Country Star Zach Bryan Apologizes for 'Drunken' Tweet About Taylor Swift

Country music singer-songwriter Zach Bryan has apologized after "drunkenly" tweeting about Taylor Swift. The 28-year-old has since deleted his X (formerly Twitter) account and has pledged to fans to get his life back on track.

It all started late Tuesday night when Bryan posted "Eagles > Chiefs," followed by "Kanye > Taylor," then adding on a third line, "who's with me." At the time, fans (perhaps correctly) assumed that he was referring to the infamous feud between Taylor Swift and Kanye West; adding a jab in at Swift's boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who until recently was NFL rivals with his brother, newly retired Eagles center Jason Kelce.

If the intention was to rile up an army of Swifties, then suffice to say it worked. After the "Bad Blood" singer's fans piled into his mentions, Bryan deactivated his X account. And then early Thursday, he issued a lengthy apology via his Instagram stories.

"For the record guys I wasn't coming for Taylor the other night," Bryan explained in the first of four panels. "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."

"I love Taylor's music and pray you know guys know I'm human and tweet stupid things often," he continued. "Hope one day I can explain this to her. Twitter gets me in trouble too much it's best I stay off it. I'm sorry to any Taylor fans I pissed off or let down."

Bryan followed up this apology by noting that he's been going through a hard time and was perhaps projecting. "To be completely honest it just 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 said, adding "that's the last of it" and emphasizing "Don't drink and tweet!!"

However, that was by far the last of it. "Not saving face here, but Taylor has been a force of nature for as long as we've all been growing up and I admire that. I'm gonna go listen to this record now," Bryan wrote, along with a screenshot of Swift's 2023 song "Castles Crumbling (Taylor’s Version)." He added that he never wanted people to think he had a "hint of malice or meanness towards anyone, ever," which was why he was unburdening his soul with the lengthy missive.

"This year has been 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. So I'm gonna take a breather from tweeting stupid stuff, finish my tour, and ground myself somehow in the midst of all this," Bryan concluded his apology. "I feel very, very blessed each day. Not taking it for granted and holding onto it has been so important to me."

Presumably, these will be the last words he says on the subject. And in the meantime, probably best to put the phone down for now.