Life comes at you fast when you have a controversial take on Twitter – just ask Lachlan Markay. The journalist – who recently wrote political content for Axios – dismissed Meg White’s drumming ability earlier this week and all hell broke loose.
“The tragedy of the White Stripes is how great they would’ve been with a half decent drummer,” he commented in response to a tweet proclaiming the genius of the band’s enduring hit ‘Seven Nation Army’. Markay wasn’t done there, adding, “I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having sh*tty percussion.”
That promoted swift backlash from the likes of Questlove, Ben Lee, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, with even another of Jack White’s former partners criticising Markay.
And Markay has now responded to the backlash in a lengthy Twitter statement.
“By now you’ve probably seen an ill-advised (and since-deleted) tweet I sent out yesterday about the White Stripes and Meg White,” he wrote. “It was an over-the-top take on TWS and White as a drummer, and was, let’s face it, just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.”
He continued: “I don’t know if Meg White herself saw that tweet. I hope not, because I imagine it wouldn’t feel great to see a stranger dumping on you like that… 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.”
Markay had more to say in apology: “I’ve been thinking to myself as all this—again, completely justified—hate comes in over the last 24 hours: why did I actually write that? It’s not what I really think, and I like to think I’m not the asshole it made me out to be, or at least I try not to be.
