- Borchetta’s race car went off the track at Trans AM2 Series in Georgia on Sunday
- The 60-year-old music label executive is said to be in ‘stable condition’
- He infamously sold his label with all of Taylor Swifts early albums
The Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta is now in ‘stable condition’ after he crashed his race car on Sunday at the Trans AM2 Series in Georgia.
The 60-year-old executive, who infamously sold his label — and Taylor Swift’s early master recordings — to Scooter Braun in 2019, was recuperating after the scary crash, which happened during the 24th lap around the track, according to Toby Christie.
‘I can tell you [Scott] is OK. He is conscious, and he’s been talking to his team, but he is on his way to the hospital,’ commentators announcing the race said shortly after the incident, according to the sit. ‘It was a big hit, but I am glad to say he is now in good care and being taken to the hospital. That’s the latest.’
On Monday, Borchetta’s label confirmed his crash, saying that he ‘was taken to the hospital to assess his injuries and is currently in stable condition.’
‘We ask everyone to please respect the Borchetta family’s privacy during this time,’ it added in a statement.
The Trans Am Series also released a statement from President John Clagett and PMH CEO Tony Parella about Borchetta’s crash that wished him a ‘speedy recovery.’
‘Scott is a passionate and talented competitor, and his dedication to Trans Am is evidenced by his participation as a team owner, driver and partner,’ it read, adding that the safety of the Trans Am Series’ drivers was its ‘number one priority.’
‘We are deeply thankful to the safety and medical crews at the racetrack, as well as those at the local hospital who have provided excellent care,’ it concluded.
Although Borchetta is best known for leading Big Machine Records, which specializes in country and pop music, he has also shown a passion for racing in the past few decades.
He competed in motorcycle and quarter midget racing when he was younger, but he gave up the sport to focus on his music industry career.
However, Borchetta returned to racing in 1995 when he participated in a race at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway featuring legend cars, which are 5/8-scale vehicles modeled on classic automobiles from the 1930s and ’40s.
Later in the decade, he graduated to the NASCAR SuperTruck series, where he won consecutive championships in 2003, ’04 and ’05.
He made his debut with the Trans Am series in 2020, and in 2021 he founded Big Machine Racing.
Borchetta has played a major role in advancing the careers of country stars including Tim McGraw, Carly Pearce and Sugarland, while Rscall Flatts and legends including Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire and Trisha Yearwood were at one time signed to the label.
The executive garnered a bevy of bad publicity in 2019, when he sold his label to the executive and talent agent Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
Although the move gave Braun control of the entire label, fans were focused on its most high-profile asset: Taylor Swift’s master recordings.
Swift later claimed that she had tried to purchase her master recordings from Big Machine, only to be rebuffed by Borchetta, who allegedly would only allow her to buy her masters album by album, in exchange for recording additional LPs with the label, which she would not own the master recordings of.
Braun’s company Ithaca Holdings and all of its Big Machine assets were later sold off to the South Korean entertainment company Hybe Corporation, though Borchetta was allowed to continue as Big Machine’s CEO.
Despite her master’s changing hands multiple times, Swift may have gotten the last laugh, as she has started a project to rerecord all of her old albums.
The new releases, subtitled ‘Taylor’s Version,’ are in most cases nearly identical to the originals, but Swift owns all the rights to the recordings, and she has urged her fans to only purchase or stream her rerecorded versions going forward in order to starve Big Machine and its owner of revenue from her music.
Swift owns the masters to all of her albums from Lover going forward, including the hit surprise albums Folklore and Evermore, and her most recent success, 2022’s Midnights.
The artist was honored with the Innovator Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Monday evening.
