Charley CrockettAs the rest of the world moves on from the recent controversy surrounding Charley Crockett, Jack White, and 'satanic' outfit Twin Temple, it appears Crockett is far from thinking of the whole mess.
For the uninitiated, early July saw “Satanic doo-wop” duo Twin Temple revealing that they had been axed from Crockett's then-upcoming dates due to what was dubbed “Satanic imagery.”
"I thought they were like Black Sabbath, but they ain’t," Crockett said in response. "Not today, Satan
“Unfortunately, that means we will not be able to perform for you next week as planned,” Twin Temple offered. “We are really disappointed as we were looking forward to getting back out and seeing you, and also what it meant as far as bringing different types of people and music lovers together.
“We are sorry to everyone who was planning to see us," they continued. "We’re grateful for your support, not only of Twin Temple, but more importantly of artistic freedom. HAIL SATAN!”
After news of the duo's line-up snub went viral, White entered the conversation, inviting Twin Temple to open his September 29th show at the Hollywood Palladium. "Let me know," he concluded, before alluding to the title of The White Stripes' 2005 record. "Get in front of me Satan!”
Understandably, Twin Temple took White up on the offer, and typically, this is where the story would end.
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Crockett, however, was far from done, sharing a string of posts on social media appearing to reference the incident. Alongside a picture of Johnny Cash soundtracked by the song Beat The Devil, Crockett wrote, “If they did it to Jesus, imagine what they’ll do to you,” before another post seemingly referenced White as he wrote “FUCK TRUMP, FUCK EPSTEIN, BUT HAIL SATAN? NOT ME JACK.”
He later shared a lengthier post in which he addressed the situation, effectively defending his Christian faith while summing up Twin Temple's axing from the line-up as a day-to-day occurrence in the music industry.
“I won’t conform and I’m not sorry," he wrote. “There are many things I’ve done in my life to apologize for but this ain’t one of them.
“I might wake up at 1pm on the back of that bus and find out that the opener ain’t working for me that night. Tough luck. Life is hard. This ain’t no temp agency. Get to stepping.”
"I don’t give a damn whether you think I’m right or wrong," he added. "They say love your struggle. I say love the strength the creator gave you to overcome your struggle. Dont believe in any kind of spiritual power? I’m sorry to hear that. God is the fabric that ties all life together. No need to even define or institutionalize it."
For the most part, this is where the story ended, until this week when Crockett dropped onto social media to share a lengthy post intended to "clear this up right quick" (despite the news cycle having long forgotten about it).
As he explained, Crockett claimed that Twin Temple's "production requests" initially raised concerns before their onstage behaviour necessitated their dropping from the bill. "We told em the vibe just wasn’t right for an all ages audience, and we paid em in full," he noted.
However, it was then that Twin Temple allegedly "plotted for days" before making their own statement, "purposely making it look like it was a whole tour," said Crockett, "dog whistling about religious and creative freedom."
Though Crockett took responsibility for having "let 'em slip through", he claimed that the story was then "sanitised" for use by the media in the "click bait traffic game that is America’s left-right culture war," before turning his attention to how White operated within the saga.
"He used it to sell tickets too and I lost a lot of respect for him," Crockett explained. "I wonder why he wasn’t so outspoken back when he was in the white stripes 20 something years ago. They purposely avoided political issues.
"Maybe he was worried about losing audience back when it was all on the line and he needed all the help he could get," he added. "Funny, I’ve got everything to lose right this minute and I still shoot from the hip. I’ve been speaking from my heart against the wishes of the machine my whole life.
"Real patriots think for themselves, party be damned."
For what it's worth, The White Stripes didn't shy away from political matters. 2007 track Icky Thump, for example, took aim at immigration in the United States (and was later referenced in 'Icky Trump' merch), while White also took aim at Bush-era policies as well on numerous occasions.
Continuing the back-and-forth, White stepped back into the ring soon after, noting that he "never said nothing about this young buck before," but nonetheless offering his "official response to Cowboy Charley’s accusations" since "he’s trying to drag me into this here rodeo again".
White's response, however, was a bizarre one. Instead of a statement, he offered up the lyrics to Rappin' Duke, a 1984 novelty single by Shawn Brown under the Rappin' Duke moniker, designed to effectively mock the bravado of late actor John Wayne through a hip-hop lens.
Though popular at the time, the track was soon largely forgotten, so much to the point that The Notorious B.I.G. referenced the song in his 1994 track Juicy by bluntly asking, "remember Rappin' Duke?".
Crockett again issued yet another response to White earlier today, referring to him as "Mr. Suzy Cream Puff", and seemingly alleging that White's silence on political matters was tantamount to hypocrisy.
"I don’t care what you said in your songs," Crockett asserted. "I’m talking about your public statements back when it was on the line in 2003. Look up my first record A Stolen Jewel. I been about it.
"Lemme guess, you got Che Guevara and Malcolm X on your shelf, maybe even Fred Hampton, but at the end of the day you get in the Lamborghini and put your kids in private school."
As he concluded, Crockett again reiterated his claim that Twin Temple were little more than "art kids" who lied for "publicity at [his] expense".
"Go ahead and conveniently ignore the fact that they lied," he urged. "Same hypocrisy as the demagogues you claim to stand against.
"Lucky it was me, too strong to beat, around long enough not to let it kill me, but when that kind of public shame gets dumped on some poor kid who ain’t ready it might mean their life. Happens everyday big hoss. If you want the smoke, I’m your man."
Ironically, Crockett's claims about Twin Temple generating "publicity at [his] expense" (whether it's true or not) has indeed generated plenty of publicity for not just the allegedly satanic duo, but Crockett as well.
Utilising Google Trends data, one can see just how searches for Twin Temple and Crockett have jumped as a result of the controversy.
In a graph of search interest over a specific time period, Google Trends shows the data on a relative scale from 0 to 100: zero suggests insufficient data, 50 indicates half the popularity, and 100 signifies the peak interest during a time period.
Google Trends searches for Charley Crockett (red) and Twin Temple (blue) over the past ten years.
Observing a period spanning the previous decade (which encompasses the formation of Twin Temple in 2017, and Crockett's first charting record, 2018's Lonesome As A Shadow), it can be seen that searches for both acts showed a marked increase from 2020 onwards, with Crockett's popularity swiftly outpacing Twin Temple from 2021.
While Twin Temple largely held steady, Crockett experienced an early peak alongside the release of Visions Of Dallas in July 2024, before hitting his highest point in June 2025, just prior to the release of Dollar A Day two months later.
In July 2024, his search interest sat at 66 compared to Twin Temple's 11, while the June 2025 peak saw him at 100 as opposed to Twin Temple's eight.
Twin Temple themselves began rising in popularity in August 2025, and in June 2026, they reached a comparative plateau with Crockett, sitting at 33 to his 38. The following month, however, both acts skyrocketed, with July 2026 seeing Charley Crockett at 78 and win Temple at 70.
Google Trends searches for Charley Crockett (top) and Twin Temple (bottom) over the past 12 months.
Interestingly, viewing the Trends for both Crockett and Twin Temple individually across the past year shows that while the former managed to ebb and flow over the last 12 months (due to the three albums released in that time period), the latter experienced their sole massive boost in July, before the story dying out preceded another rising spike.
While Crockett experienced a 3% boost in searches compared to the previous year, Twin Temple took home a massive 180% increase.
Google Trends top and rising queries for Charley Crockett and Twin Temple over the past three months.
Looking at the top queries and rising queries of the past three months (to capture the peak of this recent controversy), "twin temple charley crockett", "charley crockett twin temple", and "charley crockett" are all considered breakouts. Meanwhile, "twin temple band" has seen a 200% increase in searches, while "twin temple tour" has received a 60% boost.
Other variations of the search, including those relating to Jack White, Twin Temple's Alexandra James, and even Glenn Danzig (whom the duo supported in 2023) are all listed as breakouts on the list of rising queries.
Whether Crockett is correct or not in his assertion that Twin Temple simply used their booting from the bill to orchestrate a PR stunt, or if his inability to not stop talking about it has helped keep the buzz growing, it appears that getting dropped from Crockett's tour may have been the best thing that could ever happen to them.
