On Wednesday (September 18), Zach Bryan shared a now-deleted post on X where the 28-year-old country superstar wrote, “eagles > chiefs, Kanye > Taylor.” Bryan then asked his fans, “who’s with me,” which prompted online backlash from Swifties that caused him to subsequently delete his X account. In a series of Instagram stories posted the following day on Thursday, Bryan apologized and explained his actions.

“For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night,” Bryan stated, while sharing that he was listening to “Fortnight,” Swift’s recent collaboration with Post Malone. “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 guys know I’m human and tweet stupid things often. 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!” (People)