Scott Borchetta reminisces about meeting Taylor Swift twenty years ago

Scott Borchetta takes a walk down memory lane as he recalls the intersecting paths with Taylor Swift.

“It was 20 years ago today… a Beatles reference might not be far off… ,” Borchetta, 62, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, November 2. “Today marks twenty years since I first met Taylor. A day that changed our lives.”

Alongside the message, the CEO of Big Machine Label Group uploaded a photo of a teenage Swift, now 34, sitting in front of a microphone in a crowded room.

“This photo was taken two nights later at the Bluebird Cafe,” his caption continued. “You can see the back of my head, lower left, T, and then Andrea across the room…”

Borchetta concluded, “Always proud of the art and work she did when we were together… and just as proud of her now. Keep crushing it… xx.”

The history of Borchetta and Swift goes back years. After the Eras tour executor announced via Instagram in November 2018 that she had found a “new home” at Republic Records, thanking Borchetta. “I’m so excited,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to show you what I’m going to make next.”

As part of the agreement Scooter Braun acquired the back catalog of master recordings from Big Machine and Swift. Swift took to Tumblr in 2019 to call out Braun, 43, and Borchetta.

“Never in my worst nightmares did I think the buyer would be Scooter. “Every time Scott Borchetta heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ leave my lips, it was when I was crying or trying not to,” she wrote. “He knew what he was doing; they both did it. Control over a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. Forever. That means forever.”

Borchetta responded in June 2019 in a post on the label’s website titled “So, It’s Time For Some Truth.” In the upload, he claimed that he “personally texted Taylor… to inform her before the story (of the Braun acquisition) broke… so she could hear it directly from me.” He claimed that Swift had “every chance in the world to own not only her master recordings, but every video, photo, and everything related to her career,” but that she still “chose to leave Big Machine.”

Swift’s lawyer Donald Passman denied in a July 2019 statement that Brochetta gave her “the opportunity to purchase her masters, or the label, directly with a check.”

The following month, Swift announced her plans to re-record and release her discography as ‘Taylor’s Version’. (She has since fallen Fearless, Red, speak now And 1989. Swift has yet to be re-released Reputation and her self-titled debut.)

Swift further claimed that Borchetta and Braun denied her the right to perform her old songs at the 2019 American Music Awards and use her songs in her Netflix documentary, Ms. Americana. Big Machine denied the allegations.

The following year, Borchetta seemed motivated to take the past behind him. When asked if he was still “rooting” for Swift, he told Billboard in 2020: “Of course. I mean, I will always advocate for her. She is brilliant and we have had a historic run.”