The Black Keys‘ Patrick Carney has claimed that he only talks “shit” in interviews to entertain his bandmate, singer Dan Auerbach.

Speaking to Spinner, the drummer revealed that most of his barbed comments – with recent victims of his vicious tongue-lashings including Spotify‘s Sean Parker and Nickelback – were only made to “get a rise” out of the singer.

Earlier this year, Carney said that rock’n’roll was dying because of the popularity of Nickelback and described the Canadian band as “shit”, although he later apologised for his comments.

When asked if the press had been constantly asking them about his comments, he said: “Just that one interview in Canada. I didn’t mean to single out that band. I tried to apologise. I don’t want to seem like I don’t stand by my comments from earlier. Whatever. It’s like someone acting surprised that I don’t like a band like that. It’s like them being surprised that I don’t watch The 700 Club every Sunday. What the fuck?”

When asked what Auerbach’s reaction to his comments was, meanwhile, he added: “That’s usually why I end up saying retarded shit sometimes, is just to get a rise out of him.”

The drummer also hinted that the band could release a live album in the future, and said that he and Auerbach were planning on starting work on a new LP soon. “We booked some studio time for two weeks in July,” he revealed. “So I know we’re going to start working on the next album in a couple of months. We haven’t really talked about it. We just want to get in the studio and start.”

In addition to describing Napster founder Sean Parker as an “asshole” earlier this week (March 26), Carney also took a verbal pop at Carl Barat in December last year, when he claimed there was nobody he would rather punch in the face than the former Libertines co-frontman.

The Black Keys released their last studio album, ‘El Camino’, in December last year. The LP is their seventh studio effort and the follow-up to their 2010 record, ‘Brothers’.