Karen Elson defends The White Stripes’ drummer Meg White: “Keep my ex-husband’s ex-wife name out of your mouth”
Jack White and Meg White formed the hugely successful garage rock revival band The White Stripes in the late 1990s. After a run of hit albums and popular singles like ‘Seven Nation Army’, ‘Icky Thump’ and ‘Blue Orchid’, the duo broke up but maintained their professional partnership until 2011.
Jack pursued a successful solo career, having been remarried to fellow musician Karen Elson since 2005. However, it wasn’t to last: the pair finalised a divorce in 2013. Meanwhile, Meg White has opted for a quieter life, but that hasn’t stopped her name from coming up in a hot social media debate.
Earlier this week, Twitter user Lachlan Markay sparked debate over Meg’s drumming ability: “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 shitty percussion.” He has since deleted the tweet after a hurricane of backlash.
Among the hurricane of response Markay received, Elson came forward to defend her former husband’s former wife. “Not only is Meg White a fantastic drummer, Jack [White] 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)”
Following the well-placed parody of Will Smith’s infamous words at last year’s Oscars incident, other Twitter users came forward to support Elson’s views. “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),” the Roots drummer Questlove wrote.
Elsewhere, Portishead’s Geoff Barrow correctly prophesied that Markay is “going to regret this tweet,” while Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson adding to Barrow’s tweet thread: “But we have multiple examples of [Jack White] playing with different drummers. i saw the white stripes play probably 10 times or something and there’s no one like meg white. kids would lose their mind to her drumming.”
Markay has since backstepped with an apology for his tweet, calling it “truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.” he added in a thread that he regrets the remark, not because of the backlash, but because “I actually don’t really believe it! I love [The White Stripes], percussion included.”
“So to Meg White: I am sorry. Really. And to women in the music business generally, who I think are disproportionately subject to this sort of shit, I am sorry to have fed that as well. I’m really going to try to be more thoughtful in the future, both on here and off,” he concluded.
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