The Biggest Controversies Surrounding Taylor Swift's Dad, Scott Swift

Taylor Swift's father, Scott Swift, has landed himself in hot water quite a few times over the past few years. His controversies have naturally led people to question where his relationship with his daughter stands, and for a little while, things seemed a little rocky. Taylor's 2020 documentary "Miss Americana" featured a scene where the beloved singer argued with her dad to get him on board with her being more open about her democratic political views in the future.

Scott mainly feared that the move would negatively impact her career and safety and warned her against it. Ultimately, all the "Anti-hero" singer could do was ask for Scott's forgiveness because she was following through with her plans. It's only natural that Scott had inhibitions about Taylor going public with her views because he faced backlash for his supposed beliefs in the past. According to screenshots shared by Daily Mail, Scott took to Facebook in 2016 to post a link to an article detailing how a Republican father found common ground with his daughter.

After the screenshots went viral, Scott deleted his private Facebook account. While we can't know Scott's political views, the one thing we know for certain is that he and his daughter seem to be on the best of terms. He frequently shows up to the Eras Tour to support Taylor, hands out guitar picks to lucky fans, and records the crowd. Their closeness may have surprised some after learning that Scott profited off a business move that hurt her terribly.

Taylor Swift can't stop releasing her own versions of past albums because she no longer owns the master recordings for her first six albums. After Taylor walked away from her first record label, Big Machine Records, the company was acquired by Scooter Braun, a man who kicked her when she was already down during the Kim Kardashian and Kanye West controversy. Taylor took to Tumblr to share how heartbroken she was about the move and explained that she wasn't even given the option to buy the music she poured her heart and soul into.

The founder of Big Machine Records, Scott Borchetta, responded to the "Blank Space" songstress in a post where he claimed that Jay Schaudies, a lawyer who handles Scott Swift's shareholder meetings, was present during the call where they discussed the sale of her masters. To make matters worse, Scott made an estimated $15 million from the sale because he was a shareholder in Big Machine Records.

An insider set the record straight to Entertainment Tonight. "There was a shareholder phone call that Scott Swift did not participate in due to a very strict NDA that bound all shareholders and prohibited any discussion at all without risk of severe penalty," they said. "Her dad did not join that call because he did not want to be required to withhold any information from his own daughter." They also stressed that Scott wasn't aware of the deal.

In 2023, an email that an evidently frustrated Scott Swift reportedly sent to Taylor Swift's former manager in 2005 leaked and went viral. In the lengthy email, Scott detailed the great lengths he went to advance his daughter's career and expressed his disappointment at the lack of recognition from his loved ones. The "Shake It Off" hitmaker's father noted that he was going against his now then-wife Andrea Swift's wishes by writing the email because she didn't want him to share a written record of all the time, money, and effort they had put into Taylor's career.

Scott complained that he had to travel with Taylor's friends while his daughter and Andrea received the celebrity treatment in dressing rooms. "Whose wife thinks I talk too much and promote Taylor too much? Mine. Share my pain, please," he wrote, later adding, "I am going to do what I have to do to make you and Taylor successful. I am not going to get a lot of credit, but understand that I am not a contractor or plumber that does not have a clue about how to help the process."

Scott also noted that he wanted his daughter to become an actor in the future. The bizarre email garnered mixed reactions. Some social media users couldn't believe he could speak so negatively about his wife or demand credit for Taylor's hard work. Others reminded the critics that the email was nearly two decades old at the time of its release and wasn't indicative of Taylor and Scott's present relationship.

Although Taylor Swift's parents were secretive about their divorce, their discord was apparent to those who worked with the pop sensation. In 2014, Page Six reported that Taylor's management team, 13 Management, was facing significant upper-level executive turnover because Scott Swift and Andrea Swift weren't too pleased with their results. An insider told the outlet that they weren't the best bosses and didn't seem to agree on much.

"Taylor's parents are incredibly difficult to deal with. Their expectations are enormous, and they are very hard to please," the insider claimed. "They want to pay as little as possible and treat people like s*** because they think those people are lucky to have the chance to work with a superstar like Taylor." The source felt that Taylor's parents believed they could outdo their best hires' efforts and explained that they couldn't effectively communicate with each other.

Ultimately, they urged Taylor to reduce her parents' role in her career so she wouldn't crash and burn. In Scott and Andrea's defense, they weren't exactly thrust into their management roles with zero experience. Her dad started out as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch and worked his way up to becoming a Vice President, and her mom worked as a marketing manager at an advertising firm. Even Taylor's former manager, Rick Barker, sang their praises to Entertainment Tonight in 2008, noting that Scott and Andrea were phenomenal marketers who kept things in order well before their daughter rose to fame.