Scooter Braun calls Taylor Swift the biggest artist of all time as he reflects on their feud and addresses “Vigilante Shit” rumors.
Scooter Braun is once again speaking out on his highly publicized feud with Taylor Swift, and this time, he’s giving her the highest of praise—while still defending his side of the story.
Appearing on Question Everything with Danielle Robay on July 17, Scooter Braun opened up about the long-running tension between himself and Taylor Swift, which dates back to his 2019 acquisition of Big Machine Records, the label that held the rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums. While calling a rehash of the conflict “a waste of time,” Scooter Braun still took the opportunity to clarify his perspective and push back on some of Taylor Swift’s most pointed allegations.
“The only thing I didn’t appreciate is it was so public without an understanding of what was actually going on,” he said. “When Taylor says that she wasn’t offered the masters, the reason I was under NDA was because we were in negotiations to sell it back to her. I just choose to believe her that maybe [her team] didn’t tell her.”
Taylor Swift, who was vocal about her opposition to Scooter Braun‘s purchase from the start, once accused him of “incessant, manipulative bullying” and claimed he refused to quote her team a price for her masters without an NDA. Scooter Braun, however, suggested that the public nature of the feud fueled misunderstanding. “It’s easy to [see someone as] a monster if you never meet them,” he said, noting that he and Swift have only met three times and hadn’t seen each other in years at the time of the sale.
Scooter Braun also reflected on the artist lineup he represented at the time—Justin Bieber and Kanye West, both of whom had their own public issues with Taylor Swift. He believes that association may have colored her view of him: “She probably saw my name come up and was like, ‘I don’t like those people, so I don’t like him.’”
Despite the friction, Scooter Braun acknowledged that both parties ended up with major wins. “When [Swift] turned it down, we ended up selling it to someone else,” he explained. “We did very well in that sale… and she did incredibly well and basically had the biggest moment of her career.”
He even went so far as to call Taylor Swift “the biggest artist of all time,” praising her for turning the controversy into creative and commercial success through her Taylor’s Version re-recordings and the global phenomenon that is her Eras Tour.
Still, Taylor Swift’s stance hasn’t softened. In her TIME 2023 Person of the Year interview, she reiterated that Scooter Braun acquired her catalog with “nefarious reasons.” He disagreed, saying it didn’t make “any sense” from a financial perspective.
As for fan theories that Taylor Swift has addressed the feud in songs like “Vigilante Shit”, Scooter Braun laughed off the suggestion that the Midnights track—which includes the line “Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife”—was about him.
“No, ’cause I talk to Yael every day,” Scooter Braun said, referring to his ex-wife Yael Cohen, with whom he filed for divorce in 2021. “That’s like my partner. That’s the mother of my children. That is my family for life… Great strategy move, but nah.”
Though they may never see eye to eye, Scooter Braun and Taylor Swift’s shared history remains one of the most talked-about chapters in modern music—and both seem to have come out on top in their own ways.
