Zach Bryan has deactivated his X account and issued an apology after posting a controversial tweet suggesting he preferred Kanye West to Taylor Swift.
The country star on Wednesday posted the tweet comparing the two artists who have been publicly feuding since the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when West, who now goes by the name Ye, interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video, claiming that Beyoncé deserved the award instead.
“eagles > chiefs,” Bryan wrote, followed by, “Kanye > Taylor.” He ended the post with “Who’s with me?” according to Billboard.
Despite deleting his X account, Bryan remained active on Instagram, posting four Instagram Stories featuring Ye songs, including “Good Life,” featuring T-Pain, “I Thought About Killing You,” “All Mine” and “Ghost Town”” featuring PARTYNEXTDOOR.
On Thursday, Bryan broke his silence, posting an apology via his Instagram Stories
“For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night,” he wrote.
“I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong,” he continued. “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 guys know I’m human and tweet stupid things often. Hope one day I can explain this to her. 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!”
In a second post, Bryan revealed that he was “going through a hard time” in his own life.
“I think I was projecting a little,” he wrote. “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. Okay, that’s the last of it! Love you guys and hope you guys understand. Don’t drink and tweet. Don’t drink and tweet!!”
Concluding his apology, Bryan wrote that he plans to “ground” himself.
“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,” he wrote.
“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. I feel very, very blessed each day,” he continued. “Not taking it for granted and holding onto it has been so important to me, Okay, needed to get this off my chest, yall are the best and I’ll see you at Bourbon and Beyond.”