Scott “Scooter” Braun broke his silence Thursday on the bad blood between he and Taylor Swift.
“You can’t make everyone like you. You can’t get all the facts straight. But I think the only thing you can do is hope for communication,” he said, according to Variety, during a Q&A at the 2019 Entertainment Industry Conference in Los Angeles.
Earlier this year, Braun’s company acquired Swift’s former label, Big Machine Label Group (BMLG), for a reported $300 million U.S. The deal includes ownership of Swift’s early albums.
Swift said in a Tumblr post at the time that she was “sad and grossed out” that Braun acquired the rights to her first six albums and accused him of years of “incessant, manipulative bullying.”
Braun didn’t respond – although his Canadian wife Yael Cohen did. “My husband is anything but a bully,” she snapped back on social media.
The war of words intensified last week when Swift used social media to accuse BMLG of preventing her from performing her early hits on this Sunday's American Music Awards. (BMLG denied the accusation in a tweet of his own.)
On Thursday, Braun shared his thoughts on the drama. “When there’s a lot of things being said and a lot of different opinions, yet the principals haven’t had a chance to speak to each other, there’s a lot of confusion,” he said.
“I’m not going to go into details here, because it’s just not my style. 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.”
Braun said he refuses to participate, even if it means being “the bad guy longer.” Without ever mentioning Swift by name, he called for communication.
“When people are able to communicate, I think they work things out,” he said.
“People are allowed to grow as human beings. They’re allowed to have conversations. They’re allowed to change their mind. They’re allowed to go from not liking to each other to liking each other, and vice versa. But you don’t find that out just yelling at each other. You find that out by showing each other respect and having a conversation.”
Braun added: “The truth is, I have no ill will for anybody. And the moment people want to have a conversation with me, I’m ready to have that conversation.”
Only hours after speaking up, Braun posted a message for Swift on his Instagram.
“Since your public statement last week there have been numerous death threats directed at my family,” he wrote. “This morning I spoke out publicly for the first time saying I wouldn’t participate in a social media war. However I came home tonight to find my wife had received a phone call threatening the safety of our children as well as other threats seen above.”
He added: “It is important that you understand that your words carry a tremendous amount of weight and that you message can be interpreted by some in different ways.
“While disappointed that you have remained silent after being notified by your attorney 4 days ago of these ongoing threats, I’m still hopeful we can fix this.”