Zach Bryan Apologizes for Saying He Prefers Kanye “Ye” West Over Taylor Swift: “Taylor Has Been a Force of Nature”

Zach Bryan has some regrets.

After saying he preferred Kanye “Ye” West over Taylor Swift on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, the musician has since deactivated his account on the platform and shared a lengthy apology on his Instagram Stories, with songs by the global superstar.

“For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night,” he began his first of four posts on the platform. “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. 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 his second post, the singer-songwriter noted that he’s been going through “a hard time” in his own life and was “projecting a little.” He added, “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 as a musician. Okay, that’s the last of it! Love you guys and hope you guys understand.”

However, that was not the last of it. Bryan then shared that he wasn’t trying to save face “but Taylor has been a force of nature for as long as we’ve all been growing up and I admire that.” He noted that he was going to go listen to her song “Castles Crumbling” and that he never wants people to think he has malice or meanness toward anyone, especially not Swift.

He concluded his posts by writing that this year in his life has been a lot on him in personal ways no one knows about, and he’s been trying to cope and balance too many things at once.

“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,” he said. “I feel very, very blessed each day. Not taking it for granted and holding onto it has been so important to me. Okay, needed to get this off my chest, y’all are the best and I’ll see you at Bourbon and Beyond,” an upcoming festival.

Bryan and Swift both have songs on Billboard’s 200 album chart’s top 10 this week, as The Tortured Poets Department sits at No. 5, while Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene is two spots below at No. 7. West’s newest album, Vultures 2, is entirely out of the Billboard 200 chart.