Charley Crockett Takes Aim at Jack White Over Twin Temple Fallout

Charley Crockett has issued a second lengthy statement about the Twin Temple situation, this time directing his frustration at Jack White. The country singer says he “lost a lot of respect” for White after the Detroit musician invited the LA duo to open for him.

The dispute began last month when Twin Temple was dropped from two Crockett shows. Alexandra and Zachary James claimed their Satanic imagery was the reason. Crockett now says that was invented, that the band made it up and “dragged me by a rope.” He says the real issue was production requests his team couldn’t accommodate, plus concerns about the act’s stage show for an all-ages audience.

What gives the new statement its edge is Crockett’s attempt to rewrite White’s political history. He wonders why White wasn’t “so outspoken” in the White Stripes 20 years ago and claims the band “purposely avoided political issues.” That characterization doesn’t survive contact with the record. The White Stripes addressed immigration on Icky Thump in 2007, made “Icky Trump” merch in 2016, and White spoke publicly about George W. Bush and the Iraq War during the 2000s.

Crockett frames himself as someone with “everything to lose” who speaks anyway. The statement reads less like clarity than like a man still nursing wounds from the media, from other artists, and now from a peer who stepped into the story on the opposite side.