Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney finds playing live gigs "terrifying" as he has no confidence in his abilities and suffers debilitating hand cramps.

The rocker often struggles to overcome his stage fright and he admits the problem is made worse when he reads nasty comments on Twitter about his appearance.

He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "I get really bad hand cramps and sometimes my sternum gets all f**ked up. I suck at the drums, so it's terrifying. (I'm) just trying to keep it together."

"I see a lot of comments on Twitter and stuff about how ugly I am, how bad I am at the drums, how awkward I look, and I'm like, yeah, I agree with most of those things."

However, Carney insists he would love to confront his anonymous detractors, adding, "The thing is, what I can't do is individually go up to these people and call them each out for what they are, just by judging their picture, and I'm the kind of person who would actually do that to somebody."