Country Singer Zach Bryan Defends Controversial Tweet About Taylor Swift and Kanye West

Zach Bryan is apologizing after taking a swing at Taylor Swift earlier this week.

It was an ultimate miss, leading the country artist to deactivate his X account altogether after the backlash he faced following the viral tweet on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 17, where he declared that the Eagles were greater than the Chiefs and that Kanye West was greater than the "Fearless" artist before asking who was with him.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 19, he issued an apology for what he claims was just a drunken misunderstanding, defending his intentions with the tweet in a lengthy statement published on his Instagram Stories.

"For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night. I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong," he began, sharing an audio clip from Swift and Post Malone's "Fortnight" alongside it. He acknowledged the "stuff that clouds around Ye" and explained that he "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," he continued, directly apologizing to Swift's fans, too.

On another slide, he alluded to "a hard time in [his] own life" and suggested that he was "projecting a little" before admitting it "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," he added. "...Taylor has been a force of nature for as long as we’ve all been growing up and I admire that...I never want people to think I have a hint of malice or meanness towards anyone, ever, that’s why I’m saying all this.”

Bryan came back for one final note, addressing how “this year has been an awful lot on [him] in personal ways” that he’s kept private from his fans. But in coping and balancing those struggles with his work, things have become a bit much. For now, he plans to “take a breather” from the social media site and focus on finishing his tour and finding a way to “ground [himself].”

“I feel very, very blessed each day. Not taking it for granted and holding onto it has been so important to me. Okay, needed to get this off my chest, yall [sic] are the best and I’ll see you at Bourbon and Beyond,” he concluded.

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