Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta are speaking out at length for the first time about their new partnership, but the entrepreneurs are keeping mum about their drama with Taylor Swift.
In a new interview with Billboard, the manager recalls meeting Borchetta — and the Grammy winner — years ago when his client Justin Bieber opened for Swift on her Fearless tour.
“Our stories were similar,” he told the outlet about Borchetta, who co-founded Big Machine Label. “Everyone at Big Machine — Taylor was kind, Scott was kind — everyone was kind to me and Justin when we were doing that show, and you don’t forget those things. I never forgot that, and we started a friendship.”
Billboard reports that both Braun and Borchetta declined to comment on Swift’s scathing note following the announcement of their $300 million deal, which saw Braun take control of the singer’s masters.
“There was a conversation a few years back and it never really got off the ground, but it was fascinating to me even then,” Borchetta said about their partnership. “There were a lot of things we would throw back and forth — we ended up doing something together with Rascal Flatts and Justin Bieber — and then it got very serious last fall.”
After Swift, 29, claimed she learned of the sale of Big Machine to Braun, 38, with the rest of the world and accused the manager of “manipulative bullying” over the years via a Tumblr post, it’s been a game of he-said, she-said between the singer, Braun and Borchetta, who first signed the superstar when she was a teen.
Hours after Swift said she was “grossed out” by Braun’s acquisition of Big Machine Label Group and her catalog, Borchetta responded with his own lengthy statement on the label’s website, essentially accusing Swift of bending the truth.
In his letter, Borchetta, 57, claimed the deal he offered Swift gave her “100% of all Taylor Swift assets … to be transferred to her immediately upon signing the new agreement.”
He also denied having any knowledge of bullying by Braun. “As to her comments about ‘being in tears or close to it’ anytime my new partner Scooter Braun’s name was brought up, I certainly never experienced that,” he wrote. “Scooter was never anything but positive about Taylor.”
In her Tumblr post, the “Archer” singer said the deal she was offered involved earning one album back for each “new one I turned in.”
“I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future,” she added. “I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past.”
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