Zach Bryan apologizes for ‘drunkenly’ comparing Taylor Swift and Kanye West

After drawing Swiftie ire, Zach Bryan knows the dangers of drinking and posting all too well.

The country music star, 28, released a lengthy apology on Thursday after receiving backlash for a post on X where he stated that Ye, formerly Kanye West, is better than Taylor Swift. In the short X post on Tuesday, he also said the Philadelphia Eagles are superior to the Kansas City Chiefs, the team on which Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce plays.

“eagles > chiefs,” Bryan wrote in his original X post, according to screenshots shared by Variety and Rolling Stone. “Kanye > Taylor. who’s with me.”

The “Something in the Orange” singer has since deactivated his X account. But on Thursday, he took to his Instagram story to apologize for the message.

“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. I know there’s a lot of stuff that clouds around Ye and I was speaking purely musically.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

He continued, “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.”

Country music star Zach Bryanarrested in Oklahoma: ‘I was out of line’

Swift has infamously had a long-running feud with Ye and his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, going back to when the “Stronger” rapper interrupted Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to declare that Beyoncé should have won best female video. In 2016, a dispute over whether Swift approved a controversial lyric about her in Ye’s song “Famous” led to the pop star’s “Reputation” era. It also appeared to inspire two songs on her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

In 2022, Ye drew widespread backlash after making a series of antisemitic statements, including telling controversial talk show host Alex Jones, “I like Hitler.” The rapper said he sees “good things” about the Nazi leader who led the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Ye apologized last year to “the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions.”

Zach Bryanreleases entirely self-produced album: ‘I put everything I could in it’

Country music star Zach Bryanarrested in Oklahoma: ‘I was out of line’

Swift has infamously had a long-running feud with Ye and his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, going back to when the “Stronger” rapper interrupted Swift’s speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to declare that Beyoncé should have won best female video. In 2016, a dispute over whether Swift approved a controversial lyric about her in Ye’s song “Famous” led to the pop star’s “Reputation” era. It also appeared to inspire two songs on her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”