Kelly Clarkson has revealed Scooter Braun “took offense” when she suggested Taylor Swift re-record her back catalogue.
Kelly tweeted at the time: “@taylorswift13 just a thought, U should go in + re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art + some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions.(sic)”
Reflecting on the aftermath, the ‘Breakaway’ singer told Andy Cohen on a SiriusXM Town Hall special: “I think Scooter took offense to it, because we ran into each other, and I think he reached out at the time to my manager. I was like, ‘It wasn’t anything against him.’
“When she came out and said that and I heard about it, I was like, ‘Whatever. Re-record them. Your fans will support you.’ Uh, they did. She has like every top record right now in the charts.
“He called my manager at the time I heard, and I don’t know what happened or what was said, but I think he thought I was attacking him. I was like, ‘I honest to God didn’t even realise who had the [rights].’ I didn’t even know all the information.(sic)”
Kelly hailed Taylor a “genius” and admitted she felt it was “wrong” the ‘Love Story’ singer didn’t get the chance to buy her own master recordings.
She continued: “All I heard was, ‘Man, I really want to own,’ and I was like, ‘Man, that song… She writes everything. It’s so important to her. She’s a businesswoman.’
Clarkson continued, “I knew it was important to her, so I thought, ‘Why don’t you just re-record them? Your fans will support you.’ Literally, she’s a genius. Not only did she re-record it, she planned this ‘Eras Tour’ — like, this woman is brilliant.”
While Taylor has so far recorded and released ‘Taylor’s Versions’ of her early albums ‘Red’ and ‘Fearless’, with ‘Speak Now’ set to follow next month, and ‘1989’, ‘Reputation’ and ‘Taylor Swift’ to follow at later dates, Kelly doesn’t think her suggestion had much influence.
She said: “I think she is brilliant. She would’ve come up with that on her own and she maybe already had before I even tweeted it.”
Scooter later sold the catalogue to private equity company Shamrock Holdings in a deal reportedly worth more than $300 million.