Jack White on Lady Gaga: "It's All Image with No Meaning Behind It"

Given Jack White's predilection for the gritty blues of Son House, it would seem to follow that he might take issue with the image-conscious pop personas of today.

During a recent interview with Esquire UK, the guitarist/singer used Lady Gaga as a target while taking on modern culture as a whole. "I don't think she lives it because it's all artifice," he said of the pop singer. "It's all image with no meaning behind it. You can't sink your teeth into it. It's a sound bite. It's very of this age, because that's what people want. They want a Twitter line, a jpeg, an MP3."

White also hit out against the idea of artists trying to make themselves appeal to the widest swath of people possible in order to gain a mass following.

""The goal of modern celebrity is to make yourself into the lowest common denominator," said White. "'Hey, I'm a guy just like you. I like a beer, a football game.' Especially in reality television, you'll see people will go so far as to make a fool out of themselves just to prove that."

White released his debut solo album, Blunderbuss, earlier this year.

Update: Jack White has issued a statement clarifying his remarks from the interview. It reads:

"I'd like to address the recent tabloidesque drama baiting by the press in regards to Lady Gaga. I never said anything about her music, or questioned the authenticity of her songs in any way. I was in a conversation about the drawbacks of image for the sake of image, and that it is popular nowadays to not question an image in front of you, but only to label it as 'cool' or 'weird' quickly and dispose of it. I don't like my comments about Lady Gaga's presentation being changed into some sort of negative critique of her music. If you're going to try to cause drama, at least get the quotes right. I think journalists should also be held accountable for what they say. Especially publications like the NME who put whatever words they feel like between two quotation marks and play it off as a quote. Maybe somebody with more lawyers can take them to task, but I'll just use the Internet and Twitter instead. I also think that kind of tabloid drama encourages artists to not express their opinions in the press, and instead give polite soundbites that don't stimulate thought about creativity and the consumption of art in its many guises.

"Peace to Lady Gaga and I fully congratulate and compliment her on her championing of gay rights issues and the momentum it's given to help create change."