Taylor Swift’s first manager speaks out against her in new Channel 4 documentary charting superstar’s success amid multiples feuds along the way
Taylor Swift’s’ former manager has slammed her for using fans to fight her battles in a new documentary to be broadcast on Channel 4. Taylor asked fans to let their feelings be known after her former record label boss Scott Borchetta sold her back catalogue to Scooter Braun for more than $300 million (£222m) in June 2019. It meant Taylor lost control over her musical legacy.
Taylor wrote on social media: “Please let Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun know how you feel about this. Scooter also manages several artists who I really believe care about other artists and their work. Please ask them for help with this – I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote.”
However, Scooter hit back, claiming his family received death threats. Now Channel 4’s new documentary sees her first manager Rick Barker slam her behaviour.
He says, “No one stole her music, no one made her sign a bad record deal, those were the types of record deals everyone signed at that time and Scooter Braun made a very good business decision. The decision Taylor made to turn the fans loose on Scott and Scooter with only half of the conversation…
“I was a little disappointed, death threats started happening, people started showing up at people’s houses and this was something that should have been discussed behind the scenes. They are called fans for a reason – it’s short for fanatics.”
The show also features interviews with songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall, who was one of the first to witness Taylor’s ability to turn out hit songs. He worked with her in 2003 when she was just 13 to record a demo featuring three tracks called Invisible, Just South Of Knowing Why and Need You Now.
Recalling their studio sessions, Robert tells the documentary, “Right from the get-go Taylor directed the session. We wrote three songs in the first two days that we were together and two of those are on the debut album, Taylor Swift. After we’d written a few songs, her dad said, ‘Here’s another 15 that she wrote.’”
Holding up a CD for the camera, Robert reveals he has another 16 songs written by Taylor that have never been heard by the public.
“I have tons of these from way back,” he says on the show, which features interviews with lots of Taylor’s early collaborators. “Here are 16 songs copyright 2003, the same year we started writing. None of those are anything you’ve ever heard.”
While Robert was co-writing with Taylor, he credits her with bringing all the creative ideas, saying she was a powerhouse even in her early teens. When he was working with Taylor, Robert quickly recognised the huge star she would become. Robert was one of the co-writers on her early track Place In This World and he was confident it would speak to fans. “Every kid feels that way and millions of kids could relate to that,” says Robert. “She had a plan and she wasn’t going to go off that plan. She was not going to be stopped. People were telling her ‘no’ left and right… She was having none of that.”
Robert helped Taylor get discovered, encouraging her to sing at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville where he had a regular slot. On that stage she was spotted by Scott Borchetta who signed her to his new Big Machine Records label.
In the documentary, audio footage of Taylor talking about her big break is played. She says, “I’m looking out and seeing all these faces and there is one guy that is really getting it and has his eyes closed and I kept noticing him and after the show he said, ‘Hi, I’m Scott Borchetta.’ He goes, ‘The good news is that I want to set up my own record labels and I would like you to consider being one of my first artists.’” The pair worked together for 12 years and released six albums.
This year, Taylor, now 35, announced her engagement to American football star Travis Kelce. And even her former manager Rick is wishing her well. He tells the film crew, “I hope what comes next for Taylor is that she has found her person and that she gets to experience the things that most people get to experience and that some people give the girl a break.”
Taylor, Tuesday 30 September, 9.15pm, Channel 4