A year after inadvertently drawing the ire of Justin Bieber and his fans, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney criticized the way Bieber handled the situation and criticized Bieber’s character.
"Justin Bieber is a f---ing moron," Carney said.
Carney made the comments in a Rolling Stone interview appearing in the magazine’s current issue.
In February 2013, a TMZ cameraman asked Carney if Bieber should be upset he was not nominated for a Grammy.
"Grammys are for music, not for the money, and he's making a lot of money,” Carney said at the time, according to NME. “He should be happy."
Carney later said his comment was a compliment, and not an insult.
Regardless of what Carney’s intentions were, the day after the comment was published Bieber responded with a tweet.
the black keys drummer should be slapped around haha
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) February 12, 2013
In addition to being retweeted more than 37,000 times, Bieber’s tweet also inspired many of his devoted followers to send Carney insults of their own.
"I just started getting called a f----t, you know?” Carney told Rolling Stone. “All these kids who don't know what they're saying are saying all of these things that are actually wildly inappropriate. And these kids are just dumbasses.”
Although the most offensive comments came from Bieber’s followers, Carney accused Bieber of inciting the situation.
"Justin Bieber, like a f---ing irresponsible a------e, sicced 40 million Twitter followers on me because I paid him a compliment he didn't understand," Carney said.
“He shouldn't be f---ing telling his followers to slap me, and then also be doing anti-bullying bulls---.” Carney added, possibly referring to a 2012 video Bieber made for an anti-bullying campaign.
“It's so irresponsible," Carney said.
Carney also noted that Bieber frequently compliments and praises his fans, especially after one of the pop star’s frequent controversial incidents.
“It's always like, 'I love you guys so much, always believe, never stop believing.' He's feeding them the Kool-Aid more and more," Carney said.
“It's so manipulative! And whoever taught him that that was OK, whoever's watching him and is like 'that manipulation is acceptable,' should be really ashamed of themselves."