Nandi Bushell has joined the chorus of voices supporting The White Stripes drummer Meg White after writer Lachlan Markay called her “terrible.”
“Meg White is my Hero,” Bushell tweeted alongside the video. “The first day I got drums my dad showed me the video of Seven Nation Army. I saw Meg playing the drums and thought she was the coolest person in the world. I still do.”
Bushell continued, “The more I learn about music, the more I realise that songs, and art, are created to wake emotions deep inside the soul. No matter how fast my fills get or number rudiments I learn. If I can’t write a song that moves people, then can’t call myself an artist.”
“Meg and Jack wrote some of the best songs in rock history,” the young drummer concluded. “They moved me at 5 years old to want to play the drums and still move me today! My screams are for you Meg! You are and always will be my role model and hero!” Check out her full post below.
Last week, in a since deleted Tweet, Markay wrote, “The tragedy of the White Stripes is how great they would’ve been with a half decent drummer. Yeah yeah I’ve heard all the ‘but it’s a carefully crafted sound mannnn!’ takes. I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having shitty percussion.”
Naturally, a slew of musicians pointed out both the misogyny in the long-running, misplaced ire for White, and the fact that her streamlined style of percussion was essential to The White Stripes’ garage rock revivalism, helped drive Jack White’s riffs, and simply sounded badass. Jack White himself came to his ex-wife’s defense, posting an original poem in which he imagined a world “without demons, cowards and vampires out for blood, one with the positive inspiration to foster what is good.”
#MegWhite is my #Hero. The first day I got drums my dad showed me the video of #sevennationarmy. I saw Meg playing the drums and thought she was the coolest person in the world. I still do. pic.twitter.com/i8AoSHV2OC
— Nandi Bushell (@Nandi_Bushell) March 19, 2023
