Scooter Braun Recalls First Impression of Taylor Swift Before Master Recordings Drama

Scooter Braun is opening up about the first time he met Taylor Swift.

The 38-year-old celeb manager recalled meeting the 29-year-old entertainer and Scott Borchetta, the founder of Big Machine Label, years ago when his client Justin Bieber opened Taylor‘s Fearless Tour.

“Everyone at Big Machine — Taylor was kind, Scott was kind,” Scooter told Billboard. “Everyone was kind to me and Justin when we were doing that show, and you don’t forget those things. I never forgot that, and we started a friendship.”

Since their first meeting years ago, their friendship has ended after Scooter acquired Taylor‘s master recordings seemingly without her knowledge.

Billboard reports that both Scooter and Scott declined to comment on Taylor‘s scathing note where she called Scooter “manipulative” and accused him of “bullying” during the interview.

“There was a conversation a few years back and it never really got off the ground, but it was fascinating to me even then,” Scott shared about partnering with Scooter. “There were a lot of things we would throw back and forth — we ended up doing something together with Rascal Flatts and Justin Bieber — and then it got very serious last fall.”

Scooter then defended acquiring Big Machine, saying, “If Scott sold the company to someone else, then they would have done what usually happens, which is you take the catalogs, you strip it all down, people get laid off—and that’s not right, those people put us in this position.”

Taylor Swift is currently signed to Universal Music Group, which she will be releasing her new album Lover through.