Jack White Bashes Foo Fighters, Rolling Stone at Boston Show
Jack White may have quasi-apologized to the Black Keys over comments he made in a Rolling Stone cover story earlier this year, but at Wednesday night’s show at Fenway Park in Boston, the singer expressed his displeasure with Foo Fighters, Katy Perry and Rolling Stone.
“Most performers don’t use microphones anymore. Ninety percent of proper singers don’t use microphones that have cords on them,” said White, referencing Perry. White then turned his attention to the Foo Fighters, noting they have more guitarists onstage during shows than he does (he mentioned adding a “second guitar player playing the same parts I play so in case I make a mistake, he’s still playing it for you”) before beginning his attack on Rolling Stone.
“Something for RollingStone.com for tomorrow. I like to feed them something every day for their clickbait,” White said. “If everyone could, in this whole stadium, please go to RollingStone.com tomorrow. They’ve paid me zero dollars to plug them so make sure they get at least a million mouse clicks tomorrow.”
With the exaggerated voice of an informercial hawker, White continued to add “media critic” to his résumé. “That number again, RollingStone.com, brought to you by the Kardashian family. Fifteen outfits that will blow your mind that Taylor Swift wore this month. Ten reasons why RollingStone.com didn’t cover the Newport Folk Festival for 50 years straight. [Editor’s Note: We have extensively.] Twelve reasons Rolling Stone won’t put a black-and-white cover on the cover of their magazine unless you’re dead!” [Editor’s Note: Not true.]
White finished his tirade by excoriating the media for labeling any crowd speech a “rant.” “I’m officially supposed to stop now because this is becoming a Kanye West-esque rant for RollingStone.com. Because apparently nowadays you’re not allowed to speak to your own fans about anything lest it be a rant. So forget ISIS. Forget the war in the Middle East. Forget any problems at home. Forget gay marriage. This is not a rant. This is just me saying, ‘Hello Cleveland! Brought to you by RollingStone.com.'”
This isn’t the first time White has been less than kind to Rolling Stone after his recent cover story. At his Bonnaroo set this year, the singer called the outlet “a tabloid” before telling the crowd, “Who makes music happen? Does a tabloid like Rolling Stone make music happen? You and I make it exist!”
Listen to the full audio below:
UPDATE: Nasty Little Man, the publicity firm representing both Jack White and Foo Fighters, issued a statement claiming White’s comments about the band were all a joke. “Dear dream-makers of the media….Last night Jack White made a joke on stage!,” said the statement. “There was a minor equipment mishap, specifically with his guitar, and in an effort to keep his audience engaged, he made a joke!
“It was meant to be funny and self deprecating: ‘Hey sorry, you’re stuck with just me up here…’ vs the Foo Fighters who have three guitar players on stage and regularly play stadium shows. Jack has the utmost respect for the Foo Fighters and communicated with Grohl this morning. So if you’ll let us, we’ll all continue with our day and we assure you: All is well in the rock n roll world.”
Foo Fighters had previously responded to White by tweeting:
Busted….behold, the secret of the Foo Fighters sound…. pic.twitter.com/xbUUTwuyAt
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) September 18, 2014