NEW YORK • Rappers may not be the only music stars whose arguments can turn violent.

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

Carney, writing on Twitter in messages that he later 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 a******* who made me feel like nothing. Music was a private, non-competitive thing," he wrote.

He later said he spoke for an hour to White about the 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 music news site Pitchfork that no one had 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," he 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 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.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE