Last month, Charley Crockett faced backlash after Twin Temple, an LA doo-wop duo slated to open for two of his shows, were dropped from the bill. Alexandra and Zachary James claimed their Satanic imagery was the reason for it, and Jack White invited them to open for him. The country legend reacted with a lengthy statement that began, "I won't conform and I'm not sorry." Now, he's back with another lengthy statement.
The new statement says the situation had nothing to with Satanic imagery but instead the band's production requests. He also calls out Jack White: "I wonder why he wasn’t so outspoken back when he was in the white stripes 20 something years ago," he writes. However, the White Stripes addressed issues like immigration on 2007's "Icky Thump" and made "Icky Trump" merch in 2016. In the '00s he also spoke out about George W. Bush and the Iraq War, and later celebrated Barack Obama's election. But read Crockett's full rant below.
I gotta clear this up right quick. I never dropped that band from those 2 shows for “Satanic Imagery”, they made it up and dragged me by a rope real good. It all started about a month before those shows while we were off in Wyoming. Their production requests raised eyebrows simply because we couldn’t accommodate them physically. Then I noticed some of the things they’d been doing on stage and after thinking about it for a couple days I decided to cut em loose. We told em the vibe just wasn’t right for an all ages audience, and we paid em in full. They got together with their business folks and plotted for days before finally making their public statement, designed for effect. Purposely making it look like it was a whole tour. Dog whistling about religious and creative freedom. Of course my rights didn’t matter since they had a new record coming out and a headline tour of their own to announce. It’s my fault, I let ‘em slip through and being that this here’s my outfit, I’m the responsible party. I reacted. I might respond differently now but everybody’s got perfect vision in hindsight. I think the most difficult part of the whole deal was the way the media, save for one outlet, cared nothing for the truth. They sanitized these folks’ image for their own uses in the click bait traffic game that is America’s left-right culture war. Or maybe it was all the artists I know who had their hand out showering me with praise the last few years that used the situation to kick me in the dick. I ain’t the one holding you down. And I won’t forget that when I was face down in the dirt coughing up blood you applauded. As for Jack White, he used it to sell tickets too and I lost a lot of respect for him. I wonder why he wasn’t so outspoken back when he was in the white stripes 20 something years ago. They purposely avoided political issues. Maybe he was worried about losing audience back when it was all on the line and he needed all the help he could get. Funny, I’ve got everything to lose right this minute and I still shoot from the hip. I’ve been speaking from my heart against the wishes of the machine my whole life. Real patriots think for themselves.
Meanwhile, Twin Temple recently announced their new album Doomed Lovers. It's produced by Shooter Jennings, who also worked on Crockett's recently re-released Clovis. Twin Temple's show with Jack White is Sept. 29 at the Hollywood Palladium.
