Here’s Why Taylor Swift Threatened Her Ex-Guitar Teacher With Legal Action a Decade Ago

According to an interview with the New York Daily News from 2015, computer specialist and sometimes musician Ronnie Cremer claimed to have been Taylor Swift’s guitar teacher and established the website itaughttaylorswift.com. As per Cosmopolitan , Swift also narrated a story in a promotional DVD from 2009 that a computer repairman happened to see her guitar when he was at her house. He then offered to show her some chords and inquired if she played. But what led to an almost lawsuit?

Well, Cremer claimed he taught Swift months before he ever worked on her computer. According to Cremer, Swift’s family asked him to offer her guitar lessons after she had a demo made at his studio . In the interview, Cremer said that he had been her private instructor for two years. However, the legal team representing Swift emailed him in February 2015, asking that he remove the site (ITaughtTaylorSwift.com) and threatening more legal action if he did not.

The email from TAS Rights Management, LCC, claimed that Cremer’s domain name “incorporates the famous Taylor Swift trademark in its entirety and suggests TAS’s sponsorship or endorsement of your website. The Domain Name and your use of the Domain Name are also highly likely to dilute, and to tarnish, the famous Taylor Swift trademark.” Cremer was asked to take down the site within three days before further legal action.

As per the outlet, Cremer said that he believed he was being ‘bullied’ and refused to give up the domain name that he purchased from GoDaddy. Cremer said that ever since he went public, he had been bombarded by irate admirers of Taylor. He added, “I got a lot of hate mail from Swift fans who just do not want to believe under any circumstances that Taylor lied to them. That’s she’s just not capable. That her story, that she called a ‘magical twist of fate’ story, could ever not be the truth.” Cremer claimed at the time that he was not furious and added, “I never wanted to be the person who always begrudged someone’s success. And for whatever reason, and I don’t know if I’m even mad at the Swifts. It’s just that their publicity team, that doesn’t sell as good, ‘a 36-year-old bald guy taught her’. That ain’t gonna work.”

Swift has gone after individuals by threatening legal action before, as well. According to the Nashville Post , in 2009, Swift’s ‘merchandise enforcement team’ sued 24 people for allegedly infringing on some of her unidentified trademarks. In the midst of the Kanye West and Kim Kardashian scandal, Kim shared recordings of West on speakerphone where Swift approved the line “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.” TMZ reported at the time that Swift’s legal team demanded Kardashian remove the film or face criminal prosecution in letters written before the videos were aired.