Jack White Responds Following 'Nasty' Meg White Remarks From Journalist

After a week-long tweetstorm around Meg White’s drumming ability, ex-husband Jack White - previously known as Jack Gillis, but took Meg’s name when they married - has weighed in on the discourse. Meg and Jack were married from 1996 until 2000.

Earlier this week, politics journalist Lachlan Markay sent out an “ill-advised” tweet about Meg White of The White Stripes’ fame that has since been deleted.

In the post - which has been screenshotted and circulated across the social media platform - Markay wrote, “The tragedy of The White Stripes is how great they would’ve been with a half-decent drummer.” He elaborated by calling Meg White “terrible” and “no band is better for having shitty percussion.”

Ben Lee was one of many to take offence to the take, writing, “If you’re dissing Meg White you fundamentally misunderstand what makes music good”.

English songwriter and model Karen Elson, who was married to Jack White from 2005 until 2013, sent the best response: “Not only is Meg White a fantastic drummer, Jack also said the White Stripes would be nothing without her. To the journalist who dissed her, keep my ex husband’s ex wife name out of your f*cking mouth.

“(Please and Thank You)”.

Markay has since retracted his statement and apologised, calling his original tweet “ill-advised” that was “just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious and just plain wrong.”

Yesterday, Jack White shared a poem in tribute to his ex-wife on social media with a picture of Meg White behind the drum kit. The poem reads:

“To be born in another time,

any era but our own would’ve been fine.

100 years from now,

1,000 years from now,

some other distant, different, time.

one without demons, cowards and vampires out for blood,

one with the positive inspiration to foster what is good.

an empty field where no tall red poppies are cut down,

where we could lay all day, every day, on the warm and subtle ground,

and know just what to say and what to play to conjure our own sounds.

and be one with the others all around us,

and even still the ones who came before,

and help ourselves to all their love,

and pass it on again once more.

to have bliss upon bliss upon bliss,

to be without fear, negativity or pain,

and to get up every morning, and be happy to do it all again.”

Meg White has retreated from the public spotlight since the disbandment of The White Stripes in 2011.