Damon Albarn has walked back comments he made about Taylor Swift after the pop star furiously called him out on Twitter, dubbing his remarks about her songwriting "completely false and so damaging".
The musician from Blur and Gorillaz accused Swift of not writing her own songs in an interview with the LA Times, saying he preferred Billie Eilish who was less "endlessly upbeat".
When the interviewer said that Swift co-writes her music, Albarn responded: "That doesn't count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing."
"I'm not hating on anybody," he continued. "I'm just saying there's a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes."
Albarn's comments immediately prompted backlash online, with Swift's fans and collaborators coming to her defence.
Producer Jack Antanoff wrote: "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."
Swift confronted the 'Song 2' hitmaker herself, telling him: "I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL of my own songs."
"Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging," she added. "You don't have to like my songs but it's really f**ked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW."
"PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering," she followed up in a separate tweet.
Albarn quickly backpedaled, insisting the LA Times had presented his comments as "clickbait".
"I totally agree with you," he replied to Swift's tweet.
"I had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait. I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand."
Swift is not the first pop star to be burned by Albarn. In 2016, he declared he would "never" work with Adele again, calling her "insecure" after they attempted to collaborate on her album 25.
Adele later told Rolling Stone she regretted hanging out with Albarn, saying it was a 'don't meet your idols' moment.
