Photo by Alysse Gafkjen

During Jack White's custody battle with ex-wife Karen Elson last year, private emails between the two were obtained and published by TMZ. In the emails, White revealed his dislike for Black Keys member Dan Auerbach while attempting to have his and Elson's children removed from the same private school as Auerbach's children. "That's a possible twelve fucking years I'm going to have to be sitting in kids chairs next to that asshole with other people trying to lump us in together," he wrote. "He gets yet another free reign to follow me around and copy me and push himself into my world."

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, both Auerbach and bandmate Patrick Carney talked about the incident. Although Carney says White "obviously sounds like an asshole", he says, "I actually feel embarrassed for him." He added, "I don't hold grudges, man. I really don't. We've all said fucked up shit in private, and divorce is hard."

Auerbach was more guarded ("I don't know him, so it's extra-unexpected"), but Carney discussed the emails in the larger context of privacy and celebrity. " Those e-mails that Jack White wrote that got leaked, as fucked up as that shit is, that was a private conversation, and it doesn't register to me. You know how horrifying it would be if all of our private shit was aired? And people go sniffing around looking for this shit. And ultimately it's no one's business."

He also said, "I really think personal things are personal things. Like, TMZ? Honestly, they should be fucking ashamed of themselves, that they make a living dragging poor souls that have nothing, that aren't famous, into this world."

Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated that Carney called White "an asshole" in the Rolling Stone story. Rolling Stone's website incorrectly transcribed a line from their print edition. Carney actually said that White "obviously sounds like an asshole."

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