Zach Bryan's Controversial Taylor Swift & Kanye West Tweet Opened Fans' Old Wounds

Zach Bryan may have learned his lesson — think before you tweet — when the country singer drew flack over a controversial post about Taylor Swift and Kanye West. On September 17, Bryan took to X, formerly Twitter, and seemingly compared the two artists. "eagles > chiefs, Kanye > Taylor, who's with me?" PopCrave shared a screenshot of the tweet from the singer's since-deactivated account. Naturally, the post prompted negative reactions from both Swift and West fans. "Literally anyone else > Zach Bryan," tweeted one X user in response, while another wrote, "If he could just keep his mouth shut except for singing life would be so easy."

In 2009, West infamously interrupted Swift's speech at the MTV Video Music Awards and declared Beyoncé as the rightful winner for Best Female Video. The Swift and West's feud intensified in the years that followed, with both artists using their music to take subtle jabs at one another. West released the eyebrow-raising song "Famous," featuring controversial lyrics like, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have s*x. Why? I made that b***h famous." (The song led to Swift's famous "Reputation" era.)

Although many years have passed, the controversial moment remains fresh, especially for solid Swifties. Now, they're voicing their dismay over Bryan. It's safe to say the "Hey Driver" singer will likely think twice before taking another shot at Swift or West.

In response to the backlash, Zach Bryan issued a lengthy apology on his Instagram account, which he has kept active. In his Stories, the singer clarified that he wasn't targeting Taylor Swift and that his remarks were misunderstood. "For the record guys I wasn't coming for Taylor the other night," Bryan wrote, according to People. "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."

Bryan then praised Swift's music, claiming he loves her songs and apologizing to her diehard fanbase in the process. "I love Taylor's music and pray you guys know I'm human and tweet stupid things often," he added. "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. Love you guys and I'm trying my best!" 

Rolling Stone emphasized that Bryan also told fans he's been "going through a hard time." He wrote, "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," adding, "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." Bryan has since disabled comments on his Instagram.