Some readers may recall the 2013 Twitter skirmish between Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney and teen pop idol Justin Bieber, which erupted after Carney made some rather harmless comments outside of the Chateau Marmont and subsequently faced the collective wrath of Justin’s Beliebers.
In February 2013, TMZ asked Carney if Bieber should’ve felt snubbed by not scoring a Grammy nom. Carney responded by telling the cameraman that “Grammys are for music, not for the money, and he’s making a lot of money. He should be happy.” Bieber responded by tweeting, “The Black Keys drummer should be slapped around haha,” which his followers took as a call to arms.
A few million death threats later, Carney tells Rolling Stone that the singer’s behaviour is part of a continuing cycle of irresponsibility and hypocrisy. “Justin Bieber, like a fucking irresponsible asshole, sicced 40 million Twitter followers on me because I paid him a compliment he didn’t understand.”
“I’m saying that he should be grateful that he has a fucking career in music,” Carney explains. “And he shouldn’t be fucking telling his followers to slap me, and then also be doing anti-bullying bullshit. It’s so irresponsible.” Carney added that Bieber’s followers are misguided and even manipulated.
“I just started getting called a faggot, you know? All these kids who don’t know what they’re saying are saying all of these things that are actually wildly inappropriate. And these kids are just dumbasses,” the drummer continues. “I mean, Justin Bieber is a fucking moron. And that’s the gist of what I was saying. And then he goes and says I should be slapped? Honestly, I feel bad for him.”
“Every single person who works with him should fucking be embarrassed that they don’t… No one is doing him any favours, you know? And honestly, I don’t dislike his music. I don’t listen to his music.” Carney adds that Bieber should feel grateful for making millions of dollars from a music career.
Delving into the more disturbing aspects of Bieber’s fandom, he says, “You go on Justin Bieber’s Twitter account like a total pervert every time that he gets in trouble, you should look at his tweets the next day. It’s always like, ‘I love you guys so much, always believe, never stop believing.'”
“He’s feeding them the Kool-Aid more and more,” Carney says of Bieber’s tweets. “He pours it on heavy, though. It’s so manipulative! And whoever taught him that that was OK, whoever’s watching him and is like ‘that manipulation is acceptable,’ should be really ashamed of themselves.”
