Bluegrass musician Billy Strings has shared a song about a fan who is wanted by Tulsa police for stealing a Taylor Swift poster while wearing Strings’ merchandise.
The Tulsa Police Department posted on social media on Friday (January 12) asking for help in identifying the man who took the poster.
“This person of interest and apparent fan went a little extreme to get a souvenir of his favorite performer,” they wrote.
Need help identifying this “Swiftie”This person of interest and apparent fan went a little extreme to get a souvenir…
Posted by Tulsa Police Department on Friday, January 12, 2024
The man in question was wearing a Billy Strings hat, as shown by the CCTV footage that captured him leaving the AMC cinema with the 6×4 poster, which had been displayed in a glass frame.
“While this may seem relatively juvenile and benign,” the police post continued, “it caused thousands of dollars of damage to the poster frame. Whether you love T. Swift or not, it’s not cool to destroy other people’s things and abscond with stuff that doesn’t belong to you.”
Strings has responded by penning a song about the incident, which he has posted on social media. The lyrics include the lines: “Down in Tulsa, Oklahoma there’s a movie theatre there / They play lots of movies from Step Brothers to Con Air / And they’ve been playing concerts that old Taylor Swift had done / And some old boy walked in and ripped a poster down from one”.
Posting a live performance of the track on Instagram, Strings also wrote: “Don’t condone stealing Taylor Swift’s stuff, even if her bass was bumping in the next room over and disturbing my precious one on one time with the great Nick Cage. Don’t be an asshat. No pun intended.”
Billy Strings won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album for his fourth studio album ‘Home’ in 2021. His latest album ‘Renewal’ was released later that year.
In other Taylor Swift news, the American football veteran Tony Dungy accused her of “disenchanting” NFL fans with her regular appearances at the games of her boyfriend Travis Kelce.
“There’s so much on the outside coming in. Entertainment value and different things that’s taking away from what really happens on the field,” he said.
The Pentagon has also formally denied rumours spread by Fox News that Swift is a “political asset” for the government. News anchor Jesse Watters had previously gone on a rant about whether she could be part of a psychological operation manufactured by the CIA.
A recent report also showed that one in every 78 song streams in the US last year was a Swift song.