Black Keys Drummer Patrick Carney Calls Napster Founder Sean Parker an 'A--hole' for Stealing Royalties
Hot on the heels of Dan Auerbach's controversial comments about Nickelback in Rolling Stone, Carney stirs the pot with remarks on Spotify board member Parker's previous Napster scandal and disregard for recording artists.
Perhaps emboldened by back to back sold-out weekends at Coachella and their biggest tour yet with Arctic Monkeys still to come, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney haven't hesitated to offer their thoughts about other high-profile members of the music industry.
Following Black Keys member Auerbach's backhanded apology to Nickelback after calling them “sh--“ in a Rolling Stone interview, drummer Carney revealed his decidedly indelicate thoughts about current Spotify board member and former Facebook president Sean Parker in an interview on March 18.
“Because he’s [Parker] an asshole. That guy has $2 billion that he made from figuring out ways to steal royalties from artists, and that’s the bottom line. You can’t really trust anybody like that,†Carney said in response to Parker's claims at SXSW that his company would generate more revenue for the music industry than iTunes in the next two years.
“Trust me, Dan and I like to make money. If it was fair to the artist we would be involved in it. I honestly don’t want to see Sean Parker succeed in anything,†added Carney. The verbal stab at Parker is not shocking coming from the Akron duo, who refused to put their new album El Camino on Spotify and other streaming services last year.
"I imagine if Spotify becomes something that people are willing to pay for, then I’m sure iTunes will just create their own service, and they’re actually fair to artists,†said the newly relocated Nashville local.
