Jack White (born John Anthony Gillis ; July 9, 1975), often credited as Jack White III , is an American musician, record producer, and occasional actor, best known as the guitarist, pianist, and lead vocalist for 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. White formed The White Stripes in 1997 with his ex-wife Meg White. 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 '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 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 of his third group, The Dead Weather.
Childhood and early life
Of Scottish-Canadian and Polish descent, White, the youngest of ten children (seven sons, three daughters), was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Teresa and Gorman Gillis. 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 White began playing instruments (a drum) at the age of five. White grew up in a lower middle-class 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, 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" to be 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. 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. 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 also did solo shows. One memorable show circa 1994 was an opening slot for the band nova ovens at a coffee shop by the name of Planet Ant in Hamtramck. During this show he played a Silvertone Amp-in-Case Guitar and stomping out the rhythm on the small wooden stage.
Recording career
The White Stripes
Main article: The White StripesWhite formed The White Stripes along with Meg White in 1997. 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 Top Independent Albums when the band had established their popularity.
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, " is the band's most successful to date.
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 also released Aluminium , an avant-garde orchestral album containing past music written 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 has revealed plans to release a seventh, as of yet untitled album in the summer of 2009. 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.
A documentary, The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights , about the band's 2007 tour, in which they played a gig in every Canadian province and territory, is expected to close the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.
In July 2007, The White Stripes made history by playing the shortest concert ever by only playing one note, in St John's, Newfoundland. They played a full show later that night at the Mile One Centre in downtown St. John's.
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".
The Raconteurs
Main article: The RaconteursWhite 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 tour included shows at Lollapallooza at Grant Park in Chicago, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, T in the Park in Scotland, Oxegen festival in Ireland and The Open'er Festival in Poland. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album.
The Dead Weather
Main article: The Dead WeatherIn 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 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, " due July 13, 2009 in Europe and July 14, 2009 in North America, on White's Third Man Records label.
Solo career
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 .
In 2009 Jack White was featured in "It Might Get Loud", a f
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