Country music star Zach Bryan has issued a public apology to pop sensation Taylor Swift following major backlash from Swifties. On Tuesday, September 17, the singer took to X to post a controversial message, in which he compared Taylor Swift to rapper Kanye West. In the now-deleted post, he declared that West is a better musician than Swift.
The 28-year-old Something in the Orange singer has since deactivated his account. However, he also referenced her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce. According to him, the Philadelphia Eagles are superior. He tweeted:
"eagles > chiefs, Kanye > Taylor, who's with me"
Zach Bryan claims he has been going through a tough time so he "projected a little" on Taylor
On Thursday morning, Zach Bryan took to Instagram to share his apologies with Swifties. He posted on his story:
"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."
He continued, saying that his tweet came from a place of bad judgment. Zach Bryan noted that he was perhaps "projecting a little."
"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 for music. Don’t drink and tweet!”
However, his apology didn't end there. In another Instagram story, Zach Bryan shared:
"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."
As of this week, both Zach Bryan and Taylor Swift have achieved positions in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart. Zach Bryan's The Great American Bar Scene currently sits at No. 7 after 11 weeks, while Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department holds No. 5 after 21 weeks.