Eric Church Reflects on Being Dragged Into Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ Lawsuit: ‘How Did This Even Happen?’

Eric Church looked back on his unexpected involvement in the lawsuit over Taylor Swift‘s hit single “Shake It Off” in a new interview.

Back in 2017, the superstar got hit with allegations of copyright infringement by Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, the songwriters behind 3LW’s 2001 single “Playas Gon’ Play.”

“In her deposition, when [talking about the line] ‘players gonna play, haters gonna hate,’ she says, ‘The first time I heard that phrase was in Eric Church’s song ‘The Outsiders,’” the country singer explained in a sit-down with Rolling Stone published Friday (June 6). “She was saying she never heard it on [the 3LW song], which is what they were suing her for. And two weeks later, I got served by the people that were suing her!”

According to Church, getting slapped with his own legal papers prompted him to reach out to Swift via text. “I was like, ‘Hey, thanks. Next time, let’s just skip that part?’” he said. “And she sent me a text: ‘I’m sorry. It’s the truth, though. That’s when I heard that phrase.’”

“It’s since been settled,” Church added of his own involvement. However, the “Hands of Time” singer concluded in the interview that the whole experience still had him wondering, “‘How did this even happen?’”

Since an agreement to drop the “Shake It Off” lawsuit was reached between Swift, Hall and Butler in late 2022, Church has released his eighth studio album, 2025’s Evangeline vs. the Machine, which he’ll be promoting this fall with his upcoming Free the Machine Tour.

More recently, Church also collaborated with Morgan Wallen on I’m the Problem album cut “Number 3 and Number 7,” and in the same Rolling Stone interview, defended Bruce Springsteen after the namesake of his hit 2011 single “Springsteen” criticized President Trump and his administration during a concert.