had a bit too much grog and tweeted/texted/said something we regretted the next day.
But after the wrath of the Swifites, I think it’s fair to say that Zach has probably learnt his lesson.
