Taylor Swift has been scrubbed from a famous Nashville mural that pays homage to country music legends, replaced by Brad Paisley.
Swift’s fans are in a social media uproar about the mural change at Legends Corner, a bar next to the famed Ryman Auditorium in Music City, which is undergoing an overhaul by artist Tim Davis.
Other country music stars who appear in the painting include Keith Urban, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton and Willie Nelson. Paisley can now be seen sitting in the chair where the “Evermore” singer/songwriter had previously been perched.
Swift fans have insisted this is unfair to the artist who was awarded a rare Pinnacle Award at the 2013 CMAs.
“Taylor Swift did not become the first woman to be awarded the Pinnacle Award and contributed so much to country music only to be replaced on a Nashville mural, utter disrespect,” wrote Twitter user @MissAmericHANA
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Twitter user @ahmedsmith13 wrote, “Taylor Swift, an artist who has the most awarded country album in history and ‘has achieved both national and international prominence through at levels unique in country music,’ is having her spot on the legends corner mural given to Brad Paisley and for what???”
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Swift and for Legends Corner.
In an email Sunday to USA TODAY, Davis confirmed he’s been working on planned changes to the mural in the past week, including “covering up Taylor and adding Brad Paisley.”
“Ultimately, the changes are not up to me, but up to the owners of the Legends Corner bar. … They have had the intention from the start to change it up once in a while, taking some artists off and adding others,” Davis wrote.
The plan is to add three more country stars to the portrait, including one female artist already “sketched out between Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks” – whom Davis will not yet reveal. He will be adding the others throughout January as weather permits.
As far as Swift’s removal, Davis says, “I have heard many complaints here in Nashville about Taylor being on the wall with country legends since she is currently focused mainly on pop. Some inebriated bar hoppers have spit on her image specifically, feeling betrayed by her venture from country. I guess this is to be expected, but by in large, the people of Nashville love her, as do I.”
Davis even hopes to paint a mural in downtown Nashville “that would feature her alone, one side dedicated to her country roots and the other to her success crossing over into pop since I think both are significant.”
He has set up a GoFundMe page, which seeks to raise $35,000 for a Swift mural.
“As a music legend in her own right, and having introduced many to the country music genre, she should be featured on a prominent mural in Music City that showcases both her country roots, and her earned status as the queen of pop,” the pages explains, seeking to cover “all expenses to making this happen.”
