Aaron Lewis‘ new album, Give My Country Back, won’t be available until next month, but it’s already begun making the rounds — in the form of packing material for Taylor Swift merchandise.
Earlier this week, TikTok creator Christa Jo (@heartwasglassidroppedit) posted an unboxing video for CDs of Swift’s new single “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which is featured in Toy Story 5. As she rifles through the recycled packaging, she finds what appears to be a “whole music book” for Lewis’ new album, complete with lyrics. The material is shredded, but Lewis’ visage against an American flag background is unmistakable.
Lewis reposted the video and addressed the packaging issue on Thursday. “Oh look, there’s my new album, that hasn’t even been released yet, shredded as packaging paper in Taylor Swift merch,” Lewis wrote on social media. “Ain’t that some shit.”
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Lewis told USA Today he learned about the packing incident from his team but doesn’t know why it happened. “I don’t have any social media. I didn’t have it when I was younger. It’s never felt important to me,” he said. “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 added: “I don’t know how this happened. I hate to think it’s malicious, but at the same time, I don’t know that it’s not.”
Loudwire has reached out to Big Machine Records and Swift’s team for comment.
What to Expect From Aaron Lewis’ ‘Give My Country Back’
Lewis will release Give My Country Back on July 17 via Big Machine Label Group — incidentally, the label that signed Swift as its first artist and released the pop superstar’s first six albums. The album has been preceded by two singles so far: the defiantly pro-MAGA title track and the acoustic ballad “The Door.”
The Staind frontman previously praised Big Machine for standing by him amid the backlash to his 2021 conservative anthem “Am I the Only One,” even if he and label boss Scott Borchetta didn’t see eye to eye.
“There was an all-out call for my cancelation when I put out ‘Am I The Only One,'” Lewis said on The Devin Nunes Podcast in 2024. “I’m very blessed in the sense that even though my label president Scott Borchetta does not agree with us at all, he believes in the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression and he’s a president of a record label — that is creativity, that’s freedom of expression.”
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