Scott Borchetta recently became public enemy number one after he sold Big Machine Label Group, along with the rights to Taylor Swift’s music, to her arch nemesis, Scooter Braun. An angry mob of Swifties is one thing, but Scott just put another target on his back, and this time, it’s the Bootleggers that have him in the crosshairs.
In a recent interview with HITS Daily Double, Scott Borchetta opened up on the state of country music, particularly the genre’s young stars, arguing that country music doesn’t have any true headliners under the age of 30, except of course for his own Big Machine artist, Thomas Rhett.
“Thomas Rhett is arguably the only headliner in his 20s. Luke Combs will be 28, and he has a fighting chance of being a true headliner. Turning 26 this year will be Kane Brown and Kelsea Ballerini. We don’t have one artist under 25 making headlining impact. Huge opportunity. No one’s in their early 20s, not since Taylor. Look what she did for the format. And I think there can be another Dixie Chicks/ShaniaTwain/Taylor moment.”
Excuse me for one second…
Look Scotty, may I call you Scotty? Here’s the thing…
I know you want to pump up your boy Thomas Rhett because he’s on your label, inflate that already massive ego that you have, and shit on other artists that are exploding faster than a nuclear bomb, but you’re off your goddamn rocker if you think Luke Combs isn’t a true headliner. He’s literally headlining a fucking arena tour, performing at some of the SAME EXACT ARENAS that Thomas Rhett is playing. Fighting chance? What’s the definition of fighting chance? “A small possibility to succeed or overcome a situation.” Small possibility? Fuck outta my face with that noise.
If you throw in the streaming numbers, album sales, and all the chart records that he is currently obliterating, Luke is wiping the floor with Thomas Rhett… and just about everybody else in the business.
Now, let’s get to Kane Brown. While Kane is on tour with Aldean this summer and not embarking on a massive arena tour of his own for the rest of the year, he will be headlining the 21,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles later this fall. Stadium shows aside, he offered up a pretty simple, and extremely fucking accurate, explanation for why Scott would say something like this.
He don’t know what he’s talking about…. it’s cause we ain’t on his label
— Kane Brown (@kanebrown) July 9, 2019
You gotta love an artist that’s willing to get on Twitter and call out the bullshit when they see it. Kane is always good for a comeback, Maren Morris as well, but at the end of the day, Kane is right. If Kane, Luke or Maren, or Kelsea was on Big Machine, this conversation never would’ve happened. Kane eventually dropped the mic with one final tweet about just how clueless Scott appears to be.
Me and Luke’s about to start sending him tickets to shows ????????♂️
— Kane Brown (@kanebrown) July 9, 2019
Translation: Here’s some tickets for my next stadium show, now go fuck yourself.
Gotta love it.
