Country artist Aaron Lewis has voiced his surprise after pages from his unreleased album were discovered shredded and used as packing material in merchandise orders for Taylor Swift.
Lewis, known for his work with the band Staind, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday to share his reaction. "Oh look, there’s my new album, that hasn’t even been released yet, shredded as packaging paper in Taylor Swift merch," he wrote. "Ain’t that some s—."
The discovery was made by fans who had purchased Swift's new "I Knew It, I Knew You" CD collection. Initially, some fans speculated the shredded paper contained hidden lyrics from Swift, but it was soon identified as content from Lewis's forthcoming album, "Give Me Back My Country." The album is scheduled for release on July 17 through Big Machine Label Group, which was formerly Swift's label. The merchandise was handled by Universal Music Group.
Lewis stated that he first heard about the incident from his team, as he does not actively use social media. "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 USA Today. "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.'"
He further expressed his disbelief that fans received parts of an album that had not yet been released. "That’s the cover to my brand new record that hasn’t even been put out yet," Lewis said. "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."
Lewis noted that he met Swift in 2016 at a Big Machine Label Group event and does not believe the pop superstar is to blame for the packaging error. "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," he said. "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."
Regarding the cause of the mix-up, Lewis admitted he has no explanation. "I don’t know how this happened," he stated. "I hate to think it’s malicious, but at the same time, I don’t know that it’s not. It’s not like it’s 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."
Lewis also emphasized that he does not wish for this incident to be seen as a promotional opportunity for his new record. "I don’t want people to think that this was an opportunity to promote my new record," he said.