The Black Keys' Patrick Carney has some choice words for Justin Bieber

Back in February 2013, an unlikely Twitter war broke out — Justin Bieber and his millions of Beliebers began attacking The Black Keys' Patrick Carney after the drummer made some off-handed comments to TMZ.

When a paparazzo asked Carney if he thought the pop star should feel snubbed by his lack of a Grammy nomination, the rocker replied: "Grammys are for music, not for the money, and he's making a lot of money. He should be happy."

Bieber didn't take too kindly to that response, telling his followers via Twitter that "the Black Keys drummer should be slapped around haha."

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Carney is reflecting on the incident, which lasted for months as Bieber's fans berated the drummer on social media.

"Justin Bieber, like a f–king irresponsible a–hole, sicced 40 million Twitter followers on me because I paid him a compliment he didn't understand," Carney says in the new interview.

It was a compliment, he explains, because "I'm saying that he should be grateful that he has a f–king career in music. And he shouldn't be f–king telling his followers to slap me, and then also be doing anti-bullying bulls–t. It's so irresponsible."

In a strange way, Bieber's attitude and reaction to the situation actually may have played a role in inspiring the new Black Keys' album, Turn Blue — or at least the hypnosis-heavy marketing behind it. Carney's Bieber dustup got him thinking about mind control; in the Rolling Stone interview he likens Bieber to a Svengali-like figure controlling his audience.

"If you're a 34-year-old f–king loser like me, and you go on Justin Bieber's Twitter account like a total pervert every time that he gets in trouble, you should look at his tweets the next day," Carney says. "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. He pours it on heavy, though."

Carney calls Bieber's actions "manipulative" and is appalled by the pop star's handlers (or lack thereof). "Whoever taught him that that was OK, whoever's watching him and is like 'that manipulation is acceptable,' should be really ashamed of themselves," Carney says.

Well, at least we get this bizarre-cool promo out of the whole thing: