Scott Borchetta is taking a walk down memory lane while recalling crossing paths with Taylor Swift.
“It was 20 years ago today… a Beatles reference may not be too far off the mark… 😊,” Borchetta, 62, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, November 2. “Today marks the 20th anniversary of my first meeting with Taylor. A day that changed both of our lives.”
Alongside the message, the Big Machine Label Group CEO uploaded a pic of a teenage Swift, now 34, sitting in front of a microphone inside a crowded room.
“This photo was taken two nights later at the Bluebird Cafe,” his caption continued. “You see the back of my head, bottom left, T, and then Andrea across the room…”
Borchetta concluded, “Always proud of the art and the work she did while we were together… and just as proud of her now. Keep crushing it… xx.”
Borchetta and Swift’s history dates back years. After the Eras Tour performer announced via Instagram in November 2018 that she had found a “new home” at Republic Records, she thanked Borchetta. “I’m so excited,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to show you what I’m making next.”
As part of the deal, Scooter Braun acquired Big Machine and Swift’s back catalog of master recordings. Swift took to Tumblr in 2019 to call out Braun, 43, and Borchetta.
“Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to,” she wrote. “He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.”
Borchetta fired back in a June 2019 post on the label’s website titled “So, It’s Time For Some Truth.” In the upload, he claimed to have “personally texted Taylor … to inform her prior to the story [of Braun’s acquisition] breaking … so she could hear it directly from me.” He alleged that Swift “had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career,” yet she still “chose to leave” Big Machine.
Swift’s lawyer Donald Passman denied in a July 2019 statement that Brochetta gave her “an opportunity to purchase her masters, or the label, outright with a check.”
The following month, Swift announced her plans to rerecord her discography and release them as “Taylor’s Version.” (She has since dropped Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989. Swift has yet to re-release Reputation and her self-titled debut.)
Swift went on to claim that Borchetta and Braun denied her the right to perform her old tracks at the 2019 American Music Awards and use her tunes in her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana. Big Machine denied the allegations.
The following year, Borchetta seemed motivated to put the past behind them. When asked whether he was still “rooting” for Swift, he told Billboard in 2020, “Of course. I mean, I’m always gonna root for her. She’s brilliant and we’ve had a historic run.”
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