She was lauded as a feminist icon when she took on her former record label in a dispute over the ownership of her first six albums.
But now, Taylor Swift’s former manager has accused her of leading a pile-on against Big Machine’s Scott Borchetta and new owner Scooter Braun, claiming that ‘no one stole her music.’
Speaking in new Channel 4 documentary Taylor, Rick Barker has claimed he is ‘disappointed’ in his former protegee and praised Braun for making a ‘very good business decision’ when he bought the label for $330 million in 2019.
Barker, who managed Ms Swift between 2007-2008, said that ‘no one made her sign a bad record deal’ and believes any issues over the ownership of her masters should have been ‘discussed behind the scenes.’
The pop star, 35, made no bones about how upset she was that her nemesis Braun had become the new owner of her first six albums when he purchased the label, funded by a number of private equity firms.
After acquiring the rights to the albums in 2019, Braun, 44, now dating the Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney, then sold them on to investment firm Shamrock Capital a year later.
Taylor Swift (pictured) was lauded as a feminist icon when she took on her former record label in a dispute over the ownership of her first six albums.
In a new Channel 4 documentary Rick Barker (pictured) has accused Taylor of leading a pile-on against Scooter Braun and claims that ‘no one stole her music.’
Scooter Braun managed stars including Kanye West and Justin Bieber, was publicly condemned by Taylor after he acquired the rights to her music (pictured with Sydney Sweeney)
Ms Swift publicly condemned Braun, who managed stars including Kanye West, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, and proceeded to re-record her own versions of the albums.
‘No one stole her music, no one made her sign a bad record deal, those are the type of record deals that everyone signed at that time,’ Barker told Channel 4.
‘Scooter Braun made a very good business decision, end of story.’
He added: ‘The decision that Taylor made to turn the fans loose on Scott and Scooter, with only half of the conversation, I was a little disappointed.
‘Death threats started happening, people started showing up at people’s houses and this is something that should have been discussed behind the scenes.’
As of last year, Ms Swift now owns her original masters after buying them back.
‘All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me. I’ve been bursting into tears of joy… ever since I found out this is really happening,’ she said at the time.
Barker, who claims to have been instrumental in helping to establish Ms Swift’s career, also said that he wanted to give West a ‘hug’ after he controversially stormed the stage during her 2009 VMAs win.
Despite being considered a public humiliation at the time, Barker now claims he was happy that the rapper hijacked the pop star’s acceptance speech and told the crowd that Beyonce should have won instead of her.
‘At that moment I am so proud of her because she stayed quiet – that was a conversation that Taylor and I had years before – humility and grace,’ he said.
‘I said, ‘Someone give Kanye a hug, we cannot buy that publicity. Now they’re all going to Yahoo and Google, [typing] who’s this Taylor Swift, who’s this Taylor Swift.’ Boom.’
Barker was Ms Swift’s personal manager in 2007 but was not employed by her in 2009.
While Ms Swift left Big Machine Records in 2018 to join Republic Records, Barker still works with Big Machine alongside some of its artists.
‘The relationship that her and I had was more like two girlfriends, I mean we just cracked up all the time,’ he said.
‘The very first time I met Taylor, I said, ‘Taylor, what are your goals?’ and she said, ‘I want a gold record,’ and what that means is you need to sell 500,000 copies of a record and I’m like, ‘Great let’s go and meet 500,000 people.’
He added: ‘She wanted people to feel better when they left than before she arrived. You can’t teach that in business school, you can’t teach that anywhere. You either have it or you don’t have it.’
The Channel 4 documentary, which airs next Tuesday [30th], ahead of the release of Ms Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl, also gives an insight into the singer’s school life.
In rarely heard recordings of an early interview with the star, she discusses how she was excluded and alienated by her peers growing up.
In rarely heard recordings of an early interview with the star, she discusses how she was excluded and alienated by her peers growing up (pictured as a young girl)
The Channel 4 documentary is airing after she got engaged to her boyfriend of two years, Travis Kelce, who popped the question last month
‘We were in middle school and anything that makes you different in middle school makes you weird, I would sit down at a lunch table and girls would get up and move,’ she said.
‘They’d be like, ‘What did you do this weekend?’ I was, you know, playing at a coffee house that weekend.
‘It took me out of their social scene automatically and they couldn’t really relate to me anymore. The first time in my life I felt really, really alone.’
Representatives for Ms Swift have been contacted for comment.
