The 50-year-old rocker admitted he finds that style of songwriting “a little bit boring”.
Asked by The Guardian whether he writes much from personal experience, the former White Stripes frontman replied: “Not too much.”
He then expanded on why he avoids the confessional approach dominating mainstream pop.
Jack said: “Now it’s become very popular in the Taylor Swift way of pop singers writing about all of their publicly aired break-ups, which I don’t find interesting at all. I think it’s a little bit boring for me to write about myself.”
The Seven Nation Army hitmaker said he prefers to channel difficult or emotional experiences into fictional characters rather than present them directly.
He explained: “If it’s something really painful, I’m not going to put this important, painful thing that I went through out there for some idiot on the internet to stomp all over.
“So I put a percentage of that into what I do and then morph it into somebody else’s character. I can’t really learn about myself until I put it into somebody else’s shoes.”
The musician also addressed why he has never written overtly political songs, despite being outspoken about figures such as US President Donald Trump.
He said: “Well, when [Bob] Dylan said the answer was blowing in the wind he didn’t tell you what the answer was.
Whether you’re angry, sad, moving on or feeling independent following your romantic split, Billboard compiled 50 of our favorite breakup songs to ease you through the aftermath — from Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Alanis Morissette to The Beatles and Carly Simon.
Read through our list here, and then come back and let us know which breakup song is your favorite by voting in our poll below.
