Jack White has responded to backlash over calling Taylor Swift’s music uninteresting.
The White Stripes artist, 50, struck a chord with Swift’s, 36, fans as he discussed songwriting in an interview with The Guardian published on Sunday.
Asked if his songs are fully autobiographical, he answered: ‘Not too much. 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.’
On Monday he posted a since-deleted statement explaining what he meant: ‘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.’
Per a report from Rolling Stone, he clarified, ‘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.’
White acknowledged Swift’s ‘tremendous’ success and 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.’
Jack White has responded to backlash over calling Taylor Swift’s music uninteresting; pictured in November
Asked if his songs are fully autobiographical, he told the Guardian, ‘Not too much. 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,’; Swift pictured in February 2025
The Seven Nation Army hitmaker previously said in the viral interview, ‘I think it’s a little bit boring for me to write about myself.
‘Even if I’ve had a really interesting day, I feel like I’ve already lived that, I don’t need to go through it every time I sing this song.’
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In Monday’s post, he shared that he is ‘less and less interested in doing interviews’ in the ‘age of this massive demand for click bait and content.’
He went on to say that a ‘scrape of anything interesting’ can be ‘spit out as bait.’
The star lamented that he does ‘not want to answer questions with any sort of romance or passion or reflection as I’m too busy having to worry about accidentally triggering nonsense like this.’
He concluded in his fiery post, ‘This has always been a problem as it encourages artists to give ‘safe’ answers to any question and stifles artistic vision and imagination and pushes all of us to not share anything interesting, which was one of the points I made about keeping private things private in that same interview. But yeah, content.’
White’s Guardian profile was meant to highlight his book Jack White: Collected Lyrics & Selected Writing Volume 1.
The eight-time Grammy winner explained that while he puts ‘a percentage’ of his personal experience into his lyrics, he prefers to channel the emotions into fictional characters and write songs from their point of view.
On Monday he posted a since-deleted statement explaining: ‘I didn’t say that I think Taylor Swift’s music was ‘boring’ or whatever click bait the net is trying to scrape together’; pictured in June 2024
White acknowledged Swift’s ‘tremendous’ success and 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’; Swift in May 2023
White’s Guardian profile was meant to highlight his book Jack White: Collected Lyrics & Selected Writing Volume 1
White said another reason he avoids writing songs about his own experiences is due to him not wanting to relive certain moments every time he performs.
‘If it’s something really painful, I’m not going to put this important, painful thing that I went through out there for some idiot on the internet to stomp all over,’ he reasoned.
He explained: ‘So I put a percentage of that into what I do and then morph it into somebody else’s character. I can’t really learn about myself until I put it into somebody else’s shoes.’
Swift is widely believed to have written songs about her relationships with exes, including Joe Jonas, Harry Styles, Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn.
On her latest album The Life Of A Showgirl, she included her raunchiest song yet, titled Wood, and dedicated to fiancé Travis Kelce’s ‘manhood.’