WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.879 Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we tear open 00:00:01.879 --> 00:00:03.600 the source material so you can walk away well 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:06.360 -informed and hopefully a little surprised. Today, 00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:08.560 we're plunging into the meticulously constructed 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:11.179 universe of John Anthony White. Better known, 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:13.820 of course, as Jack White. That's right. We are 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:16.719 analyzing a figure celebrated as, you know, the 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.960 centerpiece of that whole 2000s garage rock revival, 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:23.219 a massive solo artist in his own right. And get 00:00:23.219 --> 00:00:26.000 this soon to be Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.160 in 2025. That's with the White Stripes alongside 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:32.179 Meg White. Yeah. And right away, our sources 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:34.500 highlight this the central paradox with Jack 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:36.299 White. I mean, The New York Times called him 00:00:36.299 --> 00:00:38.560 the coolest, weirdest and savviest rock star 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:40.890 of our time. But at the same time, this is a 00:00:40.890 --> 00:00:44.469 guy who fiercely, vehemently advocates for almost 00:00:44.469 --> 00:00:47.369 crippling simplicity, artistic limitations, and 00:00:47.369 --> 00:00:49.909 these, frankly, antiquated analog recording methods. 00:00:50.189 --> 00:00:52.590 It's a fascinating split, isn't it? His whole 00:00:52.590 --> 00:00:57.469 career feels like one long experiment in constraint. 00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:01.740 He genuinely seems to believe that by imposing 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:04.840 these super strict rules, like a limited color 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:07.760 palette, specific vintage gear, or even like 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:10.560 fabricating personal mythology, he forces real 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:13.420 creativity to bubble up. Right. It's like he's 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:16.200 trying to build this huge musical multiverse. 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:18.980 Yeah. But insisting on using only, what, three 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:21.140 primary colors. Yeah. And the simplest tools 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:23.120 imaginable. Exactly. And that's our mission today. 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:24.920 We're going to try and unpack that complexity. 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:27.079 We're digging into the essential knowledge from 00:01:27.079 --> 00:01:29.680 his, well, incredible. prolific and very carefully 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:32.200 curated career. You want to explore how he built 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:34.439 this entire world, really, from those early days 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:36.700 back in Detroit, trying to, you know, save old 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:38.840 furniture. Literally. Right up to his recent 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:41.180 surprise album drops. And now the Hall of Fame 00:01:41.180 --> 00:01:44.280 induction. OK, so let's dive into that journey. 00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:46.120 We've got to start where the myth really began. 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:48.819 Detroit. The Olive Tree Shop and the Origin of 00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:51.280 the White Stripes. Now, he was born John Anthony 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:53.459 Gillis. Frank Gillis. And one of the very first, 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:56.340 and I think really telling, acts of his deliberate 00:01:56.340 --> 00:01:59.319 career transformation was legally changing his 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:02.640 name when he married Meg White in 1996. He legally 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:06.060 took her surname White, which, you know, sources 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:09.400 know it was a reversal of tradition. It was pretty 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:11.860 rare back then. Still is, really. Think about 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:14.060 that. It's like his first major act of artistic 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:16.659 disruption, even before the band really hit. 00:02:17.380 --> 00:02:20.379 totally signals that he planned to reject conventional 00:02:20.379 --> 00:02:23.120 norms from the get -go, especially within that 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:25.840 key creative partnership. Absolutely. And he 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.039 did have a musical foundation before Meg, though 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:30.919 maybe a bit chaotic. He started playing drums 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:34.060 super young, like first grade, found an old kit 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:36.060 in the attic. Left over from his older brother's 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:38.340 band, right? Catalyst. Yeah, Catalyst. And his 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:40.759 early influences were really broad. Started with 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:43.659 classical music, apparently, then got deep, deep 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:45.620 into the blues. And we really can't overstate 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:47.509 how important the blues are. to his sound his 00:02:47.509 --> 00:02:49.610 whole identity oh definitely not he famously 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:52.229 says sun house's grinning in your face is his 00:02:52.229 --> 00:02:55.229 favorite song ever which is just this pure raw 00:02:55.229 --> 00:02:59.590 acapella blues track zero frills That directness, 00:02:59.629 --> 00:03:02.349 that kind of lack of artifice, you can hear it 00:03:02.349 --> 00:03:04.389 becoming the bedrock for the White Stripes sound. 00:03:04.629 --> 00:03:07.349 Mixed, obviously, with that jolt of 60s rock 00:03:07.349 --> 00:03:09.509 doors, Led Zeppelin, that kind of stuff. But 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:12.729 yeah, his career path took this very non -rock 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:16.289 star detour first. Before the fame, he was an 00:03:16.289 --> 00:03:19.150 upholsterer. A full -on apprentice, then started 00:03:19.150 --> 00:03:22.400 his own one -man shop. Third man upholstery. 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:25.419 And this period, it seems kind of mundane, right? 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:27.979 Working with fabric and staples. Yeah. But it's 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:29.879 absolutely critical. It's like the conceptual 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:33.139 blueprint for his whole later aesthetic. That's 00:03:33.139 --> 00:03:35.159 exactly where the structure starts to form. Get 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:37.120 this slogan for the business. Your furniture 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:39.960 is not dead. Pure Jack White. Totally. And the 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.199 aesthetic choices he made even then, yellow and 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:44.759 black color scheme for the van, the uniform, 00:03:44.860 --> 00:03:47.219 the whole workspace. It was already strictly 00:03:47.219 --> 00:03:50.419 controlled. He was imposing structure on this. 00:03:50.669 --> 00:03:52.969 you know, inherently messy trade. But he couldn't 00:03:52.969 --> 00:03:55.189 stop himself from injecting art into it, even 00:03:55.189 --> 00:03:57.969 in weird ways. Our sources mentioned these wonderfully 00:03:57.969 --> 00:04:00.370 unconventional, maybe slightly unprofessional 00:04:00.370 --> 00:04:02.729 business practices, like he wrote his bills out 00:04:02.729 --> 00:04:05.370 in crayon. Wait, in crayon? Okay, that's something. 00:04:05.610 --> 00:04:08.409 And he apparently had this compulsion to write 00:04:08.409 --> 00:04:11.969 poetry and lyrics inside the furniture he was 00:04:11.969 --> 00:04:15.150 fixing. Hold on. Poetry. Inside the couches. 00:04:15.629 --> 00:04:17.740 That's what the sources say. That's not just 00:04:17.740 --> 00:04:20.519 eccentric. That's like this fundamental, almost 00:04:20.519 --> 00:04:23.060 desperate need to put art into the everyday. 00:04:23.180 --> 00:04:26.579 He's literally building secret little art capsules, 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:29.699 forcing a hidden story into these objects. It 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:32.060 totally foreshadows the kind of controlled mystery 00:04:32.060 --> 00:04:33.899 he'd later build around his music, doesn't it? 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:36.420 Absolutely. It's the same impulse. So the shift 00:04:36.420 --> 00:04:38.860 from upholstery to rock star really kicks off 00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.459 after he meets Meg White. Met her at a restaurant, 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:43.899 Memphis Smoke, where she was working. They got 00:04:43.899 --> 00:04:47.870 married in 96. And then in 97. Meg starts playing 00:04:47.870 --> 00:04:50.649 drums, supposedly just on a whim. Right. And 00:04:50.649 --> 00:04:52.290 they often claimed it was Bastille Day when she 00:04:52.290 --> 00:04:55.290 first played, July 14th, which, you know, immediately 00:04:55.290 --> 00:04:57.790 adds this layer of intentional mythology to the 00:04:57.790 --> 00:04:59.730 whole origin story. Was it really Bastille Day? 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:02.069 Who knows? But it sounds good. What's really 00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:04.810 key, though, is Jack's reaction to her drumming 00:05:04.810 --> 00:05:08.430 style. Yes. He described her playing, which was, 00:05:08.629 --> 00:05:10.949 you know, minimalistic, sometimes really simple, 00:05:11.110 --> 00:05:14.110 maybe occasionally off tempo. He called it liberating 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:17.879 and refreshing. After years of Presumably focusing 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:21.300 on technical skill, here's someone just stripping 00:05:21.300 --> 00:05:24.639 rhythm down to its absolute bare bone. Exactly. 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.759 The essential core. And this leads us right into 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:31.579 the famous big lie, the whole sibling story that 00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:34.060 defined their early image. Right. So they got 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:37.060 married in 96, divorced in 2000, but publicly 00:05:37.060 --> 00:05:39.540 for years they insisted they were brother and 00:05:39.540 --> 00:05:42.139 sister. This whole fabrication eventually got 00:05:42.139 --> 00:05:45.060 busted by the press around 2002. But White's 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:47.439 justification later is so revealing about his 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:49.420 need for artistic control, isn't it? Totally. 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:51.879 He basically said, look, when people see a husband 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:53.800 and wife in a band, they focus on the relationship 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:56.040 drama, they try to read the lyrics like a diary. 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:57.879 Looking for clues about their personal life. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:00.100 Right. But, he argued, if they think you're brother 00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:02.180 and sister, you care more about the music, not 00:06:02.180 --> 00:06:05.019 the relationship. It was a deliberate, manufactured 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.980 myth, designed purely to redirect attention away 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:09.980 from the personal and squarely onto the art. 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:12.420 It's like a marketing strategy rooted in creative 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:15.000 constraint. He built a narrative wall around 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.579 them. Yeah, to make sure the sound, the simplicity 00:06:17.579 --> 00:06:19.939 of the music itself stayed front and center. 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.639 He understood mystery gets attention, but personal 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:26.519 drama, that can kill focus. So he controlled 00:06:26.519 --> 00:06:29.540 it by creating this, well, artistic artifice. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:31.939 Speaking of artistic artifice and restriction. 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:36.100 that leads us perfectly into the real heart of 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:38.620 Jack White's philosophy. This whole idea of the 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:40.800 constriction of art, his obsession with the number 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.019 three, and what we're calling the analog imperative. 00:06:43.339 --> 00:06:46.139 Okay, the visual side of the white stripes. That 00:06:46.139 --> 00:06:48.500 was absolutely a manifesto built on scarcity. 00:06:48.779 --> 00:06:51.720 The exclusive use of red, white, and black, and 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:54.000 I mean exclusive, no other colors allowed, on 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.860 stage, in videos, album art, anything. It was 00:06:56.860 --> 00:06:58.949 non -negotiable. And the way he explained that 00:06:58.949 --> 00:07:00.870 choice is pretty striking. He said those three 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:02.930 colors are the most powerful combination ever, 00:07:03.029 --> 00:07:05.449 period. He drew inspiration from things that 00:07:05.449 --> 00:07:07.829 project power or instant familiarity, specifically 00:07:07.829 --> 00:07:10.209 mentioning the Coca -Cola logo. Which evokes 00:07:10.209 --> 00:07:12.430 that kind of innocent, childish vibe. Right. 00:07:12.490 --> 00:07:15.110 But then also, and this is pretty jarring, a 00:07:15.110 --> 00:07:17.430 Nazi banner. Yeah, he really said that. Which 00:07:17.430 --> 00:07:19.730 projects, you know, absolute stark authority. 00:07:20.269 --> 00:07:24.170 That duality seems totally deliberate. Innocence 00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:26.850 mixed with this undeniable stripped -down power. 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:29.040 It's the ultimate statement on controlled impact, 00:07:29.319 --> 00:07:32.500 visually. And maybe it served that secondary 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:34.259 purpose he mentioned too, distracting from the 00:07:34.259 --> 00:07:36.420 fact there were two young white musicians playing 00:07:36.420 --> 00:07:38.639 what he openly called black music, classic American 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:42.040 blues. The visual loudness kind of compensated 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:44.579 for the minimal lineup. And that musical limitation 00:07:44.579 --> 00:07:47.939 was just as brutal, but brilliant. Intentionally 00:07:47.939 --> 00:07:50.720 having no bass player. That duo structure wasn't 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:52.339 an accident. It was a deliberate restriction 00:07:52.339 --> 00:07:55.180 on the instrumental depth. Jack always seemed 00:07:55.180 --> 00:07:57.180 to anchor the band around the absolute minimum 00:07:57.180 --> 00:08:00.879 needed. That sacred number three. Ah, yes, the 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.540 power of three. It's not just a habit for him, 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:05.779 it's practically a religion. The essential ingredients 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:08.639 for any song had to be three elements. Vocals, 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:11.199 guitar, drums, or maybe vocals, piano, drums. 00:08:11.459 --> 00:08:14.000 And this obsession pops up everywhere. Third 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.480 Man Records, obviously. Appending three to his 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:18.560 own name sometimes. Didn't he call himself Three 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:20.939 Quid on a UK tour once? He did, yeah, Three Quid. 00:08:20.939 --> 00:08:23.779 It's constant. I love the origin story he tells 00:08:23.779 --> 00:08:26.019 for this obsession, though, because it ties right 00:08:26.019 --> 00:08:28.759 back to the upholstery. It does. apparently comes 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:31.300 from this vladimir kagan couch high -end stuff 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:35.840 he was working on it and noticed just three staples 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:38.679 holding the fabric down on the back just three 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:41.840 and he was supposedly mesmerized by this simple 00:08:41.840 --> 00:08:45.220 geometric fact three was the minimum needed to 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:47.639 do the job right he saw it as symbolizing this 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:51.100 almost iconic mysterious perfection that cannot 00:08:51.100 --> 00:08:55.019 be obtained that search for pure functional simplicity 00:08:55.659 --> 00:08:58.039 And that whole philosophy of restriction of less 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:00.879 is more is absolutely central to his analog imperative. 00:09:01.379 --> 00:09:04.279 He views digital recordings freedom, you know, 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:06.500 endless tracks, unlimited options, perfect mistake 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:09.279 correction as fundamentally bad for creativity. 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:11.700 He says it pretty bluntly. Digital's freedom 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:13.779 and all those options, for the most part, not 00:09:13.779 --> 00:09:15.899 good choices for an artist. Why? Because it lets 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:18.460 you avoid commitment. Analog tape. Once you lay 00:09:18.460 --> 00:09:20.340 down that track, especially on limited tracks, 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:22.240 you're kind of married to that performance. There's 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:24.399 no undo. That's the key, right? The beauty he 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:26.460 finds in flaws. He argues perfection isn't the 00:09:26.460 --> 00:09:29.039 goal. Commitment and character are. Exactly. 00:09:29.740 --> 00:09:31.799 Analog mechanics, he believes, give you those 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:34.379 inherent little flaws and tiny little specks 00:09:34.379 --> 00:09:37.279 and hisses. And those aren't mistakes to him. 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:40.159 They will add to the idea of something beautiful, 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:43.220 something romantic. The flaws are the romance. 00:09:43.559 --> 00:09:45.720 See this philosophy built into his recording 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:48.419 setup. His home studio in Nashville, the famous 00:09:48.419 --> 00:09:51.080 Third Man Studio. It's built for intimacy and 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:54.320 focus. Only two main rooms, but packed with serious 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:57.820 vintage analog gear. A Neve mixing console. Which 00:09:57.820 --> 00:10:00.240 is a classic piece of kit. Known for that warm, 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.799 rich sound. And two Studer A100 2 -inch 8 -track 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:05.679 tape recorders. Okay, let's pause on that Studer 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:07.440 8 -track for a sec because that limitation is 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:09.960 huge. Explain that. Well, today, recording digitally, 00:10:10.019 --> 00:10:13.279 you might use 50, 100, maybe even unlimited tracks 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:15.659 for layering sounds. Recording on an 8 -track 00:10:15.659 --> 00:10:18.220 machine means you have exactly 8 channels total 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:21.860 for everything. Wow. Try making a complex rock 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:24.769 record with just 8 lanes of audio. It forces 00:10:24.769 --> 00:10:26.850 incredible discipline. You have to commit to 00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:29.470 the sound of the drums, the guitar, the vocals 00:10:29.470 --> 00:10:32.429 almost immediately. There's basically zero room 00:10:32.429 --> 00:10:35.009 for endless tweaking or fixing things in the 00:10:35.009 --> 00:10:37.690 mix later. Performance is everything. It forces 00:10:37.690 --> 00:10:40.750 you to prioritize the actual performance over 00:10:40.750 --> 00:10:44.090 slick production tricks. And he demonstrated 00:10:44.090 --> 00:10:47.049 this radical minimalism perfectly in that documentary. 00:10:47.330 --> 00:10:49.990 It might get loud. Oh yeah, that scene is iconic. 00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:52.519 just to prove that artistry doesn't need fancy 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:54.820 gear he built a working guitar right there on 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.019 camera used just a plank of wood three nails 00:10:57.019 --> 00:10:59.759 of course three naturally a glass coke bottle 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:02.059 for a slide a single string and a pickup slapped 00:11:02.059 --> 00:11:03.960 it together then he held up this crude thing 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:05.960 and basically asked who says you need to buy 00:11:05.960 --> 00:11:09.100 a guitar that image just perfectly sums up his 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:12.179 whole philosophy art comes from scarcity and 00:11:12.179 --> 00:11:14.970 ingenuity not from buying expensive stuff Okay, 00:11:15.009 --> 00:11:17.350 so now let's get to the actual music that came 00:11:17.350 --> 00:11:19.809 out of this incredibly strict philosophy. The 00:11:19.809 --> 00:11:21.889 White Stripes' iconic discography, which somehow 00:11:21.889 --> 00:11:24.629 managed to go from lo -fi stuff recorded in an 00:11:24.629 --> 00:11:28.990 attic to genuine global stadium anthems. Their 00:11:28.990 --> 00:11:32.029 first album, the self -titled one in 1999, was 00:11:32.029 --> 00:11:34.289 mostly recorded in the attic of Jack's parents' 00:11:34.429 --> 00:11:38.029 house. Super lo -fi, and significantly, it was 00:11:38.029 --> 00:11:40.549 dedicated to that Mississippi Delta bluesman, 00:11:40.669 --> 00:11:44.169 Sun House. Just hammering home that deep foundational 00:11:44.169 --> 00:11:47.029 connection. Then in 2000, they followed up with 00:11:47.029 --> 00:11:50.110 De Stijl, recorded on that 8 -track analog machine 00:11:50.110 --> 00:11:52.669 right in Jack's living room. The title is Dutch, 00:11:52.850 --> 00:11:56.169 means the style. And this is where you see his 00:11:56.169 --> 00:11:58.129 other artistic interests bleeding into the music. 00:11:58.269 --> 00:12:01.129 Yeah. The title refers to that early 20th century 00:12:01.129 --> 00:12:03.570 minimalist Dutch art movement. De Stijl's whole 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:06.629 thing was functional simplicity, geometric shapes, 00:12:06.710 --> 00:12:09.529 and using only primary colors. Red, yellow, blue, 00:12:09.610 --> 00:12:11.509 plus black and white. Sounds familiar. Exactly. 00:12:11.570 --> 00:12:13.789 By naming the album that, he wasn't just being 00:12:13.789 --> 00:12:16.799 arty. He was basically declaring, my music. like 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:19.259 that art, is searching for the purest, most essential 00:12:19.259 --> 00:12:21.679 functional form, which lined up perfectly with 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:23.320 the red -white -black look and the two -person 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:26.000 band structure. It was all one cohesive statement. 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:28.559 The big breakthrough really came in 2001 with 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:31.000 White Blood Cells, famously recorded in less 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:34.139 than four days. Just bang, done. Incredible speed. 00:12:34.259 --> 00:12:36.600 And it got massive critical acclaim. Suddenly, 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:39.100 they were at the forefront of that whole garage 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:41.340 rock revival thing that was happening. And the 00:12:41.340 --> 00:12:43.279 success was definitely boosted by the visual 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:46.539 genius. of that video for fell in love with a 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:49.799 girl oh the lego video directed by michelle gondry 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:52.799 it was brilliant just that iconic super fast 00:12:52.799 --> 00:12:55.500 -paced lego animation mtv played it constantly 00:12:55.500 --> 00:12:57.679 made the mainstream stars overnight won them 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.960 three mtv video music awards too that momentum 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:04.320 carried them straight into 2003's elephant recorded 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:06.399 in london this time yeah but sticking to the 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:10.100 rules only pre -1960s gear and knocked out in 00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:12.539 just two weeks yeah talk about commitment to 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:15.129 analog Well, not perfection, but analog character. 00:13:15.450 --> 00:13:17.149 Yeah, Elephant showed they could evolve without 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:19.549 ditching those core constraints. It also featured 00:13:19.549 --> 00:13:22.210 Meg's first lead vocal on that great track, In 00:13:22.210 --> 00:13:24.429 the Cold, Cold Night. You know, critics were 00:13:24.429 --> 00:13:26.370 often divided on her drumming style, but most 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:28.610 acknowledged her simple, powerful playing was 00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:31.070 absolutely essential to the band's unique, raw 00:13:31.070 --> 00:13:33.669 feel. And Elephant is, of course, where we find 00:13:33.669 --> 00:13:35.909 their ultimate signature track, Seven Nation 00:13:35.909 --> 00:13:39.429 Army. That song didn't just win Best Rock Song 00:13:39.429 --> 00:13:42.580 at the Grammys in 2004. It became this global 00:13:42.580 --> 00:13:45.279 cultural juggernaut. You hear it everywhere. 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:48.440 Sports stadiums, protests. It's ubiquitous. And 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:50.659 what's so cool about that song is the sound itself. 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:52.980 That main riff sounds like a bass line, right? 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:55.279 Yeah. So low and heavy. Totally sounds like a 00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:58.039 bass. But it's not. It's Jack playing his vintage 00:13:58.039 --> 00:14:01.740 guitar, that 1964 JB Hutto Montgomery Airline. 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:04.779 He runs it through a Digitech whammy pedal set 00:14:04.779 --> 00:14:07.000 to drop the pitch down one octave. It's a trick. 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:09.759 A constrained solution to the problem he created 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:12.519 by not... having a bass player. Genius, really. 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.580 Their sound took another turn for the fifth album, 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:17.580 Get Behind Me, Satan, in 2005. This felt like 00:14:17.580 --> 00:14:19.419 a deliberate shift away from the electric blues 00:14:19.419 --> 00:14:21.960 overload, introduced a lot more piano -driven 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:24.799 melodies, and even unexpected instruments like 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:28.009 marimba on the nurse. Yeah, Jack famously swapped 00:14:28.009 --> 00:14:30.350 his electric guitar for an acoustic on most tracks, 00:14:30.570 --> 00:14:33.110 adopted a more rhythmic, almost folky approach 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:35.509 sometimes. It felt like a conscious effort to 00:14:35.509 --> 00:14:37.809 not just repeat the success of Elephant, you 00:14:37.809 --> 00:14:40.250 know, to keep challenging themselves artistically. 00:14:40.450 --> 00:14:42.370 But they did eventually circle back to the loud 00:14:42.370 --> 00:14:44.909 garage rock with their final album, Icky Thump, 00:14:44.990 --> 00:14:48.529 in 2007. Ironically, for a band known for recording 00:14:48.529 --> 00:14:51.629 fast, this one actually took the longest. Almost 00:14:51.629 --> 00:14:53.710 three weeks. Yeah, recorded at Blackbird Studio 00:14:53.710 --> 00:14:56.789 in Nashville. But the title track brought them 00:14:56.789 --> 00:14:59.129 back to the Grammys, won Best Rock Performance 00:14:59.129 --> 00:15:02.240 by a Duo or Group. Their final big push as a 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:05.659 band was that really ambitious, highly publicized 00:15:05.659 --> 00:15:08.980 Canadian tour in 2007. Oh, man, that tour was 00:15:08.980 --> 00:15:12.100 legendary. The goal was incredible. Play in every 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:14.820 single province and territory in Canada, including 00:15:14.820 --> 00:15:17.460 places way off the usual touring map, like the 00:15:17.460 --> 00:15:20.240 Kaluud up north and Gliss Bay, Nova Scotia. And 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:22.019 the sources have these great little stories from 00:15:22.019 --> 00:15:23.779 that tour, like the shortest concert ever played. 00:15:24.059 --> 00:15:26.460 Right. In St. John's, Newfoundland, they apparently 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:29.200 showed up, crowds there, they plug in, Jack plays 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:33.279 one single e -note, Meg hits a cymbal once, and 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:36.360 they just walked off stage. Done. The sheer nerve 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:38.799 traveling all that way for a one -second piece 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:41.820 of performance art. It just highlights his relentless 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.159 dedication to the concept of the simplicity, 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:47.820 even as a kind of conceptual joke. But it maybe 00:15:47.820 --> 00:15:50.019 also hints at the pressures building up around 00:15:50.019 --> 00:15:52.830 that time. Yeah. Sadly, that tour ended early. 00:15:53.190 --> 00:15:55.590 Dates got canceled because of Meg's acute anxiety. 00:15:56.309 --> 00:15:59.590 We hear so much about Jack's intensity, but Meg's 00:15:59.590 --> 00:16:01.509 personal struggle with that relentless touring 00:16:01.509 --> 00:16:03.629 machine seems to have been the final breaking 00:16:03.629 --> 00:16:06.309 point. The band's archivist actually recounted 00:16:06.309 --> 00:16:08.409 the very last show they played in South Haven, 00:16:08.509 --> 00:16:11.269 Mississippi. Meg apparently came up to him afterwards 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.450 and just said flat out, this is the last show, 00:16:13.590 --> 00:16:15.690 period. Wow. And they officially announced the 00:16:15.690 --> 00:16:17.970 split in 2011. The statement said they wanted 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:20.269 to preserve what is beautiful and special about 00:16:20.269 --> 00:16:23.799 the band. That tension between Jack's very public, 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:26.879 almost maximalist drive and Meg's super reserved, 00:16:27.080 --> 00:16:29.799 almost reclusive nature just became unsustainable, 00:16:29.860 --> 00:16:33.000 it seems. Yet Jack always fiercely defended her 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.519 contribution, didn't he? He said her kind of 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:37.840 childlike simplicity was the best part of this 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:41.580 band. He needed that counterbalance. So once 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:44.200 the White Stripes officially dissolved, you might 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.039 think things would slow down for Jack White. 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:49.399 But no way. In fact, he just seemed to formalize 00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:51.779 those parallel side projects he had already started. 00:16:52.059 --> 00:16:55.320 It really showcases his insane output and this 00:16:55.320 --> 00:16:58.080 constant need for new creative outlets, often 00:16:58.080 --> 00:16:59.980 ones that challenge the persona people expected. 00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:03.039 Yeah, his multiple band history is crucial to 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:05.180 understanding his work ethic. It never stopped. 00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:07.779 Back in 2005, while the Stripes were still huge, 00:17:08.019 --> 00:17:10.450 he co -founded the Raycontours. That was with 00:17:10.450 --> 00:17:12.750 Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence, Patrick Keeler, 00:17:12.869 --> 00:17:15.609 a much more traditional kind of expansive rock 00:17:15.609 --> 00:17:18.009 band set up compared to the Stripes type duo 00:17:18.009 --> 00:17:20.529 format. And they were successful, too. Their 00:17:20.529 --> 00:17:22.829 debut, Broken Boy Soldiers, and the follow up, 00:17:22.849 --> 00:17:25.190 Consolers of the Lonely, both got Grammy nominations. 00:17:25.609 --> 00:17:27.589 It proved he could definitely thrive outside 00:17:27.589 --> 00:17:29.710 the strict constraints of the two piece. And 00:17:29.710 --> 00:17:31.809 they even reunited fairly recently, put out Help 00:17:31.809 --> 00:17:34.369 a Stranger in 2019. Then there's the other big 00:17:34.369 --> 00:17:37.369 one, the super group The Dead Weather, formed 00:17:37.369 --> 00:17:40.089 in 2009. Right. With Alison Mosshart from The 00:17:40.089 --> 00:17:42.250 Kills, Dean Fertitta and Jack Lawrence again. 00:17:42.390 --> 00:17:44.930 And what's totally fascinating there is the role 00:17:44.930 --> 00:17:47.910 Jack chose. He wasn't up front on guitar. He 00:17:47.910 --> 00:17:50.930 played drums. Mostly drums. Yeah. And shared 00:17:50.930 --> 00:17:53.869 vocals. He consciously stepped away from the 00:17:53.869 --> 00:17:56.250 lead guitarist role he was famous for. It's another 00:17:56.250 --> 00:17:59.240 self -imposed constraint, isn't it? He's challenging 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.519 his own image, forcing himself into a different 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:03.819 creative space. Exactly. They put out albums 00:18:03.819 --> 00:18:06.819 like Whorehound and Sea of Cowards, really heavy 00:18:06.819 --> 00:18:09.160 atmospheric stuff. And beyond his own bands, 00:18:09.460 --> 00:18:11.759 his production work and collaborations are pretty 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.299 stellar, showing he can adapt across genres. 00:18:14.940 --> 00:18:17.559 Like in 2004, producing and playing on Loretta 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:19.980 Lynn's big comeback album, Van Leer Rose. That 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.940 was huge, commercially successful, critically 00:18:22.940 --> 00:18:26.660 acclaimed, bridging garage rock and classic country. 00:18:26.900 --> 00:18:28.880 He also jumped into the blockbuster movie world, 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:32.279 recorded that massive James Bond theme, Another 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:34.779 Way to Die. With Alicia Keys, yeah, for Quantum 00:18:34.779 --> 00:18:36.940 of Solace in 2008. And that was actually the 00:18:36.940 --> 00:18:39.299 only duet ever to do a Bond theme. Another little 00:18:39.299 --> 00:18:41.470 bit of history there. And talk about staying 00:18:41.470 --> 00:18:44.690 relevant in 2016. He co -wrote and played guitar 00:18:44.690 --> 00:18:47.809 and sang backup on Beyonce's Don't Hurt Yourself. 00:18:47.890 --> 00:18:50.490 On Lemonade, yeah. Which is amazing when you 00:18:50.490 --> 00:18:52.750 think about it. He's this analog purist, right? 00:18:52.869 --> 00:18:55.549 But he clearly knows how to collaborate effectively 00:18:55.549 --> 00:18:59.430 with arguably the most cutting -edge, technologically 00:18:59.430 --> 00:19:02.849 advanced pop artist on the planet. So, moving 00:19:02.849 --> 00:19:05.390 into his solo career proper. He's released six 00:19:05.390 --> 00:19:08.690 solo studio albums now, all met with pretty significant 00:19:08.690 --> 00:19:12.200 success. His debut in 2012, Blunderbuss, went 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.119 straight to number one on the Billboard 200. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:17.519 And the tour for Blunderbuss was signature Jack 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.460 White weirdness in its structure. He experimented 00:19:20.460 --> 00:19:22.440 with having two completely separate alternating 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:25.000 touring bands. There was the all -female band, 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:27.859 the Peacocks, and the all -male band, the Buzzards. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:29.880 Right. And he'd switch between them night to 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:31.660 night, sometimes even deciding at the last minute 00:19:31.660 --> 00:19:33.890 which band would play. Total unpredictability. 00:19:34.029 --> 00:19:35.950 Added this element of random chance, different 00:19:35.950 --> 00:19:38.250 interpretations of the songs, but sources note, 00:19:38.329 --> 00:19:40.750 while it was a cool experiment in gender dynamics 00:19:40.750 --> 00:19:43.150 and musical styles, he eventually had to scrap 00:19:43.150 --> 00:19:45.450 it. Too expensive. Yeah, apparently the cost 00:19:45.450 --> 00:19:47.849 of keeping two full bands and crews on the road 00:19:47.849 --> 00:19:51.609 was just prohibitive. Even the analog imperative 00:19:51.609 --> 00:19:54.150 has to bow to the tour budget sometimes. His 00:19:54.150 --> 00:19:57.890 next album, 2014's Lazaretto. hit a really specific 00:19:57.890 --> 00:19:59.970 milestone that must have pleased him. Oh yeah, 00:20:00.109 --> 00:20:02.910 the vinyl record. It broke the record for the 00:20:02.910 --> 00:20:05.509 biggest sales week for a vinyl album since, like, 00:20:05.549 --> 00:20:09.329 1991. It really emphasized that his whole devotion 00:20:09.329 --> 00:20:11.410 to the vinyl format wasn't just some artistic 00:20:11.410 --> 00:20:14.329 quirk, it was commercially potent. The medium 00:20:14.329 --> 00:20:17.069 was the message, and people bought it. Then came 00:20:17.069 --> 00:20:19.390 a really experimental phase leading up to Boarding 00:20:19.390 --> 00:20:22.309 House Reach in 2018. That album felt like a total 00:20:22.309 --> 00:20:24.609 departure. It really was. He worked in the self 00:20:24.609 --> 00:20:27.519 -imposed isolation, a small apartment in nashville 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:30.519 and crucially worked without a cell phone completely 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:34.079 cut off all that external digital noise and musically 00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:36.039 he was pulling from really unexpected places 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.960 totally he talked about drawing inspiration from 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:42.299 80s and 90s rap artists a tribe called quest 00:20:42.299 --> 00:20:45.619 kanye west and he hired backing musicians who'd 00:20:45.619 --> 00:20:48.940 played with major hip -hop and gospel acts purposefully 00:20:48.940 --> 00:20:50.859 trying to break out of his established blues 00:20:50.859 --> 00:20:53.980 rock box it was a pretty wild kind of polarizing 00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:56.410 record for some fans but showed his commitment 00:20:56.410 --> 00:20:59.049 to never getting comfortable. That drive for 00:20:59.049 --> 00:21:02.890 constant output just continued. In 2022, he dropped 00:21:02.890 --> 00:21:05.849 two completely distinct albums just months apart. 00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:08.849 Fear of the Dawn, which is more traditional high 00:21:08.849 --> 00:21:11.400 -energy rock. And Entering Heaven Alive, which 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:14.579 was much gentler, more acoustic, folk oriented. 00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:16.799 It was a cool way to showcase the sheer breadth 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:19.519 of his styles delivered at this relentless pace. 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:22.279 And the surprises keep coming. Just recently, 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:25.460 2024, he surprise released his sixth solo album, 00:21:25.579 --> 00:21:28.180 No Name. Did it by distributing test pressings 00:21:28.180 --> 00:21:30.640 directly to his third man record stores. Super 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:33.400 low key release strategy. And critics noted that 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:35.619 this one seemed to signal a return maybe to his 00:21:35.619 --> 00:21:37.640 earlier punk blue sound, Shades of the White 00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:40.920 Stripes. Another shift or refinement is happening. 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:43.799 OK, before we move off the music itself, we absolutely 00:21:43.799 --> 00:21:46.400 have to dig into the gear a bit more. His instruments 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:48.279 are like characters in the story. We already 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:51.440 mentioned that beat up 1964 J .B. Huddo Montgomery 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:53.880 airline guitar. The one that makes the fake bass 00:21:53.880 --> 00:21:57.059 tone in Seven Nation Army. Yeah. Yeah. And the 00:21:57.059 --> 00:21:58.819 thing about that airline guitar is it wasn't 00:21:58.819 --> 00:22:00.720 some expensive vintage classic when he started 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:03.769 using it. It was a cheap. Department store, mail 00:22:03.769 --> 00:22:05.990 order guitar. Right. Kind of disposable back 00:22:05.990 --> 00:22:08.650 then. Exactly. But that's the point. It was a 00:22:08.650 --> 00:22:11.690 basic, almost crude tool that he made iconic 00:22:11.690 --> 00:22:14.869 through sheer will and creativity. That guitar, 00:22:15.049 --> 00:22:17.710 combined with the Digitech Whammy WH -4 pedal 00:22:17.710 --> 00:22:20.509 set one octave down, it's the perfect analog 00:22:20.509 --> 00:22:22.990 workaround for a band missing a bass player, 00:22:23.190 --> 00:22:25.650 making a virtue out of a limitation. He also 00:22:25.650 --> 00:22:28.950 uses those three big Gretsch Rancher Falcon acoustic 00:22:28.950 --> 00:22:32.359 guitars, the ones he calls his girlfriends. Ah, 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:35.539 yes, the girlfriends. This is pure Jack White 00:22:35.539 --> 00:22:39.059 mythology building. Each of these huge, flashy 00:22:39.059 --> 00:22:41.859 acoustic guitars has a picture of a classic movie 00:22:41.859 --> 00:22:44.539 star on the back. Claudette Colbert, the brunette, 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:46.660 he used that one with the white stripes. Rita 00:22:46.660 --> 00:22:49.480 Hayworth, the redhead, for the raconteurs. And 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:51.500 Veronica Lick, the blonde, came along with the 00:22:51.500 --> 00:22:53.839 dead weather. He literally assigns personalities 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:56.940 to his tools, elevating them from just instruments 00:22:56.940 --> 00:23:00.140 to, like, collaborators or muses. Totally. It 00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:02.720 feeds the whole mystique. And finally, we can't 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:05.740 talk white stripes without talking Meg. Her drumming 00:23:05.740 --> 00:23:08.559 style is still debated constantly, often described 00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:11.900 as minimalistic, simple, even childlike. She 00:23:11.900 --> 00:23:14.359 used a pretty standard Ludwig classic maple kit, 00:23:14.519 --> 00:23:17.460 paste cymbals. Yeah, and Jack always, always 00:23:17.460 --> 00:23:19.440 defended her style against critics who called 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:21.960 her technically limited or unsophisticated. He 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:23.920 called her the antithesis of a modern drummer 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:27.039 meant as a huge compliment. He argued her simple, 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:30.039 powerful, almost primal rhythms were incredible 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:32.839 and inspiring. He needed that specific constraint, 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:35.089 that simplicity as the foundation. for his own 00:23:35.089 --> 00:23:37.670 wild energy. That analog imperative we talked 00:23:37.670 --> 00:23:40.269 about, it definitely extends way beyond just 00:23:40.269 --> 00:23:42.490 the recording studio or the stage. It's really 00:23:42.490 --> 00:23:44.890 manifested in this whole empire he built around 00:23:44.890 --> 00:23:47.990 his music. Third Man Records. Right. Third Man 00:23:47.990 --> 00:23:51.009 Records co -founded way back in 2001, but it 00:23:51.009 --> 00:23:53.430 became a real physical presence when the Nashville 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:55.509 headquarters with the studio and record store 00:23:55.509 --> 00:23:58.750 opened in 2009. And the whole philosophy is right 00:23:58.750 --> 00:24:01.509 there in the slogan, your turntable's not dead. 00:24:02.029 --> 00:24:05.089 A direct echo of his old upholstery slogan. Exactly. 00:24:05.329 --> 00:24:07.390 Your furniture's not dead. Your turntable's not 00:24:07.390 --> 00:24:10.569 dead. It's all about preservation, valuing the 00:24:10.569 --> 00:24:13.509 physical object. The label is intensely focused 00:24:13.509 --> 00:24:16.549 on releasing vinyl, pressing vinyl, often doing 00:24:16.549 --> 00:24:19.769 really unusual or elaborate vinyl passages. It's 00:24:19.769 --> 00:24:22.789 the ultimate physical analog artifact in music. 00:24:23.029 --> 00:24:24.710 And he didn't just stop at running his own label. 00:24:25.069 --> 00:24:27.789 Jack White is actually a serious, active advocate 00:24:27.789 --> 00:24:30.250 for preserving old recordings. This is where 00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:32.549 his love for the past turns into real world action. 00:24:32.769 --> 00:24:35.250 Yeah, he's a board member for the Library of 00:24:35.250 --> 00:24:37.609 Congress's National Recording Preservation Foundation, 00:24:37.890 --> 00:24:40.829 which is pretty cool. And he famously donated 00:24:40.829 --> 00:24:44.089 $200 ,000 of his own money to help restore and 00:24:44.089 --> 00:24:46.650 preserve deteriorating sound recordings like 00:24:46.650 --> 00:24:49.150 old reel -to -reel tapes, wax cylinders, stuff 00:24:49.150 --> 00:24:51.329 like that. He's actively trying to make sure 00:24:51.329 --> 00:24:53.410 the analog history he loves doesn't just crumble 00:24:53.410 --> 00:24:56.170 away. His philanthropy is also really deeply 00:24:56.170 --> 00:24:58.670 tied to his hometown, Detroit. Remember back 00:24:58.670 --> 00:25:01.210 in 2013, the historic Detroit Masonic Temple, 00:25:01.329 --> 00:25:02.970 which is apparently the largest Masonic temple 00:25:02.970 --> 00:25:05.549 in the world, was facing foreclosure. Owed like 00:25:05.549 --> 00:25:08.849 $142 ,000 in back taxes. Right. And Jack White 00:25:08.849 --> 00:25:11.109 just secretly paid the entire bill. Anonymous 00:25:11.109 --> 00:25:13.509 donation at first. It was a genuine act of saving 00:25:13.509 --> 00:25:16.009 a piece of history and civic pride for Detroit. 00:25:16.210 --> 00:25:18.569 And as a thank you, the temple management renamed 00:25:18.569 --> 00:25:21.150 their second largest theater a beautiful historic 00:25:21.150 --> 00:25:24.799 space, the Jack White Theater. It's a pretty 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:27.220 remarkable example of giving back directly to 00:25:27.220 --> 00:25:30.339 the place that shaped him. Now, despite all this 00:25:30.339 --> 00:25:32.579 dedication to art preservation philanthropy. 00:25:33.900 --> 00:25:36.539 Jack White has always been this intensely scrutinized 00:25:36.539 --> 00:25:39.660 figure. He frequently attracts controversy, and 00:25:39.660 --> 00:25:41.700 a lot of it seems to stem from the media's fascination 00:25:41.700 --> 00:25:44.799 with his quote -unquote eccentric persona and 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:47.279 maybe his own need for total control over everything. 00:25:47.539 --> 00:25:49.980 Yeah, it creates this ongoing debate you see 00:25:49.980 --> 00:25:53.900 among critics, the riddle of authenticity. Is 00:25:53.900 --> 00:25:56.140 he genuinely living this kind of weird mythological 00:25:56.140 --> 00:25:58.960 life, or is he consciously concocting this stuff 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:01.359 with a wink, you know, playing a character for 00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:09.759 media attention? The public incidents, though, 00:26:09.839 --> 00:26:11.500 they're kind of crucial for understanding that 00:26:11.500 --> 00:26:14.130 tension. Back in 2003, there was that very high 00:26:14.130 --> 00:26:16.730 -profile physical fight with Jason Stolzheimer, 00:26:16.910 --> 00:26:19.009 the singer from the Von Bondys. Right, in a Detroit 00:26:19.009 --> 00:26:21.730 club. It got ugly, led to White pleading guilty 00:26:21.730 --> 00:26:24.009 to assault and battery. He got a fine, had to 00:26:24.009 --> 00:26:26.589 attend anger management classes. This was pretty 00:26:26.589 --> 00:26:29.309 early in his big rise to fame, and it kind of 00:26:29.309 --> 00:26:31.450 revealed this volatile side, like the tension 00:26:31.450 --> 00:26:34.109 between his super -controlled artistic world 00:26:34.109 --> 00:26:37.849 and the messy reality of just being a person 00:26:37.849 --> 00:26:39.569 in the world, interacting with other musicians. 00:26:39.910 --> 00:26:42.759 It showed the public... cost of maintaining that 00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:45.160 tight control. Then there was the long running, 00:26:45.259 --> 00:26:47.920 very public feud with the Black Keys. During 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:50.039 his pretty contentious divorce from Karen Elson, 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:53.549 some private emails Whitesend got leaked. And 00:26:53.549 --> 00:26:56.329 in them, he had some really harsh, disparaging 00:26:56.329 --> 00:26:58.309 things to say about the Black Keys. Like accusing 00:26:58.309 --> 00:27:00.210 them of ripping him off, basically. Pretty much, 00:27:00.369 --> 00:27:03.089 yeah. He later apologized for the more personal 00:27:03.089 --> 00:27:05.710 insults in the emails. But initially, he kind 00:27:05.710 --> 00:27:08.289 of stood by his artistic frustration, this feeling 00:27:08.289 --> 00:27:10.390 that other bands, especially the Black Keys, 00:27:10.670 --> 00:27:13.769 were imitating his sound without, you know, giving 00:27:13.769 --> 00:27:16.480 credit or doing anything new. It's a classic 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:18.539 example of the purists struggling when their 00:27:18.539 --> 00:27:21.299 influence becomes widespread. How do you react 00:27:21.299 --> 00:27:23.720 when people start sounding like you? He did eventually 00:27:23.720 --> 00:27:25.859 reconcile with Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, 00:27:25.940 --> 00:27:28.460 though. Right. After some awkward run ins. Yeah. 00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:30.500 There was apparently a confrontation in a bar, 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:32.420 but they eventually talked it out and publicly 00:27:32.420 --> 00:27:35.500 buried the hatchet. Diffuse that tension. And 00:27:35.500 --> 00:27:38.200 then who could forget the great guacamole writer 00:27:38.200 --> 00:27:40.980 controversy? This is like the perfect storm of 00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:43.440 media attention versus his control freak tendencies. 00:27:43.819 --> 00:27:46.660 Oh, Guacate. Yeah. The University of Oklahoma 00:27:46.660 --> 00:27:49.359 student newspaper published his entire backstage 00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:52.420 tour writer. And it included this incredibly 00:27:52.420 --> 00:27:56.049 specific, detailed recipe for guacamole. Like 00:27:56.049 --> 00:27:58.009 down to the type of avocados and how to cut them. 00:27:58.069 --> 00:28:01.829 Exactly. And bizarrely, a strict no bananas anywhere 00:28:01.829 --> 00:28:04.630 rule for backstage. Naturally, it went viral 00:28:04.630 --> 00:28:08.269 instantly. Painted him as this ridiculous diva 00:28:08.269 --> 00:28:11.109 demanding perfect guac and having weird fruit 00:28:11.109 --> 00:28:13.950 phobias. White was furious. He wrote this long 00:28:13.950 --> 00:28:16.130 open letter blasting the journalists for focusing 00:28:16.130 --> 00:28:19.329 on drama or a diva instead of the actual show, 00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:21.809 the music. He tried to explain it away. Said 00:28:21.809 --> 00:28:23.730 the elaborate guacamole recipe was actually an 00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:32.529 inside joke. Okay. Plausible, maybe? And... The 00:28:32.529 --> 00:28:35.630 banana ban, he said, was due to a specific tour 00:28:35.630 --> 00:28:38.490 member having a serious food allergy. Not just 00:28:38.490 --> 00:28:41.130 him hating bananas. Whether you buy the explanations 00:28:41.130 --> 00:28:43.630 or not, the incident perfectly highlighted that 00:28:43.630 --> 00:28:46.390 struggle. Media intrusion versus his manufactured 00:28:46.390 --> 00:28:49.750 mystique. The media sees diva demands. He sees 00:28:49.750 --> 00:28:52.849 necessary logistics or inside jokes gone wrong. 00:28:53.109 --> 00:28:54.990 Finally, we do need to touch on the political 00:28:54.990 --> 00:28:57.329 use of Seven Nation Army. We have to report this 00:28:57.329 --> 00:29:00.829 impartially. That song, his biggest hit, has 00:29:00.829 --> 00:29:03.119 become this. magnet for political statements 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:05.940 and conflict. Absolutely. So The White Stripes 00:29:05.940 --> 00:29:08.180 officially denounced Donald Trump using the song 00:29:08.180 --> 00:29:11.000 in his campaign materials, both in 2016 and again 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.880 very strongly in 2024. In 2024, they actually 00:29:13.880 --> 00:29:15.799 issued a statement calling the Trump campaign 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:18.559 fascists for using it. Strong words. They even 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:21.640 sold icky Trump T -shirts, a play on icky thumb. 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:23.819 Right. And they filed a copyright infringement 00:29:23.819 --> 00:29:26.640 lawsuit against the 2024 campaign over the song's 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:28.700 use, though sources say that lawsuit was later 00:29:28.700 --> 00:29:30.960 dropped. But then conversely, White apparently 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:32.960 did give permission for the song to be used in 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:34.559 a different political context more recently. 00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:37.720 Yeah. In 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom 00:29:37.720 --> 00:29:40.119 used the song in a social media post criticizing 00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:43.079 Republican redistricting efforts. And Jack White 00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:45.140 released a statement himself, saying, quote, 00:29:45.710 --> 00:29:47.849 I'm okay with this track being used in this manner. 00:29:47.970 --> 00:29:50.490 Not so much when Trump and his Gestapo try to 00:29:50.490 --> 00:29:53.690 use one of my songs. So it shows a very selective, 00:29:53.730 --> 00:29:56.650 very personal approach to who gets to use his 00:29:56.650 --> 00:29:59.289 music politically. He's clearly stating his own 00:29:59.289 --> 00:30:01.930 leanings while also exercising his right to control 00:30:01.930 --> 00:30:04.970 his arts associations. When you step back and 00:30:04.970 --> 00:30:07.269 look at it all, the scope of Jack White's achievement 00:30:07.269 --> 00:30:10.150 is pretty staggering. We're talking 12 Grammy 00:30:10.150 --> 00:30:12.730 Awards, consistently ranked by critics and magazines 00:30:12.730 --> 00:30:15.029 as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. 00:30:15.119 --> 00:30:17.259 And Rolling Stone ranked the White Stripes as 00:30:17.259 --> 00:30:19.839 one of the six greatest musical duos ever. That's 00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:23.000 a huge company. Yeah. His legacy as really one 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:25.779 of the key artists who drove that whole 2000s 00:30:25.779 --> 00:30:28.799 rock revival. You know, the media dubbed them 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:30.819 the saviors of rock and roll back then, desperate 00:30:30.819 --> 00:30:32.700 for guitar bands. Right, that narrative. That 00:30:32.700 --> 00:30:35.019 legacy is totally cemented. And it's about to 00:30:35.019 --> 00:30:37.539 be formally recognized in 2025 when the White 00:30:37.539 --> 00:30:39.160 Stripes get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall 00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:41.900 of Fame. It's fascinating. He built this entire 00:30:41.900 --> 00:30:44.460 career on controlling every single tiny detail, 00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:47.740 building up this complex mythology, championing 00:30:47.740 --> 00:30:50.940 these analog limitations, and maintaining this 00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:53.259 constant evolving public presence, whether it's 00:30:53.259 --> 00:30:55.720 through surprise albums or unexpected collaborations. 00:30:56.140 --> 00:30:58.039 Always keeping people guessing. Always working. 00:30:58.200 --> 00:31:00.480 Which really brings us to a final, maybe provocative 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:02.819 thought for you, the listener, to chew on after 00:31:02.819 --> 00:31:06.319 this deep dive. You have Jack White. The intense... 00:31:06.589 --> 00:31:09.470 incredibly public, detail -obsessed curator of 00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:11.890 his entire musical universe. And then you have 00:31:11.890 --> 00:31:14.450 Meg White, the person who, after the band broke 00:31:14.450 --> 00:31:16.349 up, basically retreated entirely from the media, 00:31:16.490 --> 00:31:19.069 became, by all accounts, a virtual hermit. Polar 00:31:19.069 --> 00:31:21.799 opposites in terms of public life. Exactly. So 00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:25.059 what does that enduring tension between his maximalist 00:31:25.059 --> 00:31:27.779 mythological vision and her incredibly simple, 00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:31.019 childlike essential presence, which Jack himself 00:31:31.019 --> 00:31:33.799 said was the best part of this band, what does 00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:35.779 that tension ultimately tell us? What does it 00:31:35.779 --> 00:31:37.660 tell us about the nature of rock music's most 00:31:37.660 --> 00:31:40.720 valuable artistic contributions? Is the real 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:43.380 impact found in the constraints themselves? Or 00:31:43.380 --> 00:31:45.140 is it maybe more in the performance of those 00:31:45.140 --> 00:31:48.140 constraints by someone like Jack, who was willing 00:31:48.140 --> 00:31:51.319 to commit so completely to the myth for so long? 00:31:51.400 --> 00:31:53.759 Yeah. What is the secret ingredient, the structure 00:31:53.759 --> 00:31:55.779 or the person living inside it? Something to 00:31:55.779 --> 00:31:56.200 think about.