US rock giants in reported bar altercation

Patrick Carney, the drummer for garage rock duo The Black Keys, alleged Monday that Jack White of White Stripes fame approached him in a New York bar and tried to fight.

Carney, writing on Twitter in messages that he partly took down, said he had never previously met White and described him as "a 40-year-old bully."

"He is why I play music. The bully assholes who made me feel like nothing. Music was a private, non-competitive thing," Carney wrote.

Carney later said that he spoke for an hour to White about Sunday night's alleged incident and made peace.

White, also writing on Twitter, said: "From one musician to another, you have my respect, Patrick Carney."

He earlier denied Carney's account, telling the Pitchfork music news site that no one tried to fight or "bully" the Black Keys drummer.

"So quit whining to the Internet and speak face to face like a human being. End of story," White was quoted as saying.

The bad blood between the musicians is well known, with White accusing The Black Keys of stealing the sound he built with The White Stripes.

The feud went so far that White was once quoted as saying he did not want his children to attend the same school as those of Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, who has largely resisted speaking about his rival.

To White's apparent annoyance, The White Stripes and The Black Keys have often drawn comparisons in the media -- or been confused with each other by the general public.

Both White and The Black Keys are Midwesterners who relocated to Nashville and have won wide fan bases in the past decade with rock driven by raw guitar.