Staind frontman Aaron Lewis has reacted after the cover art from his unreleased album was discovered shredded and repurposed as packaging in a Taylor Swift merch drop.
In a social media post, Lewis responded to a Swift fan’s unboxing video that showed her piecing together shredded paper that ultimately made up the cover of Lewis’s unreleased record, Give Me Back My Country.
“Oh look, there’s my new album, that hasn’t even been released yet, shredded as packaging paper in Taylor Swift merch,” Lewis wrote on X Thursday. “Ain’t that some s***.”
Lewis did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment.
People who ordered the CD collection for Swift’s new song “I Knew It, I Knew You” shared on social media that the merchandise was wrapped in paper that featured lyrics, art and album pages from Lewis’s album, which comes out July 17.
The record is being released through Big Machine Label Group, which is Swift’s former label, and the merchandise is being handled by Universal Music Group.
Big Machine and UMG did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment.
Swifties on social media initially thought the shredded pages contained easter eggs hinting at new music from the pop star.
However, Lewis — who has become known in recent years for his politically conservative country songs — has since set the record straight after telling USA Today that he found out about the situation through his team.
“I don’t have any social media. I didn’t have it when I was younger. It’s never felt important to me,” he told the outlet. “I never even had a MySpace. So I don’t see anything of that type of stuff. And when this was brought to me, I was just like, ‘What is going on? This is just weird.’”
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Lewis went on to say he was not happy about the mix-up. “That’s the cover to my brand new record that hasn’t even been put out yet,” he told USA Today. “As artists, we put our trust in the distribution companies to get our material way up front and trust that they’ll be responsible with what it is that we give them.”
He added that he is not blaming Swift for the incident, saying: “We live in two very, very different worlds. And she’s such a huge star that her world doesn’t intertwine with anyone’s worlds. I certainly wouldn’t be trying to bring her into this or blame her for anything. It just so happens that it was my record cover in her gift box for her fans.”