Jack White trash-talked Foo Fighters and Rolling Stone last night, already made up with Dave Grohl
Jack White went on a funny little tirade at Boston’s Fenway Park last night during a brief equipment malfunction, playfully dissing Foo Fighters and not-so-playfully dissing Rolling Stone. A recording of White’s mini stand-up act has made it to YouTube, naturally, so below you can hear him claim that 90 percent of pop singers don’t use microphones with cables, and that bands like Foo Fighters have a second guitar player in order to cover for any mistakes the lead player might make—bragging that he’s the only one up there at Fenway Park, strange considering how huge and skilled his current band is. But he saved the strangely specific vitriol for Rolling Stone, rattling off a list of funny, click-baity headlines like “10 reasons that Rolling Stone didn’t cover the Newport Folk Festival for 50 years” and then saying, “Do you know Jann Wenner also owns Us magazine, the tabloid king of magazines?” He finally stops himself, worried that it’s becoming a “Kanye West-esque rant.” (Not crazy enough, Jack.) Foo Fighters responded to the news with the following tweet (below), which roughly translates to “we’re not mad, bro,” and then the publicity firm that represents both Jack White and Foo Fighters sent out a very brief press release shunting the whole thing off as a joke. It read thusly:
“Dear dream-makers of the media…. Last night Jack White made a joke on stage! 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 upmost 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.”
We figured as much, but it’s nice to be reassured. Oh, and if you have a chance to see Jack White on his current tour, it’s one of the best live shows I’ve seen in forever. PSA!