Formed in 2001, The Black Keys broke through nationally in 2003 with their album, Thickfreakness. They garnered rave reviews and opened for Beck. That same year, Jack White’s band The White Stripes had their own mammoth album called Elephant featuring the huge song “Seven Nation Army”.
Stripped-Down Bluesy Duos
Both bands were stripped-down bluesy duos so comparisons were inevitable. What’s funny, is that at this point in time, The Black Keys claimed to have not heard of The White Stripes when they first started as a band several years prior. Following the dissolution of The White Stripes in 2009, The Black Keys became a dominant band taking over the rock charts.
The feud between the two bands dated back to 2010 when Jack White sat down with Rolling Stone magazine. The interviewer asked the following, “There was a time this past decade when the idea of ‘garage rock’ included bands that sounded nothing like the White Stripes. Do you feel like you have peers out there now that aren’t necessarily doing the same kind of music, but work on the same level?”
“I feel like I’m a lot more to do with Jay-Z than I do with the Black Keys.” – Jack White
Jack White would respond, “It’s difficult to say. I feel like I’m a lot more to do with Jay-Z than I do with the Black Keys. And I don’t know what that is, it’s just a feeling,” he’d say. He wouldn’t elaborate any further on the Black Keys in that interview.
Two years after that statement by White, The Black Keys were interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine and an incident from 2012 was revealed. Jack White had allegedly barred The Black Keys frontman and guitarist Dan Auerbach from entering his Nashville recording studio.
The Black Keys frontman didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, but when the magazine reached out to White for comment, he had an odd response saying, “Anything you’ve ever heard anyone say about me is 100% accurate.”
The following year, things really took a bizarre turn. Jack White was involved in a nasty divorce with his ex-wife, model Karen Elson. Elson filed a restraining order against White following allegations of harassment. Leaked emails that Elson used in court to file her restraining order against White, made numerous references to The Black Keys.
“He gets yet another free reign to follow me around and copy me and push himself into my world.” – Jack White
Those emails would show how infuriated White was when he learned his children were attending the same school as Dan Auerbach’s children. One of the messages would read “That’s a possible twelve effing years I’m going to have to be sitting in kids chairs next to that a-hole with other people trying to lump us in together. He gets yet another free reign to follow me around and copy me and push himself into my world.”
“I don’t know him, so it’s extra unexpected.” – Dan Auerbach
The Black Keys took the high road in 2014, when drummer Patrick Carney struck a more sympathetic tone telling Rolling Stone magazine, “As effed up as that is, that was a private conversation. We’ve all said some real messed up stuff in private. You know how horrifying it would be if all of our private stuff was aired? Divorce is hard. It should be kept private, and people go sniffing around looking for this stuff. And ultimately, it’s no one’s business. He obviously sounds like a a-hole. And I actually feel embarrassed for him. But, no, I don’t hold grudges, man. I really don’t.” Auerbach would add, “I don’t know him, so it’s extra unexpected.”
In May of 2014, during a cover story for Rolling Stone magazine, White once again slammed the Keys revealing, “There are kids at school who dress like everybody else, because they don’t know what to do, and there are musicians like that too. I’ll hear TV commercials where the music’s ripping off sounds of mine, to the point I think it’s me. Half the time, it’s The Black Keys. The other half, it’s a sound-alike song because they couldn’t license one of mine. There’s a whole world that’s totally fine with the watered-down version of the original.”
“I wish the band, The Black Keys all the success that they can get.” – Jack White
In that same interview White would also take some digs at his former White Stripes bandmate Meg White and he would quickly issue an apology letter where he apologized to The Black Keys, “I wish the band, The Black Keys all the success that they can get. I hope the best for their record label, nonesuch who has such a proud history in music, and in their efforts to bring The Black Keys songs to the world. I hope for massive success also for their producer and songwriter Danger Mouse and for the other musicians that their band employs.”
An Altercation Between Patrick Carney and Jack White
Things would remain calm for about a year until drummer Patrick Carney opened his mouth in 2015 claiming that he had an altercation with Jack White.
Details around the incident are still unclear but the drummer claimed he was at a Lower East Side bar called The Cabin Down Below performing at a Neil Young tribute show at the Bowery Ballroom. Also in attendance was Jack White.
Carney later deleted his initial tweets but he tweeted originally saying, “I’ve never met Jack White until last night. He came into the bar in NYC, I go to a lot with a few friends, and he tried to fight me. I don’t fight and don’t get fighting but he was mad! He is why I play music. The bully a-hole who made me feel like nothing… Jack White, a 40-year old bully tried to fight the 35-year old nerd. It might get loud but it might also get really really sad and pathetic.”
The tweets went viral and White released his own response within the hour on social media, “Nobody tried to fight you, Patrick. Nobody touched you or ‘bullied’ you. You were asked a question you couldn’t answer so you walked away. So quit whining to the Internet and speak face to face like a human being. End of story.”
“From one musician to another, you have my respect, Patrick Carney.” – Jack White
Carney erased most of his original tweets and tweeted out, “Talked to Jack for an hour. He’s cool. All good.” Jack White returned the favor via his Third Man’s Twitter account saying, “From one musician to another, you have my respect, Patrick Carney.”
Things would stay silent until 2019 when The Black Keys revealed their new single, “Lo/Hi”. Jack White’s label, Third Man Records sang their praises on social media saying, “More evidence that Nashville rock n’ roll is alive and well. Congrats on the new music, @theblackkeys!”
The Black Keys sing Jack White’s Praises
The same year the members of The Black Keys sang Jack White’s praises as well as his label saying, “I think it was really cool. Dan and I have known the label co-owners for almost 20 years now, and I’ve actually gotten to know Jack the last six months, a little bit… This is a big month for rock and roll in Nashville with The Raconteurs record and our record.”
Jack White would claim it was lawyers who really escalated the feud, “I respect all rock & rollers. I think the beef was some lawyers trying to screw me over and trying to take something out of context. Patrick Carney stopped by while we were recording this Raconteurs album and let me borrow a microphone. That was cool of him.”
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