Pros and cons. Linda Perry weighed in on Taylor Swift’s fight to perform her old songs amid her ongoing battle with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta.
“There’s positives and there’s obvious negatives,” Perry, 54, told Us Weekly exclusively at Equality Now Make Equality Reality Gala on Tuesday, November 19. “The negatives are it’s kind of uncool to do that to your artist or any artist. This is our material. These are our songs, and at very early ages, a lot of artists sign these big publishing deals because you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re getting promised all these big bucks. You don’t know how valuable you are. You’re nobody at the moment, you know? So you don’t know. Taylor didn’t know that she was probably going to be Taylor, right?”
The songwriter added: “The positive is every time we expose something negative, it really opens up the eyes of everybody and we’re able to correct.”
Perry noted that Swift’s “unfortunate situation is going to open the doors and fix a lot of future problems other artists could possibly run into.”
The 29-year-old Grammy winner made headlines earlier this month when she accused Braun, 38, and Borchetta, 57, of blocking her from performing her previous hits during the 2019 American Music Awards. “They claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year,” she wrote via her Instagram Story on Thursday, November 14.
Swift pointed out that sharing her story could “change the awareness level for other artists” and keep them from suffering a “similar fate.” Her former label, Big Machine Records, denied her allegations.
Big Machine claimed in a statement to Us on Monday, November 18, that the label and Dick Clark Productions reached an agreement for the “Lover” singer to perform at the AMAs. However, the production company said, “At no time did Dick Clark Productions agree to, create, authorize or distribute a statement in partnership with Big Machine Label Group regarding Taylor Swift’s performance at the 2019 American Music Awards. Any final agreement on this matter needs to be made directly with Taylor Swift’s management team.”
In the meantime, Us exclusively reported that Swift retooled her set due to the drama. “Taylor has had to plan a different performance for the AMAs because Big Machine has not waived the re-record restriction provision and they have claimed the re-broadcast would be a breach of her contract,” a source revealed. “Our show is taped to air later in over 200 countries, is available on video on demand and posts on YouTube after the live performance airs.”
A separate insider told Us that the Cats star “will not stand for bullying and wants to ensure this never happens to another artist.”
With reporting by Paris Hampton
