Jack White has claimed that comments he made about Taylor Swift in a recent interview were taken out of context after the White Stripes frontman was hit with a wave of social media backlash.
Per Rolling Stone, the controversy erupted following White’s interview with The Guardian, where he discussed his preference for creating fictional characters in his lyrics rather than writing autobiographically. When asked about autobiographical elements in his songs, White mentioned Swift’s approach as an example of personal songwriting that doesn’t appeal to him creatively.
“Now it’s become very popular in the Taylor Swift way of pop singers writing about all of their publicly aired break-ups, which I don’t find interesting at all. I think it’s a little bit boring for me to write about myself,” White told the publication.
However, numerous outlets framed these comments as direct criticism of the pop superstar, with headlines suggesting White had called Swift’s music “boring.” The mischaracterisation prompted White to post a now-deleted statement on Instagram this week.
“Putting this up for a day and then taking down to just put this to bed. I didn’t say that I think Taylor Swift’s music was ‘boring’ or whatever click bait the net is trying to scrape together,” White wrote.
“What I was trying to say in an interview I did about poetry and lyric writing, was that I don’t find it interesting at all for ME to write about MYSELF in my own lyric writing and poetry because I think that it could be repetitive for ME to always write about and It could be uninteresting for people who listen to my music to delve into, and that imaginary characters are more attractive to me as a writer.”
Noting Swift’s “tremendous success”, White added: “… because I say I have a way of doing things doesn’t mean that I think that EVERYONE should do it the same way. “They should do what works for them, And they do, and it is obviously appealing to many people, and I’m glad to hear that.”
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White’s comments come a week after the US artist slammed President Donald Trump’s announcement of Operation Epic Fury, a military campaign against Iran.
“Don’t you love seeing him declare war on a country while wearing a trucker hat that says “USA” on it?” White wrote.
“Behold the leader of the ‘Board of Peace.'”
