Scooter Braun addresses Taylor Swift controversy: “It’s gotten out of hand”
Getty Images For dcp via ABC/Emma McIntyre/AMA2018Music manager Scooter Braun has finally broken his silence about Taylor Swift‘s very public feud with him, which began this summer after he purchased her original record company, Big Machine, and became the owner of her master recordings.
The feud heated up recently after Taylor claimed Big Machine would not allow her to perform her old hits on Sunday’s American Music Awards, and called upon her fan base and fellow artists to tell Braun and Big Machine how they felt about that.
Variety reports that during a Q&A at Thursday’s 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference, Braun finally commented publicly on the situation.
“The principals haven’t had a chance to speak to each other…there’s a lot of confusion,” he said, adding, “I just think we live in a time of toxic division and…people thinking that social media is the appropriate place to air out on each other and not have conversations.”
“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.”
“When people are able to communicate, I think they work things out….I think that these problems…can be discussed behind closed doors and figured out pretty easily, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for six months,” he continued.
“[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.”
Braun declared he has “no ill will for anybody,” adding, “The moment people want to have a conversation with me, I’m ready to have that conversation, and I’m not going to add to the narrative…I just want to fix things and set a better example for people.”
“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,” Braun claimed.
“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.”
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