Damon Albarn doesn’t want bad blood with Taylor Swift.
The British musician apologized “unreservedly and unconditionally” to the “All Too Well” singer via Twitter on Monday after claiming in a Los Angeles Times interview that she “doesn’t write her own songs.”
In response to Swift and her legion of fans slamming him for his “completely false” claims, Albarn tweeted, “I totally agree with you.”
“I had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait,” he alleged. “The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand.”
The LA Times hit back at his “clickbait” explanation, releasing the full transcript from the interview, which proved the exchange wasn’t taken out of context.
“I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing. I’m not hating on anybody, I’m just saying there’s a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes,” Albarn, 53, said during his chat with pop music critic Mikael Wood.
He continued, “Doesn’t mean that the outcome can’t be really great … I suppose I’m a traditionalist in that sense.”
After initially hearing about Albarn’s interview, Swift, 32, was quick to call him out on Twitter.
“@DamonAlbarn I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this,” she wrote. “I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really f–ked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”
She added, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”
Swift’s fans and collaborators were quick to jump to her defense, including producer Jack Antonoff.
“I’ve never met damon albarn and he’s never been to my studio but apparently he knows more than the rest of us about all those songs taylor writes and brings in. herb,” the Bleachers musician, 37, tweeted.
