Aaron Lewis CD booklet used as Taylor Swift merch packaging
How shredded booklets featuring lyrics to Lewis’ unreleased album ended up as packing material for Swift’s Toy Story merch remains a mystery.
Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Last week, a fan was taken aback by the packing contents of her recent Taylor Swift merch order. She’d purchased items from Swift’s Toy Story 5 collab and received a box packed with paper covered in song lyrics. It was later revealed that the “paper” was shredded CD booklets from Aaron Lewis’ new, unreleased country album, Give My Country Back, which isn’t due out until July 17.
Lewis is best known for founding Staind, though he left the alt-metal group in 2010 to pursue country music. Over the last decade, he has been a vehement supporter of President Donald Trump, and Give My Country Back promises to be a MAGA paean. Its title track lead single features such lyrics as “if you don’t like my country, you can give my country back / if you don’t like my country, you can kiss my country ass.”
The Swift fan had unsurprisingly never heard of Lewis and documented her discovery of his political leanings on TikTok, responding with repeated “ew”s. The fan overlaid the video with the caption, “Opening my swiftie merch & Idk how but UMG just leaked full album lyrics to an album that hasn’t released yet.”
Lewis reacted on social media, writing, “Oh look, there’s my new album, that hasn’t even been released yet, shredded as packaging paper in Taylor Swift merch. Ain’t that some shit.” He continued, “As artists, we put our trust in the distribution companies to get our material way up front and trust they’ll be responsible with what it is that we give them. I hate to think it’s malicious, but at the same time, I don’t know that it’s not. I haven’t even put the record out yet. It’s not like its old stuff that was just sitting around that they decided to make packing material out of. It’s my new record. I just don’t understand how something like that can happen.”
Swift and Lewis have apparently met once, over a decade ago. Lewis made clear he doesn’t blame the artist, who is busy getting ready for her wedding. “We live in two very, very different worlds,” he told USA Today. “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.”
UMG has not yet commented on the matter.
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