Jack White has weighed in on a week-long online debate about the drumming prowess of his former White Stripes bandmate and ex-wife Meg White.
Following the band’s nomination to the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the US political reporter Lachlan Markay tweeted: “The tragedy of the White Stripes is how great they would’ve been with a half decent drummer. Yeah yeah I’ve heard all the ‘but it’s a carefully crafted sound mannnn!’ takes. I’m sorry Meg White was terrible.”
Meg White is noted for what she has called her “childlike style”. In 2002, Jack White told reporter Jim DeRogatis: “She’s perfect; she’s the best part of the band, really. Her style is just so simplistic that I can work around it and work with it. We have this kind of telepathy onstage where we can just read each other’s minds. If we had anybody else onstage it would just get ruined, I think. It feels really good to perform like that.”
Questlove, drummer with the Roots, shared a screenshot of Markay’s tweet and commented: “I try to leave ‘troll views’ alone but this right here is out of line af. Actually what is wrong w music is people choking the life out of music like an Instagram filter – trying to reach a high of music perfection that doesn’t even serve the song (or music).”
Jack White’s second ex-wife, Karen Elson, also sprang to Meg White’s defence. “Not only is Meg White a fantastic drummer, Jack also said the White Stripes would be nothing without her. To the journalist who dissed her, keep my ex husband’s ex wife name out of your f*cking mouth. (Please and Thank You).”
White – who was born Jack Gillis, but took Meg’s name when they married – contributed to the conversation with a poem of sorts, captioning an image of her drumming in the band’s traditional red and white regalia:
To be born in another time,
any era but our own would’ve been fine.
100 years from now,
1,000 years from now,
some other distant, different, time.
one without demons, cowards and vampires out for blood,
one with the positive inspiration to foster what is good.
an empty field where no tall red poppies are cut down,
where we could lay all day, every day, on the warm and subtle ground,
and know just what to say and what to play to conjure our own sounds.
and be one with the others all around us,
and even still the ones who came before,
and help ourselves to all their love,
and pass it on again once more.
to have bliss upon bliss upon bliss,
to be without fear, negativity or pain,
and to get up every morning, and be happy to do it all again.
Meg White did not respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone. Since the band ended in 2011, she has been an elusive public presence, never giving interviews or commenting on the band’s legacy. From 2009 to 2013, she was married to Jackson Smith, son of Patti Smith. The ceremony took place in Jack White’s garden in Nashville, Tennessee.
In 2014, Jack described her as a “hermit” and said: “I don’t think anyone talks to Meg.”
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In that 2002 interview, she acknowledged varying opinions on her performance style. “I appreciate other kinds of drummers who play differently, but it’s not my style or what works for this band,” she told DeRogatis. “I get [criticism] sometimes, and I go through periods where it really bothers me. But then I think about it, and I realise that this is what is really needed for this band. And I just try to have as much fun with it as possible.”
Markay has since apologised. “By now you’ve probably seen an ill-advised (and since-deleted) tweet I sent out yesterday about the White Stripes and Meg White,” he tweeted. “It was an over-the-top take on [the White Stripes] and White as a drummer, and was, let’s face it, just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.”
He has changed his Twitter bio to conclude: “Bad music take haver.”