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Aaron Lewis says he was “stunned” after his album was reportedly used as shredded packing paper for Taylor Swift merch shipments
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Culture/The Apex Times/Jun 28, 2:35 AM EDT

Aaron Lewis says he was “stunned” after his album was reportedly used as shredded packing paper for Taylor Swift merch shipments

The country-rock singer, best known for his work with Staind, said he does not know how the pages from his album ended up in fulfillment boxes, after a report that the material appeared shredded in orders tied to Taylor Swift merchandise.

3 min readEditor-approved Apex article

Aaron Lewis said he was “stunned” after a report claimed his album material was used as shredded packing paper in shipments connected to Taylor Swift merch. Lewis, who is also credited under his name as the artist for the album in question in the reporting, told Page Six that he did not understand how the pages ended up in that role.

In the interview highlighted by Page Six, Lewis said, “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.” The singer framed his reaction around uncertainty about what occurred behind the scenes, rather than a claim of deliberate harm. He emphasized that he could not confirm the intent or the process that led to the packing material being tied to his work.

The Page Six report, published June 28, 2026, said the shredded pages from Lewis’s album appeared in packaging used for Taylor Swift merchandise. According to the same report, the issue came to light after merch shipments were inspected, with the distinctive pages identified as coming from Lewis’s album before being used as void fill or protective material inside boxes.

Lewis’s comments raise questions about how album assets are handled when the music market intersects with large-scale merch fulfillment operations. In packaging systems, materials can sometimes be produced or recycled across multiple production streams, but the report did not provide details on which specific companies were involved in production, recycling, or fulfillment, nor did it identify the internal chain of custody that produced the final packing material.

The reported incident also points to a practical gap that fans and artists often rely on, namely that albums and their printed components typically carry brand expectations and audience associations. When printed pages are repurposed in shipping, even unintentionally, it can cause reputational and commercial friction for the artist whose work is used, particularly when shipments are associated with a high-profile global brand like Swift’s merchandise operation.

For now, Lewis has not been reported as describing any specific demands, legal filings, or formal complaints in the Page Six item. The report functioned primarily as a discovery of what happened and as a record of Lewis’s reaction, including his emphasis that he could not verify whether the incident was malicious.

The next step in resolving the dispute would likely involve identifying the origin of the packing paper, including who produced it and how the material was selected for packaging. Until those operational details are established and publicly documented, the facts remain limited to what Lewis said about not knowing how the pages were used and what Page Six reported as the apparent connection between Lewis’s album pages and merch shipments.

Why It Matters

  • The incident underscores how printed creative assets can become entangled in large-scale merchandise distribution, potentially creating avoidable brand and rights concerns.
  • Artists may be affected even when they are not directly involved in fulfillment operations, especially when printed material is recognizable and linked to a specific album.
  • Clarifying who handled the material and why it was used could determine whether the episode was a process error, a sourcing issue, or something else entirely.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Page Six reported that shredded pages from Aaron Lewis’s album were used as packing material in Taylor Swift merch shipments.
  • In comments highlighted by Page Six on June 28, 2026, Lewis said he was “stunned” and does not know how the material ended up being used as packaging.
  • Lewis told Page Six he “hate[s] to think it’s malicious,” but said he also does not know that it is not.
  • The Page Six report did not, in its account, provide a detailed company-by-company chain of custody explaining how the album pages became packaging.