Black Keys’ Patrick Carney: Michael Jackson’s ‘Xscape’ Is ‘Bulls—‘
Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney has never been one to mince words – especially when it comes to Justin Bieber. But in the new issue of Rolling Stone, he sounds off about something else entirely: Michael Jackson‘s posthumous Xscape album.
The Black Keys hit the streets for special ‘Late Night’ set
Carney was unaware that the record, which features eight unreleased tracks re-tooled by L.A. Reid, Timbaland and others, would be hitting stores on the same day as the Keys’ Turn Blue. (Both albums were released today.) And while he wasn’t exactly thrilled to be sharing the spotlight, what bothers him the most was the fact Xscape existed at all.
“[It’s] some fucking bullshit that sucks so bad that it took them three years after he died to make it listenable,” he tells Rolling Stone‘s Patrick Doyle. “Like he had to be dead for three years for it to be released.” He suspects it finally saw the light of day because “L.A. Reid needed a new boat.”
Those sentiments certainly won’t ingratiate Carney with Jackson’s legions of fans, though, at this point, he’s well-equipped to deal with ire on a grand scale. Especially following his epic Twitter war with the True Beliebers, which began with an off-hand comment he made to TMZ, escalated rapidly after Bieber expressed desire to see Carney “slapped around,” then devolved into trolling of the highest order.
And, yes, Carney’s still pretty pissed about the whole thing.
“Justin Bieber, like a fucking irresponsible asshole, sicced 40 million Twitter followers on me because I paid him a compliment he didn’t understand,” he says. “He shouldn’t be fucking telling his followers to slap me, and then also be doing anti-bullying bullshit. It’s so irresponsible.
“Honestly, I feel bad for him. Every single person who works with him should fucking be embarrassed that they don’t. . . No one is doing him any favors, you know?” he continues. “And honestly, I don’t dislike his music. I don’t listen to his music, but he needs to not conduct himself that way. Like, really, you make millions of dollars playing music, you should feel fucking lucky.”