Underfire Scooter Braun - branded a 'manipulative bully' by popstar Taylor Swift after acquiring her back catalog of music - insisted he was not a morally-bankrupt, money-obsessed businessman while negotiations were underway to buy her old record label.

DailyMail.com spoke with Braun in an exclusive interview in May as he was putting the finishing touches on his deal to purchase Swifts' old record label Big Machine Label Group for $300million.

The deal was announced Sunday, prompting Swift to publish a scathing Tumblr post hours later where she opened up about her fraught relationship with Braun.

But just a month before the war with the popstar broke out, Braun said he was not in the music industry just for the cash or any other self-serving motives - as Swift seems to suggest.

Speaking alongside his wife Yael Cohen, he said: 'You only get to keep your blessings if you give them, and the two of us are incredibly fortunate.

'I will just say it we would be a bunch of a**holes if we did not give back.'