People sure have been talking about The White Stripes drummer Meg White a lot lately. This current wave of discourse started earlier this week, when journalist Lachlan Markay wrote in a now-deleted tweet, “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 and no band is better for having sh*tty percussion.”
That drew a number of responses from people like The Roots drummer Questlove and Jack White’s ex-wife Karen Elson. Now, Jack himself has weighed in.
Instead of directly addressing what’s been said, though, he came to Meg’s defense via a poem, which he shared on Instagram last night (March 15). It reads:
“To be born in another time,
any era but our own would’ve been fine.
100 years from now,
1000 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.III.”
Jack’s post came about a day after Markay walked back his initial statement, sharing a multi-part apology on Twitter that begins, “By now you’ve probably seen an ill-advised (and since-deleted) tweet I sent out yesterday about the White Stripes and Meg White. It was an over-the-top take on TWS and White as a drummer, and was, let’s face it, just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.”
By now you’ve probably seen an ill-advised (and since-deleted) tweet I sent out yesterday about the White Stripes and Meg White. It was an over-the-top take on TWS and White as a drummer, and was, let’s face it, just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 14, 2023
Meg has been dealing with this sort of criticism for decades now: In a 2002 interview, she said, “I appreciate other kinds of drummers who play differently, but it’s not my style or what works for this band. I get [criticism] sometimes, and I go through periods where it really bothers me. But then I think about it, and I realize that this is what is really needed for this band. And I just try to have as much fun with it as possible.”
Find Jack’s post below.