Everything about Jack White totally explained
Jack White (born
John Anthony Gillis on
July 9,
1975) is an
American musician,
record producer, and occasional actor best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist of the
alternative rock musical duo
The White Stripes. He is also a member of
rock band The Raconteurs. During the
1990s, White was a part-time musician in various
underground bands in Detroit, while working by day as an
upholsterer.
White and his ex-wife,
drummer Meg White, formed
The White Stripes. The band went on to have a string of critically-acclaimed albums, with their third,
White Blood Cells, catapulting them to international stardom. He was ranked #17 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of "
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." White's popular and critical success with The White Stripes enabled him to collaborate as a solo artist with other renowned musicians, such as
Loretta Lynn, whose
2004 album
Van Lear Rose he produced and perormed on,
Beck, and
Bob Dylan. In 2005, White became a founding member of the rock band
The Raconteurs.
White has appeared in movies as a
cameo and in acting roles. He is sometimes called eccentric, a charge stemming from his behavior and interests on and off the stage.
Early life
White, the youngest of ten children (seven sons, three daughters), was born in
Detroit,
Michigan, the son of Teresa and Gorman Gillis. His father and mother worked for the
Archdiocese of Detroit, as the maintenance man and the Cardinal's secretary, respectively. Jack, like his six brothers, eventually became an altar boy, which landed him an uncredited role in the 1987 movie
The Rosary Murders, filmed mainly at Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit. As a child he was a fan of classical music.
White began playing instruments (a drum) at the age of five. Although White grew up near
Mexicantown, a lower-middle-class
Hispanic neighborhood in southwest Detroit, his musical preferences were not those of his classmates, who listened to
electronica and
hip hop. White, as a teenager, was already listening to the
blues and 1960s rock that would influence him in the White Stripes,
In 2005 on
60 Minutes, White told
Mike Wallace that his life could have turned out differently. "I'd got accepted to a seminary in Wisconsin, and I was gonna become a priest, but at the last second I thought, 'I’ll just go to public school,'" White said. "I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn’t think I was allowed to take it with me." It would turn out to be a life-defining decision.
At fifteen, White began a three-year
upholstery apprenticeship with a family friend, Brian Muldoon. After working in various shops, White started a one-man business of his own, called Third Man Upholstery. The slogan of his business was "Your Furniture's Not Dead" and the color scheme was yellow and black — including a yellow van, a yellow and black uniform and a yellow clipboard. While Third Man Upholstery never lacked business, White claims that it wasn't
profitable, due to his complacency about money and his business practices that were perceived as unprofessional, including making bills out in
crayon and writing poetry inside the furniture.
Career
Early career
White's first professional music experience came in the early 1990s as a
drummer for the Detroit
cowpunk band Goober and the Peas. This led to work with various other bands such as the
garage punk band
The Go on their album
Whatcha Doin', and 2 Star Tabernacle. Also, in addition to being his mentor and neighbor, Muldoon played drums with White in late night
jam sessions; informally, they called themselves "Two Part Resin", although their post-breakup debut single on
Sympathy for the Record Industry from 2000 is credited to
The Upholsterers.
The White Stripes
Jack and
Meg White were married on
September 21,
1996. In unorthodox fashion, Jack took Meg's surname. Post-marriage, Jack continued to dabble in multiple bands, but it was in 1997 that Meg first tried her hand at the drums. In Jack's words, "When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up." The buzz turned the White Stripes into a sensation in Britain, and the enthusiasm soon crossed over back to the
United States. The 2001 single, "
Fell in Love with a Girl", became an alternative hit, and the band's third album and major label debut,
White Blood Cells, was seen as leading the trend for
garage rock in the early
2000s, earning comparisons to
The Strokes. In 2002,
NME's first ever Cool List named Jack White "the coolest person in rock".
By 2003, the White Stripes had become one of the nation's most popular rock groups, with their fourth album,
Elephant, winning
Grammy Awards (including for the single "
Seven Nation Army") and appearing on end of year lists. In a
2003 special issue,
Rolling Stone named White the 17th best guitarist of all time. The White Stripes' 2005 album
Get Behind Me Satan saw White playing less guitar, concentrating on piano,
marimba and other instruments, but achieved the band's highest debut on the
Billboard 200 chart, at #3. White received praise from
Lou Reed as well as gaining the admiration of other musicians such as
Slash,
Jimmy Page, and fellow Detroit musician
Iggy Pop.
In 2007 White recorded the sixth
White Stripes album,
Icky Thump in addition to recording several tracks for the second Raconteurs album. A US tour to support
Icky Thump began on
July 22,
2007, but in September of that year, the rest of the tour was canceled due to Meg's battle with
anxiety.
While playing live, Jack often, during solos, uses his guitar like a
slide guitar, with a slide on his finger, usually while using a
killswitch. His style is similar to that of
Tom Morello, and he's demonstrated that on his performances on
Saturday Night Live and other shows.
Solo career
The critical and popular success of the White Stripes opened up new opportunities for White. In
2003, he was well-received in the role of Georgia in the feature film
Cold Mountain, directed by
Anthony Minghella. He also performed several songs for the film's
soundtrack (produced by
T Bone Burnett), in a traditional
Appalachian mountain music style. Later in that same year, he and Meg appeared in one of the shorts comprising
Jim Jarmusch's film,
Coffee and Cigarettes. Meanwhile, White produced
Loretta Lynn's
2004 album,
Van Lear Rose, singing with her on the duet "
Portland, Oregon." The album was released in April 2004 to critical acclaim, and earned five Grammy Award nominations, going on to win both
Best Country Album and
Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the duet. White has referred to
The Stooges'
1970 album
Fun House as "the greatest rock 'n' roll record ever made." As a result, he was invited by
Rhino Records to contribute
liner notes to the
2005 deluxe reissue of the album. He also wrote the liner notes to
Holly Golightly's album
Truly She Is None Other. In 2007, he'd a small role playing Elvis Presley in the comedy
Walk Hard.
White made a surprise appearance with
Bob Dylan in Detroit on
March 17,
2004, performing the White Stripes song "
Ball and Biscuit" during the second encore. White again performed as a special guest with Dylan during both shows performed at the
Ryman Auditorium on
September 19 and
September 20,
2007. On
September 19, White sang lead vocals and played guitar on "
Meet Me in the Morning" from Dylan's 1975 album
Blood on the Tracks; it was the first time that Dylan had ever played the song live in concert. White returned on
September 20 on the songs "
One More Cup of Coffee" and "
Outlaw Blues", the latter of which hadn't been performed live since a Dylan sound check in 1965.
In April 2006, a long-rumored and extremely low-profile
Coca-Cola commercial titled "What Goes Around Comes Around" debuted during the
MTV Australia Video Music Awards, which featured the original song "Love is the Truth" that White wrote exclusively for Coke. Regarding the situation, White stated, "I've been offered the opportunity to write a song in a way which interests me as a songwriter." However, according to InTheNews.co.uk, the ad was only played once in the UK, late at night on
Channel 4, and was available for only a short time at the Coke website.
Jack and Meg made a cameo appearance on the
September 17,
2006 episode of
The Simpsons titled "Jazzy and the Pussycats", in which
Homer and
Marge buy a drum kit for
Bart and he becomes a jazz drummer, making
Lisa jealous. In 2007, The White Stripes and The Raconteurs appeared in the popular Irish web-cartoons of
Eyebrowy.com. making them one of only a few non-Irish acts to be parodied. The clip is styled like the
60's Batman TV show.
Interestingly, throughout White's career he's worked out an arrangement with his distributors (both
V2 Records and
Warner Bros. Records) that allows White to maintain ownership of the master recordings, a rarity in the modern music industry. Additionally, the label has allowed him to produce for other bands with his personal label,
Third Man Records — most notably for fellow Detroit act The Muldoons (featuring his former upholstering partner Brian Muldoon) and Whirlwind Heat. V2 president Andy Gershon said, "Jack has interests that extend outside the White Stripes, and I think it's important to support him in these areas." In 2005, White recorded and produced the first 45 record for his former teacher Brian Muldoon's family project,
The Muldoons. Muldoon's two sons, Hunter and Shane, front the trio. White has also worked with artists
Pete Townshend, and
Billy Gibbons.. White was part of an effort to set the last lyrics Hank Williams ever wrote (found in a briefcase) to music. He tackled the song "You Know That I Know". The project was initiated by Bob Dylan and is set to be released in 2008 or 2009. In April 2008,
Martin Scorsese released
Shine a Light, the
Rolling Stones concert documentary that included a guest appearance by White.
He also appears on the soundtrack to Shine a Light performing the song Loving Cup.
The Raconteurs
In the summer of 2005, White and his friend
Brendan Benson got together and wrote "
Steady, As She Goes". The song would turn out to be the first single of their new band—The Raconteurs, with Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence. The band came together in Detroit during 2005 and recorded when time allowed for the remainder of the year. Due to the various members' success in other bands, they were quickly dubbed a
supergroup but they asserted they were actually "a new band made up of old friends." In 2006, White toured following the release of
The Raconteurs' (or the Saboteurs, as they're legally known in Australia) debut album
Broken Boy Soldiers.
In January 2008, they entered the studio to begin production on their follow-up album. The result was
Consolers of the Lonely, released March 25th. Despite efforts of the band to thwart "leaks" (including, but not limited to announcing their release date one week prior to release,) iTunes mistakenly began selling the album in advance of its slated release date.
The band has played a number of music festivals in Europe, Asia, and North America (including
Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK, Vegoose in Las Vegas, Lollapalooza in Chicago, IL and
Austin City Limits Music Festival in
Austin, Texas), and
Bonnaroo Music Festival.
Musical equipment and sound
Jack White uses numerous effects to create his powerful live sound, most notably a
Digitech Whammy IV to create the rapid modulations in pitch he uses in his solos. The guitars he uses live are two 1965
JB Hutto Montgomery Airlines (one which he received from a fan), a Harmony Rocket, a 1970s-era Crestwood Astral II, 1950s-era
Kay Hollowbody, a
Gretsch White Penguin (as seen in the music video for "
Icky Thump"), and a custom Gretsch Rancher Acoustic Guitar Western Maple Satin (which he also uses when playing with The Raconteurs). When playing with the Raconteurs, White usually plays two custom
Gretsch-styled copies of the Duo Jet guitar, and a Gretsch Anniversary Jr. w/ Bigsby with three Filtertron pickups, dubbed by Jack the Triple Jet. In concert with an MXR Micro-Amp and custom Electro-Harmonix
Big Muff Distortion/Sustainer, White can produce a very distinctive sound. In 2005, for the single "Blue Orchid", White employed the use of a new
Electro-Harmonix creation, the Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG). Similar to (but more versatile than) the Whammy IV, the POG lets the user mix in several octave effects into one along with the dry signal. He also has three Zvex Tremolo Probes, that are hand painted black. All of the pedals that he uses live have been professionally painted red to match his red/black/white color scheme (with the exception of his Whammy and the other pedals that are already red).He plugs this setup into a 1970s
Fender Twin Reverb and two 100-Watt Sears
Silvertone 6x10 combo amplifiers.
White also produces a "fake" bass tone by playing the Kay Hollowbody and JB Hutto Montgomery Airline guitars through a Whammy IV set to one octave down for a very thick, low, rumbling sound, which he uses most notably on the songs "
Seven Nation Army" and "
The Hardest Button to Button".
On occasion, White also plays other instruments, such as a Black Gibson F-4
mandolin ("Little Ghost"),
piano (on most tracks from
Get Behind Me Satan, and various others),
electric piano on such tracks as "The Air Near My Fingers" and "I'm Finding it Harder to be a Gentleman" in which he used a
Rhodes Mark II stage piano. White also plays
percussion instruments such as the
marimba (as on "The Nurse"),
drums and
tambourine. On
Broken Boy Soldiers, he's credited as playing the album's
synths and
organ however bandmate
Brendan Benson also received credit for these instruments and it's unclear who played on which song.
White plays power chords with a different technique than most musicians. Instead of using his ring finger to fret the higher notes, Jack uses his little finger. This is because of a car accident in which his left index finger was injured and also the fact that his brothers would never teach him the proper way to do so, which he explains in an appearance with the Raconteurs on the show
In the Attic.
Personal life
On
December 13,
2003, White was involved in an altercation with Jason Stollsteimer (lead singer of
The Von Bondies) at the Magic Stick, a Detroit club. White was charged with misdemeanor
aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty to the charge, and was fined $750 (including court costs), and was sentenced to take
anger management classes.
White had a brief but highly publicized romantic relationship with actress
Renée Zellweger, whom he met during the filming of
Cold Mountain in 2003. That summer, the couple were in a car accident in which White broke his left index finger and was forced to reschedule much of the summer tour. He posted the footage of his finger surgery on the web for fans. White and Zellweger's breakup became public in December 2004.
White married model
Karen Elson (who appeared in the music video for the White Stripes song "Blue Orchid") on
June 1,
2005 in
Manaus, Brazil. Manager
Ian Montone was the
best man and
Meg White was the
maid of honor. Official wedding announcements stated that it was the first marriage for both. On
May 2,
2006, the couple had a daughter, named Scarlett Teresa White. In 2006, it was revealed in the
Sunday Times Rich List that White and Elson had a joint fortune of at least
£20 million
GBP (
US$37 million). This ranked them at seventh place in the list of entertainers under age 30 who were born or live in the
United Kingdom, ahead of the likes of
Orlando Bloom and
Kate Winslet. Their second child, Henry Lee White, was born on
August 7,
2007. In the announcement, White's publicist confirmed that the children's last name was White, a topic that had caused a minor stir in the media, considering the origin of the last name is his ex-wife.
White gives few interviews and reveals few details of his private life. He states that he doesn't consider it relevant to his art, saying "It's the same thing as asking
Michelangelo, 'What kind of shoes do you wear?'...In the end, it doesn't really matter ... the only thing that's going to be left is our records and photos."
White resides in
Nashville,
Tennessee with his wife and children.
Eccentricities
White is often called eccentric, and is noted for his behavior, hobbies, and passions. For instance he's an obsession with the number three. His love for "three" started when he was an upholstery apprentice and noticed that three staples were holding the fabric to the side of the furniture. He began thinking of other trios that were minimal and powerful, most of all the
Holy Trinity. On
November 7,
2005, it was widely reported that Jack White had changed his name to "Three Quid" (
quid is British slang for pound sterling). However, most reports indicated that this would only last until the end of the tour. When asked about this in a UK radio interview, he claimed that "it's all a money thing....it's all about money."
As one of the White Stripes, White has also created some sensation on and off the stage. The band (when on official duty) dresses only in red, white, and black, which Jack believes are "the most powerful color combination of all time, from a Coca-Cola can to a Nazi banner." A topic of intrigue has been the actual relationship between Jack and Meg. In early interviews, the pair presented themselves as siblings, two of ten.
The Flaming Lips touch on this in their song "Thank You Jack White (for the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)" released on their 2003 EP
Fight Test.
However, the
Detroit Free Press produced copies of both a marriage licence and divorce certificate, confirming Jack and Meg's history as a married couple. Neither addresses the truth officially; however, over time, they've become less vocal about the origins of their relationship. Jack White
has said, though, that siblings are "mated for life", and thus such relationships distract less from the music.
It was rumored that in 2003 White was featured on
Electric Six's song "
Danger! High Voltage." Initially both he and the Electric Six denied this, and the vocal work was credited officially to the unknown John S O'Leary. However, a recent radio interview with Tim Shaw on
Kerrang! 105.2 in the UK had Electric Six lead singer Dick Valentine talking openly about White singing on this song as well as speculating on the amount of money he was paid ($60,000). Also, in Q magazine in an article specific to The White Stripes it stated that Jack White did in fact work with Electric 6 and the vocals in the song 'Gay Bar'.
Solo discography
As musician
As producer
Lack of Communication (2001) — Von Bondies
Sewed Soles (2005) — The Greenhornes
Do Rabbits Wonder? (2003) — Whirlwind Heat[
Van Lear Rose (2004) — Loretta Lynn
]Filmography
The Rosary Murders (1987) — uncredited altar boy
Cold Mountain (2003) — Georgia
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) — Himself
The Fearless Freaks (2005) — Himself
Walk Hard (2007) — Elvis Presley
Shine a Light (2008) — HimselfFurther Information
Get more info on 'Jack White'.
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