He was ranked #17 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. White's popular and critical success with The White Stripes enabled him to collaborate as a solo artist with other renowned musicians, such as Beck, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan, Electric Six and Loretta Lynn, whose 2004 album Van Lear Rose he produced and performed on. In 2005, White became a founding member of the rock band The Raconteurs. In 2009, he became a founding member and drummer of his third commercially successful group, The Dead Weather. He was awarded the title of "Nashville Music City Ambassador" by the Nashville mayor Karl Dean in 2011.
Childhood and early life
Of Scottish, Polish and Canadian descent, John Anthony Gillis, the son of Teresa and Gorman Gillis, was the youngest of ten children (six brothers, three sisters), in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in a Catholic family.His father and mother worked for the Archdiocese of Detroit, as the maintenance man and the Cardinal's secretary, respectively. White eventually became an altar boy, which landed him an uncredited role in the 1987 movie The Rosary Murders, filmed mainly at Holy Redeemer parish in southwest Detroit. As a child he was a fan of classical music. Jack attended the prestigious Cass Technical High School in Detroit, MI where he studied Music.
He began playing an instrument, a drum, at the age of six. White grew up in a lower middle-class neighborhood in southwest Detroit. White, as a teenager, was already listening to the blues and 1960s rock that would influence him in The White Stripes, Son House and Blind Willie McTell being among his favorite blues musicians. He and his childhood friend, Dominic Suchyta, would listen to records in White's attic on weekends and began to record cover songs on an old 4-track reel to reel. At the time White was described as "a kid with short hair and braces. He has said in many interviews that Son House's "Grinnin' In Your Face" is his favorite song of all time.
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... I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn’t think I was allowed to take it with me.
At 15, White began a three-year upholstery apprenticeship with a family friend, Brian Muldoon. White credits Muldoon with exposing him to punk music and pushing him to play music with Muldoon as a band: "He played drums...well I guess I'll play guitar then. The two recorded an album, Makers of High Grade Suites, as The Upholsterers. White later started a one-man business of his own, 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. Although Third Man Upholstery never lacked business, White claims that it was unprofitable, because of 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. Shortly thereafter, White landed his first professional gig, as the drummer for the Detroit band Goober & the Peas. He also played in other local bands and did solo shows.
Personal life
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.
White is an avid sports fan, supporting the Detroit Lions and the Detroit Tigers. He is also known to enjoy fishing.
A topic of intrigue has been the actual relationship between Jack and Meg White. In early interviews, the pair presented themselves as siblings, two of ten. The Flaming Lips touch on this in their song "Thank You Jack White (for the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)" released on their 2003 EP Fight Test. However, the Detroit Free Press produced copies of both a marriage license and divorce certificate, confirming Jack and Meg's history as a married couple. Neither addresses the truth officially and over time, they have become less verbal about the origins of their relationship. Jack White has said, though, that siblings are "mated for life", thus such relationships distract less from the music. Jack mentions them being brother and sister in the documentary Under Great White Northern Lights. In the early 1990s, Meg White worked as a bartender at Memphis Smoke, a bar in downtown Royal Oak (a Detroit suburb), where she first met Jack, then still known under his original surname 'Gillis'. They were married on September 21, 1996 and were divorced on March 24, 2000. Jack took her last name.
White is often referred to as eccentric. For instance, he has an obsession with the number three. On November 7, 2005, it was widely reported that 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.
On December 13, 2003, White was involved in an altercation with Jason Stollsteimer, lead singer of The Von Bondies, at the Magic Stick, a Detroit club. White was charged with misdemeanor aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault and battery, and was fined $750 (including court costs), and was sentenced to take anger management classes.
In 2003, White made his acting debut in Mutant Swinger from Mars, and had a brief but highly publicized romantic relationship with actress Renée Zellweger, whom he met during the filming of Cold Mountain. That summer, the couple were in a car accident in which White broke his left index finger and was forced to reschedule much of the summer tour. He posted the footage of his finger surgery on the web for fans.[61] White and Zellweger's breakup became public in December 2004 and he was then briefly linked romantically to socialite and philanthropist Heidi J. Davis, but that relationship ended after Davis' reportedly denied his marriage proposal, which Davis denies.
White met British model Karen Elson (twin sister of Kate Elson) when she appeared in The White Stripes music video for "Blue Orchid". The video's director, Floria Sigismondi, noted "you sensed an energy between them". They married on June 1, 2005 in Manaus, Brazil. The wedding took place in a canoe on the Amazon River and was officiated by a shaman. A Roman Catholic priest later blessed the ceremony. Manager Ian Montone was the best man and Meg White was the maid of honor. Official wedding announcements stated that "it was the first marriage" for both. On May 2, 2006, the couple had a daughter, Scarlett Teresa White. Their second child, Henry Lee White, was born on August 7, 2007. The White family resides in Brentwood, Tennessee, a suburb south of Nashville, where Elson manages a vintage clothing store called Venus & Mars. The couple announced their divorce in June 2011.
In 2006, it was revealed in the Sunday Times Rich List that White and his British wife Elson had a joint fortune of at least £20 million (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.
Recording career
The White Stripes
White formed The White Stripes in 1997, along with Meg White, who was his wife at the time. The band began its career as part of the Michigan garage rock underground music scene, playing with local bands such as Bantam Rooster, The Dirtbombs, The Paybacks, Rocket 455, and The Henchmen, among others. In 1998, The White Stripes were signed to Italy Records, a small and independent Detroit-based garage punk label, by Dave Buick. The band released its self-titled debut album in 1999, and a year later the album was followed up by the cult classic De Stijl. The album eventually peaked at #38 in Billboard Magazine's Independent Albums when the band had established their popularity. While performing and in music videos, Jack and Meg are very recognisable visually, as they dress only in red, white, and black.
In 2001 the band released White Blood Cells. The album's stripped-down garage rock sound drew critical acclaim in the UK and soon afterward in the US, making The White Stripes one of the more acclaimed bands of 2002. The album was followed up in 2003 by the commercially and critically successful. Elephant. Allmusic wrote that the album "sounds even more pissed-off, paranoid and stunning than its predecessor ... darker and more difficult than White Blood Cells. The album's first single, "Seven Nation Army, " was the band's most successful.
The band's fifth album, Get Behind Me Satan, was recorded in White's own home and marked a change in the band's musical direction, with piano-driven melodies and experimentation with marimba and a more rhythm-based guitar playing by White. The band's sixth album, Icky Thump, released in 2007, entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. The album's sound also included more punk, garage and blues influences than its predecessor. In late 2007, the band announced the cancellation of 18 tour dates due to Meg White's acute anxiety problems.
White had revealed plans to release a seventh, as of yet untitled album in the summer of 2009. However, this has yet to happen. The band also made their first live appearance since Meg's anxiety problems in September 2007 on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on February 20, 2009.
The Raconteurs
White formed The Raconteurs in 2005 along with Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler. The origin of the band was the song 'Steady, As She Goes' which White wrote along with Benson. This inspired them to create a full band with the addition of Lawrence and Keeler. The band came together in Detroit during 2005 and, for the remainder of the year, recorded when time allowed. The band's debut album Broken Boy Soldiers was recorded at Benson's home in Detroit. The band set out on tour to support the album, including eight dates as the opening act for Bob Dylan. The band released its second album, Consolers of the Lonely and its first single "Salute Your Solution" simultaneously in 2008. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album.
The Dead Weather
In early 2009, Jack White formed a new group called The Dead Weather with The Kills frontwoman Alison Mosshart. White takes drum and vocal duties, while The Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence and Queens of the Stone Age keyboardist and guitarist Dean Fertita round the four piece out.
The group debuted a handful of new tracks on March 11, 2009 in Nashville from their debut album Horehound, which came out July 13, 2009 in Europe and July 14, 2009 in North America, on White's Third Man Records label.
On October 16, 2009, Mosshart confirmed that the second album was "halfway done". The first single "Die By The Drop" was released on March 30, 2010. The new album, Sea of Cowards was released on May 7 in Ireland, then on May 11, 2010, in the U.S. and May 10 in the United Kingdom, and again, on White's Third Man Records.
Solo career
It was rumored that in 2003 White collaborated on Electric Six's song "Danger! High Voltage. Both he and the Electric Six denied this, and the vocal work was credited officially to John S O'Leary. However, a recent radio interview with Tim Shaw on Kerrang! 105.2 in the UK had Electric Six lead singer Dick Valentine talking openly about White singing on this song as well as speculating on the amount of money he was paid ($60,000). Also, a Q magazine article stated that Jack White did in fact work with Electric Six on the song "Gay Bar.
In 2008, White collaborated with Alicia Keys on the song "Another Way to Die", the theme song for the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.
He 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".
In 2009 Jack White was featured in "It Might Get Loud," a film in which he, Jimmy Page, and The Edge come together to discuss the electric guitar and each artist's different playing methods. White's first solo single, "Fly Farm Blues," was written and recorded in 10 minutes during the filming of the movie, in August 2009. The single went on sale as a 7-inch vinyl record from Third Man Records and as a digital single available through iTunes on August 11.
In November 2010, producer Danger Mouse announced that White has been recruited for his collaboration with Daniele Luppi, entitled Rome along with Norah Jones. White provided vocals to three songs on the album: "The Rose with the Broken Neck", "Two Against One" and "The World.
Musical equipment and sound
The guitars White uses live are two 1965 JB Hutto Montgomery Airlines (one which he received from a fan), a three pickup Airline Town & Country (used on tour with the Raconteurs and in the "Steady As She Goes" music video), a Harmony Rocket, a 1970s-era Crestwood Astral II, 1950s-era Kay Hollowbody (given to him by his brother in return for a favor), a Gretsch White Penguin (as seen in the music video for Icky Thump), and a custom Gretsch Rancher Falcon acoustic guitar. When playing with the Raconteurs, White usually plays two custom Gretsch-styled copies of the Duo Jet double-cutaway guitar, one of which, dubbed the Triple Jet, is his main guitar that is made of copper and features a Gretsch logo from 1912. For their first tour, Jack also played Gretsch Anniversary Jr. with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece and three Filtertron pickups. He also uses a Gretsch Rancher acoustic guitar and he now uses a custom Gretsch Anniversary Jr. with two cutaways, a built-in retractable microphone, and a theremin next to the Bigsby. Jack has dubbed this one the "Triple Green Machine". Also, he plays occasionally with his Gretsch Rancher, a Gibson J-160E. Also, he plays a Gretsch Duo Jet in Cadillac Green. Recently, he has featured his latest Gretsch, a custom white Billy Gibbons/Bo Diddley signature Gretsch Jupiter Thunderbird in the music video for "Another Way to Die", this guitar is also used on his concerts with The Dead Weather, but he also uses a black left-handed one since Sea of Cowards came out. He has also been known to play a variety of Fender Telecasters, featuring one in the music video for Loretta Lynn's "Portland, Oregon." Jack White has also played in live shows, mainly with The Dead Weather, a Daddy Mojo Stove Pipe Cigar Box Guitar.
Jack 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. In concert with an MXR Micro-Amp and custom Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Distortion/Sustainer, White can produce a very distinctive sound. In 2005, for the single "Blue Orchid", White employed a new Electro-Harmonix creation, the Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG). Similar to (but more versatile than) the Whammy IV, the POG lets the user mix in several octave effects into one along with the dry signal. He also has three Zvex Tremolo Probes, that are hand painted black. All of the pedals that he uses live have been professionally painted red to match his red/black/white color scheme (with the exception of his Whammy and the other pedals that are already red). He plugs this setup into a 1970s Fender Twin Reverb and two 100-Watt Sears Silvertone 6x10 combo amplifiers. He also has a Sonic Machine Factory 15 Watt amp in red that can be seen in Under Great White Northern Lights. He uses this as a travel amp for secret or small shows, and also as the amp for his various keyboards when playing for a larger audience. With the Raconteurs, he has many more unusual pedals. And also, for the Raconteurs' 2008 tour, he had all of his pedals copper plated by Analogman.
See also: White Stripe Rocker divorce
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