Jack White Posts Meg White Tribute In Response To The White Stripes Drummer’s Viral Controversy

Jack White has seemingly responded to a tweet from journalist Lachlan Markay that harshly criticized Meg White’s drumming with The White Stripes. A poem with an accompanying photo of Meg playing drums was posted by Jack, which called out “demons, cowards and vampires out for blood.”

The controversy arose from Markay’s since-deleted tweet, which read:

“The tragedy of The White Stripes is how great they would have 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 shitty percussion.”

The short-sighted, and flat-out wrong assessment of Meg White’s playing drew many responses defending The White Stripes’ drummer. Among those calling out Markay’s misguided take was The Roots’ drummer Questlove who posted a reply stating he usually leaves “troll views” alone but felt the need to speak up in this instance.

Markay has since apologized and attempted to walk back his “Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong” comments on the drumming of The White Stripes. In a series of tweets, Markay wrote:

“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.

“A lot of people have now weighed in, both on my nasty and totally unjustified tone, and on the merits, pointing out it’s simply untrue. Guess what: they’re right! It was a terrible, mean thing to say—and also just, you know, wrong—and I deeply regret saying it.

“And not just b/c of the completely justified backlash, but b/c I actually don’t really believe it! I love TWS, percussion included. I don’t know if Meg White herself saw that tweet. I hope not, because I imagine it wouldn’t feel great to see a stranger dumping on you like that.”

The Whites Stripes are currently nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. 2023 inductees will be announced in May. This is the first time The White Stripes have been nominated for the Rock Hall.