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Jack White
White performing in 2005.
Background information
Birth name	John Anthony Gillis
Born	July 9, 1975 (1975-07-09) (age 32)
Origin	Detroit, MI, U.S.
Genre(s)	Garage Rock Blues Rock Indie Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist, Producer, Actor
Instrument(s)	Guitar Piano Bass Drums Marimba Mandolin
Associated acts	The White Stripes The Go Two-Star Tabernacle The Raconteurs The Upholsterers Loretta Lynn

Jack White (occasionally Jack White III or just III), born on July 9, 1975 in Detroit, Michigan, is an American musician, record producer, and occasional actor best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist of the rock duo The White Stripes.

During the 1990s, White was a part-time musician in various underground bands in Detroit, while working by day as an upholsterer. After hearing his then wife, Meg White, play drums, the two formed the 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 Stripes enabled him to collaborate as a solo artist with other renowned musicians, such as Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and Lou Reed.^[1] 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 behavoir and interests on and off the stage.

Jack White was born John Anthony Gillis, and is the youngest of ten kids (seven sons, three daughters) born to Gorman and Teresa Gillis.^a[›] His father and mother worked for the Archdiocese of Detroit,^[2] 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.^[3] At five he learnt by himself how to play the drums, and as a child was a fan of classical music.^[4]

White began playing instruments (a drum) at the age of five.^[5] 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,^[3] Son House and Blind Willie McTell being among his favorite blues musicians.^[6]

White on 60 Minutes in February of 2005

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." ^[7] 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 was not 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.^[8]

Jack White in concert with The Raconteurs at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2006

White's first professional music experience came in the early 1990s as a drummer for the Detroit country-punk band Goober and the Peas. This led to work with various other bands such as 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",^[9] although their post-breakup debut single on Sympathy for the Record Industry from 2000 is credited to The Upholsterers.

Jack met Meg White in 1994, and they 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 took 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."^[3] The young couple then became a band, and in July of that year, the newly-christened White Stripes made their first live appearance at the Gold Dollar in Detroit. Despite their status as a married couple, the two presented themselves publicly as siblings. In keeping live performances to three elements, Jack fulfilled guitar and vocal duties while Meg played drums.^[3] Starting out as an underground favorite in Detroit and other circles, the White Stripes recorded two albums for an independent label. Although the couple divorced in 2000, before becoming nationally famous, the band survived.

The White Stripes came to international attention when, in 2001, British DJ John Peel raved of the band on his radio show.^[10] 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 NME's first ever Cool List in 2002 he was named "the coolest person in rock".^[11] By 2003, the White Stripes had become one of the nation's most popular guitar 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.^[12] 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.

In 2007 White recorded the sixth White Stripes album, Icky Thump in addition to recording several tracks for the untitled second Raconteurs album. A tour to support Icky Thump extends from July 22 into October of 2007.^[13] The new album marks the first time he will be releasing material on a major recording label (Warner Bros. Records), since his previous distributor V2 Records closed its doors.

In 2006, White toured following the release of The Raconteurs' (or the Saboteurs, as they are legally known in Australia) debut album Broken Boy Soldiers.

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.^[14] He also performed several songs for the film's soundtrack (produced by T Bone Burnett), in a traditional Appalachian mountain music style.^[15] Later in that same year, he and Meg appeared in one of the shorts comprising Jim Jarmusch's film, Coffee and Cigarettes. Down on the Street from The Stooges' second album Fun House plays in the background during the short, The Stooges having been a big influence on Jack. 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."^[16] 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 had a small role playing Elvis Presley in the 2007 comedy Walk Hard.^[17]

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 had not been performed live since a Dylan sound check in 1965.^[18]

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.^[19] Regarding the situation, White stated, "I've been offered the opportunity to write a song in a way which interests me as a songwriter."^[20] 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.^[21] 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 has worked out an arrangement with his distributors (both V2 Records and Warner Bros. Records) that allows White to maintain ownership of the master recordings,^[22] a rarity in the modern music industry.^[23] Additionally, the label has allowed him to produce for other bands with his personal label, Third Man Records — most notably for fellow Detroit act Whirlwind Heat. V2 president Andy Gershon said, "Jack has interests that extend outside the White Stripes, and I think it is important to support him in these areas." ^[24] 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.^[25].

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.^[26] The guitars he uses live are two 1965 JB Hutto Montgomery Airlines (one which he received from a fan),^[27] a Harmony Rocket, a 1970s-era Crestwood Astral II, 1950s-era Kay Hollowbody, and a Gretsch White Penguin (as seen in the music video for "Icky Thump"). When playing with the Raconteurs, White usually plays two custom Gretsch-styled copies of the Triple Jet guitar, a Gretsch Anniversary Jr. w/ Bigsby with three Filtertron pickups and a custom Gretsch Rancher Acoustic Guitar Western Maple Satin. In concert with an MXR Micro-Amp and custom Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi 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. 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.^[28]

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".^[26][29]

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 is credited as playing the album's synths and organ however bandmate Brendan Benson also received credit for these instruments and it is unclear who played on which song. White uses a Moog Little Phatty synthesizer, a Hammond A-100 organ, and a Fender Rhodes bass keyboard on his current tour.

White plays his barre and 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 (guitar playing) 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.

White has received acclaim for his guitar playing. In Rolling Stone's 2003 list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, White ranked 17th.^[30] In the September 2007 issue of Q magazine, White was named, among others, a guitar hero.

White, following his arrest in 2003

After their collaboration in 2001, White's relationship with Jason Stollsteimer (lead singer of the Von Bondies) went sour. In December 2002, Stollsteimer dialed 911 when White allegedly attacked him in his apartment, but no charges were filed.^[31] On December 13, 2003, the two were involved in an altercation 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.^[32]

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 cancel much of the summer tour.^[33] He posted the footage of his finger surgery on the web for fans.^[34] White and Zellweger's breakup became public in December 2004.^[35]

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.^[36] On May 2, 2006, the couple had a daughter, named Scarlett Teresa White.^[37] 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.^[38]b[›] Their second child, Henry Lee White, was born on August 7, 2007.^[39] 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.^[40][41]

White gives few interviews and reveals few details of his private life. He states that he does not 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." ^[42]

White resides in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and children.^[43]

White is often called eccentric, and is noted for his behavior, hobbies, and passions. ^[44][45][46] For instance he has an obsession with the number three and all that it represents. 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.^[47] 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.^[48][49][50] 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 "the most powerful color combination of all time, from a Coca-Cola can to a Nazi banner."^[51] 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. However, the Detroit Free Press produced copies of both their marriage licence and divorce certificate, confirming their history as a married couple. Neither addresses the truth officially; however, over time, they have 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.^[3] Also in 2007 Jack White and The White Stripes made history by playing the shortest ever concert by only playing one note (a C#). They played a real show later that night.^{[citation needed]}

It was rumored that in 2003 White was featured on Electric Six's song "Danger! High Voltage."^[52] Initially both he and the Electric Six denied this, and the vocal work was credited officially to the unknown John S O'Leary.^[53] 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).

White was the subject of The Flaming Lips's song Thank You Jack White (For The Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me) released on their 2003 Fight Test EP.

White played bass on the song "Go It Alone" from the Beck album Guero. Beck, a friend of White's, appeared in the White Stripes video for "The Hardest Button to Button."

• "Cold Mountain (2003)
  • Wayfaring Stranger" (Burl Ives)
  • "Great High Mountain" (Unknown)
  • "Sittin' on Top of the World" (Walter Vinson; Lonnie Chatmon)
  • "Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over" (Unknown)
• Van Lear Rose (2004) — Loretta Lynn
  • "Little Red Shoes" (also wrote)

• Lack of Communication (2001) — Von Bondies
• Unknown — Green Horns^[54]
• Do Rabbits Wonder? (2003) — Whirlwind Heat^[54]
• Van Lear Rose (2004) — Loretta Lynn

• 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

• The Observer, "What's eating Jack?", an interview with the band by Andrew Perry
• Sullivan, Denise (2004). The White Stripes: Sweethearts of the Blues. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-805-2 Google Print (accessed June 1, 2006)
• Jack White interview on upholstery , from The Believer magazine
• The Onion A.V. Club interview

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Jack White

• Whitestripes.com, official site of The White Stripes
• TheWhiteStripes, official Myspace page of The White Stripes
• TheRaconteurs.com, official site of The Raconteurs
• TheRaconteurs, official Myspace page of The Raconteurs
• TheGoDetroit.com, official site of The Go — White's former band
• Jack White at the Internet Movie Database
• Listen, Ball and Biscuit performance with Bob Dylan
• Unofficial White Stripes FAQ
• Jack White's pedal boards