Jack White
John Anthony White (né Gillis; born July 9, 1975) is an American musician who served as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. A key artist of the 2000s garage rock revival, he is known for his distinctive musical techniques and eccentricity. He has won 12 Grammy Awards among other accolades. Rolling Stone included him on their 2010 and 2023 lists of the greatest guitarists of all time.[1][2][3] The New York Times called White "the coolest, weirdest and savviest rockstar of our time" in 2012.[4]
For other people named Jack White, see Jack White (disambiguation).
Jack White
John Anthony Gillis
Jack White III
July 9, 1975
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- producer
- Vocals
- guitar
- bass guitar
- keyboards
- drums
1994–present
After moonlighting in several underground Detroit bands as a drummer, White founded the White Stripes with fellow Detroit native and then-wife Meg White in 1997. Their 2001 breakthrough album, White Blood Cells, brought them international fame with the single and accompanying music video for "Fell in Love with a Girl". White subsequently began collaborating with artists such as Loretta Lynn and Bob Dylan.[5] In 2005, White founded the Raconteurs with Brendan Benson, and in 2009 founded the Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart of the Kills. In 2008, he recorded "Another Way to Die", the title song for the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, alongside Alicia Keys, making them the only duet to perform a Bond theme. White has released five solo studio albums, which have garnered critical and commercial success.
White is a board member of the Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Foundation. His record label and studio Third Man Records releases vinyl recordings of his own work as well as that of other artists and local school children.[6] His second studio album, Lazaretto (2014), broke the record for most first-week vinyl sales since 1991, holding that record until 2021. White has an extensive collection of guitars and other instruments and has a preference for vintage items that often have connections to famous blues artists. He is a vocal advocate for analog technology and recording techniques.
White has been known to create misdirection about his personal life. He and Meg White married in 1996, but divorced in 2000 before the height of the White Stripes' fame. They then began calling themselves siblings. He was married to model and singer Karen Elson from 2005 to 2013; they have a son and daughter. In 2022, he married musician Olivia Jean. He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
Early life[edit]
John Anthony Gillis[7] was born in Detroit, Michigan, on July 9, 1975,[8][9] the youngest of ten children of Teresa (née Bandyk; born 1930)[10] and Gorman M. Gillis.[11][12] His mother's family was Polish,[13] while his father was Scottish-Canadian.[14][15] He was raised a Catholic,[16] and both of his parents worked for the Archdiocese of Detroit as the building maintenance superintendent and secretary in the Cardinal's office, respectively.[5] Gillis became an altar boy, which landed him an uncredited role in the 1987 movie The Rosary Murders, filmed mainly at Most Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit.[5] He attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit.[17][18]
Gillis' early musical influences were his older brothers, who were in a band together called Catalyst, and he learned to play the instruments they abandoned;[19][20] he began playing the drums in the first grade after finding a kit in the attic.[11][20][21] As a child, he was a fan of classical music,[22] but in elementary school, he began listening to the Doors, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin.[23] As a "shorthaired [teenager] with braces",[22] Gillis began listening to the blues and 1960s rock that would influence him in the White Stripes,[5] with Son House and Blind Willie McTell being among his favorite blues guitarists.[8][24] He has said in interviews that Son House's "Grinnin' in Your Face" is his favorite song of all time.[19] As a drummer, his heroes include Gene Krupa, Stewart Copeland, and Crow Smith from Flat Duo Jets.[25]
In 2005, on 60 Minutes, he 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.' I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn't think I was allowed to take it with me."[26] Instead, he got accepted into Cass Technical High School as a business major, and played the drums and trombone in the band.[19][27][28] At 15, he began a three-year upholstery apprenticeship with a family friend, Brian Muldoon.[5] He credits Muldoon with exposing him to punk music as they worked together in the shop.[5][19] Muldoon goaded his young apprentice into forming a band: "He played drums", Gillis thought. "Well I guess I'll play guitar then."[5][29] The two recorded an album, Makers of High Grade Suites, as the Upholsterers.[notes 1]
As a senior in high school, he met Meg White at the Memphis Smoke restaurant where she worked,[31] and they frequented the coffee shops, local music venues, and record stores of the area.[32] After a courtship, they married on September 21, 1996.[33][34] In a reversal of tradition, he legally took her last name.[5][35][36]
After completing his apprenticeship, he started a one-man business of his own, Third Man Upholstery.[37] 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.[37] Although Third Man Upholstery never lacked business, he claims it was unprofitable 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.[37]
Other activities[edit]
Film and television work[edit]
White has also had a minor acting career. He appeared in the 2003 film Cold Mountain as a character named Georgia and performed five songs for the Cold Mountain soundtrack: "Sittin' on Top of the World", "Wayfaring Stranger", "Never Far Away", "Christmas Time Soon Will Be Over" and "Great High Mountain".[123] The 2003 Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes featured both Jack and Meg in the segment "Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil".[124] He also played Elvis Presley in the 2007 satire Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.[125][126] In 2016, he appeared as a special guest on the season one finale of The Muppets, and sang "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", which he later released on 7-inch vinyl.[127] In June 2017, White appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, recording on the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[128] His performances of "Matrimonial Intentions", "Mama's Angel Child", "2 Fingers of Whiskey (with Elton John) and "On the Road Again' and "One Mic" (with Nas) appeared on Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. He was an executive producer of the film.[129]
Artistry[edit]
Instruments and equipment[edit]
White owns many instruments and, historically, has tended to use certain ones for specific projects or in certain settings. He has a preference for vintage guitars, many of which are associated with influential blues artists. Much of his equipment is custom-made, for both technical and aesthetic reasons. White is a proficient guitar, bass, mandolin, percussion and piano player.
During his career with the White Stripes, White principally used three guitars,[145] though he used others as well.[146] The red, "JB Hutto", Airline guitar was a vintage 1964 model originally distributed by Montgomery Ward department store.[145][147] Though used by several artists, White's attachment to the instrument raised its popularity to the extent that Eastwood Guitars began producing a modified replica around 2000.[145] The 1950s-era Kay Hollowbody was a gift from his brother in return for a favor.[49] It was the same brand of electric guitar made popular by Howlin' Wolf,[145] and White most famously used it on "Seven Nation Army".[147] He began using a 1915 Gibson L-1 acoustic (often called the Robert Johnson model) on the Icky Thump album;[145][147] in an interview for Gibson, he called the instrument his favorite.[145] He also used a three-pickup Airline Town & Country (later featured in the "Steady As She Goes" music video),[148] a Harmony Rocket,[148] a 1970s-era Crestwood Astral II,[147][148] and what would become the first of three custom Gretsch Rancher Falcon acoustic guitars.[145] While with the Stripes, any equipment that did not match their red/black/white color scheme was painted red.
On Black Friday in 2013, Third Man Records diversified and launched the Bumble Buzz[149] pedal an octave fuzz built for Third Man by Vancouver, British Columbia's Union Tube and Transistor. In 2014 the pedal was reviewed by Premier Guitar,[150] and is found in Jack's pedal setup.[151][152]
While the Raconteurs were still in development, White commissioned luthier Randy Parsons to create what White called the Triple Jet—a custom guitar styled after the Duo Jet double-cutaway guitar.[153] Parsons's first product was painted copper color, however he decided to create a second version with a completely copper body, which White began to use instead.[153] For the Raconteurs first tour, White also played a Gretsch Anniversary Jr. with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and three Filtertron pickups.[148][153] He later added a custom Gretsch Anniversary Jr. with two cutaways, a lever-activated mute system, a built-in and retractable bullet microphone, and a light-activated theremin next to the Bigsby.[145] White has dubbed this one the "Green Machine",[145][147] and it is featured in It Might Get Loud.[145] He sometimes played a Gibson J-160E,[148] a Gretsch Duo Jet in Cadillac Green,[148] and a second Gretsch Rancher acoustic guitar.[145] For the Raconteurs' 2008 tour, he had Analog Man plate all of his pedals in copper.[154] In 2020 White completed his Three-Wheel-Motion Low Rider - which is a highly customized Fender Telecaster B-Bender guitar.[155]
He has since acquired another Gretsch, a custom white "Billy Bo" Jupiter Thunderbird with a gold double pickguard (as seen in the music video for "Another Way to Die").[145][147] White found a 1957 Gretsch G6134 White Penguin in 2007 while on tour in Texas[145]—the same one he used in the music video for "Icky Thump"[147]—which ultimately fit in with the Dead Weather's color scheme.[146] He also uses a black left-handed one since the Dead Weather album Sea of Cowards came out. He has also been known to play Fender Telecasters,[145][147] featuring one in the music video for Loretta Lynn's "Portland, Oregon".
White owns three Gretsch Rancher Falcons because he says that its bass tones make it his favorite acoustic to play live.[145] They are collectively referred to as his "girlfriends", as each one has an image of a classic movie star on the back. Claudette Colbert is the brunette he used while with the Stripes, Rita Hayworth is the redhead he acquired with the Raconteurs, and Veronica Lake is the blonde he added in 2010 while with the Dead Weather.[145]
Since 2018, White has been playing EVH Wolfgang guitars, which are Eddie Van Halen's signature model.[156]
White uses numerous effects to create his live sound, most notably a DigiTech Whammy WH-4 to create the rapid modulations in pitch he uses in his solos.[157] 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 song "Seven Nation Army".[157] He also uses an MXR Micro Amp and custom Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Distortion/Sustainer.[148] In 2005, for the single "Blue Orchid", White employed an Electro-Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG), which let him mix in several octave effects into one along with the dry signal.[146] He plugs this setup into a 1970s Fender Twin Reverb "Silverface" and two 100-Watt Sears Silvertone 1485 6×10 amplifiers.[146][147] He also used a 1960s Fender Twin Reverb "Blackface".[146][147]
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), and an electric piano on such tracks as "The Air Near My Fingers" and "I'm Finding it Harder to be a Gentleman". White also plays percussion instruments such as the marimba (as on "The Nurse"),[5] drums and tambourine. For the White Stripes' 2007 tour, he played a custom-finish Hammond A-100 organ with a Leslie 3300 speaker, which was subsequently loaned to Bob Dylan, and currently resides at Third Man Studios.[158] On the album Broken Boy Soldiers, both he and Benson are credited with playing the album's synths and organ.
With the Dead Weather, White plays a custom Ludwig Classic Maple kit in Black Oyster Pearl.[25] Notably, it includes two-snare drums, which White calls "the jazz canon".[25] For the 2009 Full Flash Blank tour, White used a drum head with the Three Brides of Dracula on the front, but in 2010, White employed a new drum head, upon the release of Sea of Cowards, which has an image of The Third Man himself: Harry Lime attempting to escape certain capture in the sewers of Vienna. During the American leg of the 2010 tour, White switched his drum head again featuring a picture of himself in the guise he wore on the cover of Sea of Cowards. This drum head is called Sam Kay by some fans, referring to the insert inside of the 12" LP.
