The number three is said to represent wholeness and the harmony of opposites and is held in such high regard by Jack White that he built a band around it. With a purist’s sensibility, White assembled a rock band of only two musicians who play either combination of guitar/drums/vocals or piano/drums/vocals and dress in a simple color scheme of red, white and black.
The slightly eccentric White, whose lifelong love of vintage blues and country music has inspired him to challenge and limit himself in ways that force his creative approach to music, believes that technology has distorted music to the point where it’s lost its authenticity. The White Stripes, with their rudimentary lyrics and stripped-down sound, is his answer to rock’s love affair with electronic gadgetry.
Jack White never wanted to play guitar. As the youngest of ten siblings, he took up the drums at age five when his brothers were learning to play the bass, keyboards and guitar. He taught himself to play by drumming along with records and quickly became obsessed with rhythm and playing music. White had two drum kits, a guitar amplifier, and a reel-to-reel in his small bedroom, and when his bed no longer fit, he removed it and slept instead on a piece of foam set at an angle by the door.
Growing up in a rundown predominantly Latino neighborhood of southwest Detroit, White struggled to find his musical identity in a town where it was considered uncool to play an instrument. Detroit was a place where nobody liked rock ‘n’ roll or blues music. There were no record stores, no guitar shops.
When still in high school, White was turned onto the music of the Flat Duo Jets, a rockabilly guitar/drums outfit, and Son House, whose a cappella and off-time clapping on the song “Grinnin’ In Your Face” blew White away with its man-against-the-world attitude and bare-bones delivery. While his peers were listening to hip hop and house music, White had discovered artists like Blind Willie McTell and Loretta Lynn. He in fact credits the biographical film, Coal Miner’s Daughter, which tells of the story of country music legend Loretta Lynn, as his inspiration to become a musician.
Music, however, wasn’t Jack’s first career choice. His parents both worked for the Archdiocese of Detroit where he eventually became an altar boy. White seriously considered entering the priesthood and was accepted to a seminary in Wisconsin before he changed his mind at the last minute when he had just gotten a new amplifier in his bedroom and didn’t think he’d be allowed to take it with him to the seminary.
An apprenticeship in an upholstery shop as a teenager led White to his first band. Master upholsterer and family friend Brian Muldoon took White under his wing and taught him not only how to strip a couch, but he also exposed Jack to punk music and pushed White to play in a band with him. After working in the factory all day, the two would move the furniture aside and jam together. Since Muldoon was a drummer, White decided he’d play guitar and took up the instrument at age 19. His first guitar was a beat-up Kay he received as payment for helping to move a refrigerator to the St. Vincent De Paul store his brother managed. White began writing songs, and the duo, who went by the name The Upholsterers, put out a single called "Makers of High Grade Suites."
After the demise of The Upholsterers, Jack White played drums and guitar in numerous Detroit bands before forming The White Stripes with Megan White in 1997. The band is primarily Jack’s baby--he writes the songs for the group, plays everything except drums, and devised their peppermint-stripe aesthetic.
The White Stripes began as part of Detroit’s underground garage rock scene. They put out a self-titled debut album in 1999 and followed it up a year later with the cult classic, De Stijl. The album’s fusion of punk and blues, coupled with the band’s refreshing simplicity, caught the attention of the mainstream and began The White Stripes’ rise in popularity. Their commercial breakthrough came in 2001 with, ironically, the release of their third album, White Blood Cells, which was recorded in three days. Dedicated to Loretta Lynn, the record peaked at number 61 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 units. It was followed up by Elephant (2003), which earned the band two Grammy Awards; Get Behind Me Satan (2005); and Icky Thump (2007).
In addition to his duties as songwriter and musician for The White Stripes, Jack White also self-produces the band’s albums in an effort to maintain control over the end-product. He plays instruments that are aged and inexpensive and relies little on technology, banking instead on his own creativity. When he and Meg hit the stage, they do so without the safety net of a set list or prior rehearsal of any kind. The White Stripes like to keep it fresh and prefer flying by the seat of their pants to rehashing the same show night after night, from one city to the next. The sincerity behind what Jack White does comes through in music that is both raw and liberating.
It Might Get Loud, a documentary on the history of the electric guitar that focuses on the careers and musical styles of Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White was released to DVD in December 2009, while a documentary of the band’s 2007 Canadian tour, The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights, is set to hit video stores on March 16, 2010.
The White Stripes are rumored to be working on their seventh album with a release date as yet unconfirmed. White is also currently finishing up a third record with his second band, the Raconteurs, as well as working on a second album with his third band, The Dead Weather. Superstitions aside, Jack White has plenty of time on his hands these days to juggle three different bands. “I don’t have a day job anymore,” he says cheerfully.
