The White Stripes front man Jack White took aim at Taylor Swift's songwriting style, alluding to the pop star's approach of writing songs about public breakups as "boring."
In a recent interview with The Guardian, the 50-year-old musician was asked whether his own songs are fully autobiographical. In response, White referenced Swift while explaining why he avoids writing music that directly recounts his personal relationships.
"Not too much," White said. "Now it's become very popular in the Taylor Swift way of pop singers writing about all of their publicly aired breakups, which I don't find interesting at all.
"I think it's a little bit boring for me to write about myself."
Swift's songwriting has frequently drawn from her personal life, with fans and critics often linking songs to past relationships.
Those rumored inspirations have included musicians Joe Jonas and Matty Healy as well as actor Joe Alwyn. More recently, her music has also reflected her relationship with fiance and NFL player Travis Kelce.
White said he prefers a different approach to songwriting, one that avoids recounting events from his own life in a direct way.
"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," he said. "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."
Instead, White said he uses "a percentage" of his own experiences before transforming them into stories about other people.
"I can't really learn about myself until I put it into somebody else's shoes," he added.
The interview also touched on White's political views, including his criticism of President Donald Trump.
White, who has been outspoken about Trump on social media, said he tends not to address politics directly in his songs.
"Well, when [Bob] Dylan said the answer was blowing in the wind, he didn't tell you what the answer was," White said. "I think a lot of people in the protest days were torn: You want to make a statement, but the speaker can be chewed up and spat out."
He said that if he addressed political topics in songs, he would do so indirectly.
"But if I were to put it in artistic form, I don't think I would say those things directly. I wouldn't say the names.
"I would make up a character."
White previously drew criticism from the White House after posting an Instagram message criticizing Trump alongside a photo of the president meeting Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
"Look at how disgusting trump has transformed the historic White House," White wrote, adding that it was an "embarrassment to American history."
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded at the time, calling White a "washed-up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career," according to Billboard.
"It's apparent he's been masquerading as a real artist because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of 'The People's House,'" Cheung added.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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