Jack White: The Life Story Behind Rock's Guitar Star

Detroit, Michigan: The Youngest of Ten Children

John Anthony Gillis was born on 9 July 1975 in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest of ten children, in a Catholic family where music, work and faith were woven together in a way that would shape everything he made. His mother, Teresa, worked as a secretary, his father, Gorman, worked in maintenance for the Catholic archdiocese, and the household, which was large, busy and devout, gave him a childhood that was both ordinary and unusual: an altar boy who considered becoming a priest, a teenager who loved punk rock and blues, and a young man who learned a trade, upholstery, before he ever learned to make a record. The Detroit he grew up in was a city in decline, a place of empty factories, of Motown’s ghost, of a music scene that was raw and independent, and the city, which taught him that you make things with your hands, became the foundation of his art: a musician who builds guitars, who presses records, who runs a label, and who believes that making something yourself is the point.

School in Detroit gave him the first guitar he ever played, and it was a second-hand instrument, bought with money he had saved, and the guitar, which he taught himself to play, became his obsession. He listened to the blues, to Led Zeppelin, to the Stooges, to the punk bands of Detroit, and he played along, hour after hour, in his bedroom, until the riffs that had seemed impossible became natural. He also worked as an upholsterer, apprenticing with a family friend, Brian Muldoon, and the trade, which taught him to take something apart and put it back together, to work with his hands, to respect a craft, became a metaphor for his music: a song, like a chair, is built, piece by piece, and the building is the art. He ran his own upholstery business, Third Man Upholstery, and the name, which he would later use for his record label, was already a statement: a craftsman, working alone, making something by hand.

The Detroit years also gave him a band. He played drums in a band called Goober and the Peas, he played guitar in a band called The Go, and he met Meg White, a waitress and a drummer, whom he married in 1996, and with whom he would form the band that would make him famous. The marriage ended in divorce in 2000, but the band, which was formed in 1997, continued, and the two of them, who presented themselves to the public as brother and sister, a fiction that the press believed for years, became The White Stripes, a duo, a guitar and a drum kit, in red, white and black, playing a kind of blues-rock that sounded like it had been made in a garage, because it had.

The White Stripes, a Guitar and a Drum Kit

The White Stripes released their self-titled debut album in June 1999, a raw, lo-fi record that was recorded in a week, and it was followed by De Stijl in 2000, named for the Dutch art movement, and White Blood Cells in July 2001, the album that made them famous. White Blood Cells featured the singles Fell in Love with a Girl, whose video, made entirely of Lego bricks, became a sensation, and Hotel Yorba, and the album, which was praised by critics for its energy, its simplicity, and its songwriting, established the Stripes as one of the most exciting bands in America. The duo’s sound was a deliberate limitation: a guitar, a drum kit, and a voice, nothing else, and the limitation, which was a choice, forced Jack White to be creative, to make a single guitar sound like a whole band, and to write songs that could survive with nothing but a riff and a melody.

Elephant, released in April 2003, was the album that made them stars, and it was built around a single riff, the opening of Seven Nation Army, a song that became one of the most famous rock songs of the twenty-first century. The riff, which White wrote on a guitar tuned to an open A, was simple, menacing, and unforgettable, and the song, which won the Grammy for Best Rock Song, became a stadium anthem, chanted by football fans around the world, from the World Cup to the Champions League, a chant that White himself has said still surprises him. The album also featured the singles The Hardest Button to Button and There’s No Home for You Here, and it won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, and it sold millions of copies, and it made the White Stripes, a duo from Detroit, one of the biggest bands in the world.

Get Behind Me Satan, released in June 2005, was a change of direction, a record that featured piano, marimba, and acoustic instruments, and the single Blue Orchid, and the album, which was praised for its ambition, showed a songwriter who was willing to experiment, to move beyond the guitar-and-drums formula, and to try something new. Icky Thump, released in June 2007, was the band’s final album, and it featured the title track, Icky Thump, which won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, and the singles Rag and Bone and Conquest, and the album, which was recorded in Nashville, was a return to the loud, raw sound of the early records, and it proved that the duo, ten years into their career, could still make a record that sounded urgent, angry, and alive. The band broke up in February 2011, in a statement that was brief, dignified, and final, and the breakup, which was not acrimonious, was a recognition that the duo had said what it needed to say.

The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and the Collaborator

While the White Stripes were still active, Jack White formed a second band, The Raconteurs, with Brendan Benson, a singer-songwriter from Detroit, and the band, which also included Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler, released their debut album, Broken Boy Soldiers, in May 2006, featuring the single Steady, As She Goes, which became a hit, and the album, which was praised for its songwriting and its musicianship, showed a different side of White: a collaborator, a band member, a guitarist who could share a stage with another songwriter, and the band’s second album, Consolers of the Lonely, released in March 2008, won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and featured the single Salute Your Solution. The Raconteurs, who have reunited periodically, including for the album Help Us Stranger in 2019, are a reminder that White, who is famous as a solo artist, is also a band musician, and a band musician who loves to play with others.

The Dead Weather, formed in 2009, was a third band, and it was a supergroup: White on drums, Alison Mosshart of The Kills on vocals, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age on guitar, and Jack Lawrence on bass, and the band’s debut album, Horehound, released in July 2009, was a dark, heavy, blues-rock record, with the single Treat Me Like Your Mother, and the band’s second album, Sea of Cowards, released in May 2010, and third, Dodge and Burn, released in September 2015, showed a group that was loud, raw, and uncompromising. The Dead Weather gave White a chance to return to the drums, the instrument he had first played, and the drumming, which was powerful and precise, showed a musician who had not forgotten his first love, and who could still play it, brilliantly, in a band built around a singer as fierce as Mosshart.

He has also worked as a producer for other artists, most famously for Loretta Lynn, the country music legend, whose album Van Lear Rose, released in April 2004 and produced by White, won the Grammy for Best Country Album, and revitalised Lynn’s career, introducing her to a new generation. The collaboration, which paired a Detroit rock musician with an eighty-year-old country singer from Kentucky, was an unlikely one, and it worked, because White understood Lynn’s voice, her songs, and her history, and he produced the record with a respect and a restraint that let her shine. The Van Lear Rose sessions are a testament to his range as a producer, and to his belief that a great song, properly recorded, transcends genre, age, and expectation.

Blunderbuss, Lazaretto and the Solo Career

Blunderbuss, his debut solo album, was released in April 2012, and it was a revelation: a record that mixed rock, blues, country and folk, with songs that were personal, direct and beautifully crafted, and with a band that included some of the best musicians in Nashville. The album featured the singles Love Interruption and Freedom at 21, and it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, his first chart-topper as a solo artist, and it was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys, and it proved that Jack White, alone, without a duo, without a supergroup, could make a record that was as good as anything he had made in a band. The album’s title, a reference to an old-fashioned gun, was a clue to its sensibility: a record that was loud, direct, and unapologetic, and that announced a solo career that would be as prolific as the band years.

Lazaretto, released in June 2014, was an even more ambitious record, featuring the title track, Lazaretto, which won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance, and the singles Would You Fight for My Love? and That Black Bat Licorice, and the album, which was released on vinyl with a series of hidden features, including a hologram, a locked groove, and a song pressed at two different speeds, showed White’s love of the physical record, of vinyl as an object, and of the album as a work of art, not just a collection of songs. The album debuted at number one, it was praised by critics, and it confirmed that the solo career was not a side project, it was the main event, and that White, who had spent fifteen years in bands, was now a solo artist in full.

Boarding House Reach, released in March 2018, was a stranger, more experimental record, recorded in New York with a new band, and featuring the singles Connected by Love and Respect Commander, and the album, which divided critics, showed a songwriter who was still willing to experiment, to try new sounds, to work with hip-hop and electronic influences, and to risk failure. Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive, two albums released in 2022, a loud rock record and a quiet acoustic one, released months apart, showed the two sides of his talent, and No Name, released in July 2024, a surprise album, pressed in white sleeves and sold in Third Man stores before it was announced, was a return to the raw, garage-rock sound of the White Stripes, and it was praised as one of his best records in years. The solo career, which is now more than a decade old, is still growing, still experimenting, and still surprising.

Third Man Records and the Craftsman

In 2001, Jack White founded Third Man Records, first in Detroit, then in Nashville, and the label, which began as a small, independent operation, has become one of the most respected in music, releasing records by White, by the Raconteurs, by the Dead Weather, and by dozens of other artists, from country singers to punk bands. The label is not just a business, it is a philosophy: a belief that records should be made by hand, that vinyl is the best way to hear music, that a label should be a place where artists are free to make the records they want to make. The Third Man headquarters in Nashville includes a record store, a studio, a pressing plant, and a venue, and the complex, which is open to the public, is a physical manifestation of White’s belief that music is a craft, and that a craft should be practised in public, with the doors open.

The label’s most famous innovation is the direct-to-acetate recording, in which an artist performs live in a booth, and the performance is cut directly to vinyl, in real time, with no editing, no overdubs, and no second chances, and the recordings, which have featured artists from Neil Young to the White Stripes themselves, are a testament to White’s love of the moment, of the live performance, and of the risk that makes a record exciting. The label has also pioneered new vinyl technologies, including the ultra LP, with hidden tracks, holograms, and other surprises, and the innovations, which are playful and serious at the same time, show a label owner who thinks about a record as an object, as a piece of art, and as a gift to the listener.

He has also become a collector and a historian of American music, acquiring rare records, instruments, and memorabilia, and using his platform to celebrate the musicians who came before him, from the blues singers of the 1920s to the country singers of the 1950s. The collecting is not a hobby, it is a mission: a belief that the past should be preserved, that the old records should be heard, and that the musicians who made them should be remembered. The craftsman, the label owner, and the historian are the same person, and the person is Jack White, a musician who believes that making something yourself, by hand, is the most honest thing a person can do.

Seven Nation Army, the Riff and the Anthem

Seven Nation Army is the song that will define his career, and it is a strange song to define a career, because it is built on a single riff, a seven-note phrase played on a guitar, that has become one of the most famous melodies in the world. The riff, which White wrote on a guitar tuned to an open A, was intended as a bass line, but it became a guitar riff, and the song, which was released as the lead single from Elephant in 2003, became a hit, winning the Grammy for Best Rock Song, and then, slowly, it became something else: a chant, sung by football fans in stadiums around the world, from the World Cup in 2006, when Italy’s fans adopted it, to the Champions League, to the NFL, to high schools, and the chant, which is sung without words, just the riff, is now a part of the culture, a melody that belongs to everyone, and that White, who wrote it in a few minutes, still finds surprising.

The song’s success as an anthem is a testament to the power of a simple melody, and to White’s understanding of what makes a riff work: a phrase that is easy to remember, easy to sing, and impossible to forget. The riff has been used in films, in commercials, in political rallies, and in stadiums, and each use is a reminder that a song, properly written, can escape its author, can belong to the world, and can live a life of its own. White has spoken about the riff with a mixture of pride and bemusement, and the bemusement is understandable: a guitarist from Detroit, who wrote a song in a few minutes, created a melody that is now sung by millions of people who have never heard of the White Stripes, and the melody, which is simple, is also perfect, and perfection, in music, is rare.

The White Stripes’ other songs, from Fell in Love with a Girl to The Hardest Button to Button to Blue Orchid, are also standards, and the catalogue, which runs from 1999 to 2007, is a body of work that is small, perfect, and still growing in reputation, because the songs, which were recorded quickly, cheaply, and with a minimum of instruments, sound as fresh today as they did when they were made. The duo’s limitation, a guitar and a drum kit, was a choice, and the choice produced a sound that is still influential, still copied, and still loved, by musicians and fans who understand that a limitation, properly embraced, is a kind of freedom.

The Guitar, the Sound and the Influence

Jack White’s guitar playing is the most distinctive in modern rock, and it is distinctive because it is both primitive and sophisticated, both raw and precise. He plays a plastic Airline guitar, a cheap instrument that he has used since the White Stripes, and the guitar, which is not a expensive, custom-made instrument, produces a sound that is harsh, biting, and unmistakable, a sound that is the opposite of the polished, digital guitars that dominate modern rock. He uses a small number of effects, a Digitech Whammy pedal, a Big Muff fuzz, and a few others, and the effects, which are used sparingly, give his playing a character that is immediately recognisable: a riff that is simple, a solo that is wild, and a sound that is entirely his own. The guitar is not a tool, it is a voice, and the voice is the sound of Detroit, of the blues, of punk, and of a craftsman who believes that a cheap guitar, played with conviction, is worth more than an expensive one, played without it.

His influence on the guitarists who came after him is enormous. The garage-rock revival of the 2000s, the bands that formed in the wake of the White Stripes, the guitarists who learned to play by copying Seven Nation Army, all of it descends from White’s playing, and the idea that a rock band can be a duo, that a guitar and a drum kit are enough, is now standard, but it was radical when he did it. He did not invent the duo, and he did not invent garage rock, but he made both of them the language of modern rock, and the language is still spoken, by bands who were children when Elephant came out, and who learned to play by listening to it. He has won twelve Grammy Awards, he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the White Stripes, and the honours are deserved, because a guitarist who wrote Seven Nation Army has earned a place among the greats.

The red, white and black aesthetic, the colour scheme that defined the White Stripes, is also a part of his art, and it is a deliberate choice: a visual identity that is as simple, as bold, and as memorable as the music. The colours, which appear on every White Stripes record, video, and stage, are a statement, a belief that a band should look as distinctive as it sounds, and the statement has been copied by a generation of bands, who learned from White that a visual identity is as important as a sound. The aesthetic, like the music, is a product of Detroit, of a city that taught him that you make things with your hands, and that the making, whether it is a chair, a record, or a colour scheme, is the art.

Where He Stands Now

As of 2026, Jack White is one of the most respected musicians in the world, with a career that spans the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather, and a solo career that is still growing, and with a label, Third Man Records, that is one of the most important independent labels in music. He has won twelve Grammy Awards, he has sold millions of records, he has produced records for Loretta Lynn and others, and he has become, in the words of many, the last great guitar hero, a musician who still believes in guitars, in vinyl, in live music, and in the power of a riff to bring people together. The boy from Detroit who was the youngest of ten children, who considered becoming a priest, who learned upholstery, is now a legend, and the legend is not just for the songs, but for the life behind them: the craft, the label, the guitars, and the belief that making something yourself is the most honest thing a person can do.

He continues to record, to tour, and to run Third Man Records, and the next chapter of his career will be watched by an audience that has grown up with him, from the teenagers who bought White Blood Cells to the adults who bought No Name. The lesson of his career is not that talent is enough, he has been honest about how hard the road was, but that a craft, properly practised, can last a lifetime, and that a musician who makes things with his hands will always find a way to make music. Jack White, the boy from Detroit, is still here, still playing, and still the craftsman, the guitarist, and the last great rock star.

My Take:

Jack White is the guitarist I admire most in modern rock, and the reason is the limitation. A guitar and a drum kit, nothing else, and the limitation, which was a choice, forced him to be creative, to make a single guitar sound like a whole band, and to write songs that could survive with nothing but a riff and a melody. Listen to Seven Nation Army, listen to Fell in Love with a Girl, listen to The Hardest Button to Button, and you hear a guitarist who understands that a limitation, properly embraced, is a kind of freedom, and that freedom is the sound of the White Stripes. I have listened to those records for years, and I still hear new things in them, a riff I missed, a detail I had not noticed, a moment of control that still surprises me.

Seven Nation Army is the riff that will define his career, and I understand why, because it is perfect. A seven-note phrase, played on a guitar tuned to an open A, that became a stadium anthem, chanted by football fans around the world, from the World Cup to the Champions League, a chant that White himself has said still surprises him. The riff’s success is a testament to the power of a simple melody, and to White’s understanding of what makes a riff work: a phrase that is easy to remember, easy to sing, and impossible to forget. I have heard the riff in stadiums, in commercials, in films, and every time I hear it, I am struck by the same thing: a guitarist from Detroit, who wrote a song in a few minutes, created a melody that belongs to the world.

Elephant is the album that made the White Stripes stars, and it is the album I return to most when I want to remember what a great rock album sounds like. Seven Nation Army, The Hardest Button to Button, There’s No Home for You Here, Ball and Biscuit: every song is a standard, every song is a riff, and the album as a whole is a picture of a duo at the peak of their powers. The album won a Grammy, it sold millions of copies, and it deserved to, because it is a record that works on every level: the songs are great, the playing is great, the production is great, and the whole thing holds together as an album rather than a collection of singles. I have played it from start to finish more times than I can count, and it still sounds fresh.

The upholstery is the detail I love most, because it shows a different side of him. He apprenticed as an upholsterer, he ran a business called Third Man Upholstery, and the trade, which taught him to take something apart and put it back together, to work with his hands, to respect a craft, became a metaphor for his music: a song, like a chair, is built, piece by piece, and the building is the art. I think about the teenager who learned to re-cover a chair, and about the musician who learned to build a song, and I am struck by the connection: a craftsman, whether he is working with fabric or with a guitar, is a person who believes that making something yourself is the most honest thing you can do, and Jack White believes it, in every record he makes.

Third Man Records is the label that I admire most, because it is not just a business, it is a philosophy. A belief that records should be made by hand, that vinyl is the best way to hear music, that a label should be a place where artists are free to make the records they want to make. The direct-to-acetate recordings, the ultra LPs with hidden tracks and holograms, the pressing plant in Nashville, all of it is a physical manifestation of White’s belief that music is a craft, and that a craft should be practised in public, with the doors open. I have visited the Third Man store in Nashville, in my imagination, and I can picture it: a record store, a studio, a venue, all in one place, and the place is a testament to a musician who built a world, by hand, and invited everyone in.

Van Lear Rose, the Loretta Lynn album he produced, is the collaboration that moves me most, because it is unlikely, and it is perfect. A Detroit rock musician and an eighty-year-old country singer from Kentucky, making a record that won a Grammy for Best Country Album, and revitalised Lynn’s career, introducing her to a new generation. The collaboration worked because White understood Lynn’s voice, her songs, and her history, and he produced the record with a respect and a restraint that let her shine. I love Van Lear Rose because it proves that a great producer listens, and that listening is the most important skill a producer can have, and White, who is famous as a guitarist, is also a great listener.

Blunderbuss is the solo album that proved he did not need a band, and I love it for its confidence. A record that mixed rock, blues, country and folk, with songs that were personal, direct and beautifully crafted, and with a band that included some of the best musicians in Nashville, the album debuted at number one, it was nominated for Album of the Year, and it proved that Jack White, alone, could make a record as good as anything he had made in a group. The album’s title, a reference to an old-fashioned gun, was a clue to its sensibility: loud, direct, and unapologetic, and the record is a statement, a solo artist, in full, and the statement is still true, a decade later.

Lazaretto is the album that shows his love of vinyl most clearly, because it was released with a series of hidden features, a hologram, a locked groove, a song pressed at two different speeds, and the features, which are playful and serious at the same time, show a musician who thinks about a record as an object, as a piece of art, and as a gift. The album itself is great, with the title track winning a Grammy, but the vinyl is the art, and the art is the point: a record that is made by hand, that surprises the listener, that rewards the person who holds it in their hands, is a record that matters, and Lazaretto matters, because it is a record that could only exist on vinyl, and White knew it.

No Name, the surprise album from 2024, is the record that surprised me most, because it was released without announcement, pressed in white sleeves, sold in Third Man stores, and it was a return to the raw, garage-rock sound of the White Stripes, and it was praised as one of his best records in years. The surprise release was a statement: a musician who does not need a marketing campaign, who can release a record the way he made it, quietly, by hand, and let the audience find it. I love No Name because it is honest, and honesty in music is rare, and the honesty is audible in every track, in the sound of a guitarist playing, in a room, with no tricks, just a riff and a song.

The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather are the bands that show his range as a collaborator, and I love them both for different reasons. The Raconteurs, with Brendan Benson, is a songwriting partnership, a band that writes great songs and plays them beautifully, and Consolers of the Lonely is a record I return to often. The Dead Weather, with Alison Mosshart, is a loud, raw, uncompromising band, and White, on drums, is a different musician, a drummer, not a frontman, and the drumming, which is powerful and precise, shows a musician who has not forgotten his first love. The two bands together show the full range of his talent: a guitarist, a singer, a drummer, a collaborator, and a band musician, all at once.

His guitar playing is the part of his talent that is most often discussed, and I want to celebrate it, because it is both primitive and sophisticated, both raw and precise. He plays a cheap plastic Airline guitar, and the guitar, which is not an expensive, custom-made instrument, produces a sound that is harsh, biting, and unmistakable, a sound that is the opposite of the polished, digital guitars that dominate modern rock. The playing is not about technique, it is about conviction, and the conviction is audible in every riff, in every solo, in every song. A cheap guitar, played with conviction, is worth more than an expensive one, played without it, and Jack White proves it, record after record.

If I were introducing someone to Jack White, I would start with White Blood Cells, then Elephant, then Blunderbuss, then No Name, because that sequence shows the arc: the breakthrough, the peak, the solo debut, the return. And I would tell them to listen on vinyl, because the records are made for vinyl, and to see him live, because the live show is where the joy is most visible. Jack White is a guitarist, a singer, a songwriter, a producer, and a craftsman, and the combination is rare, and the career is still going.

There is a final thing I want to say, and it is about Detroit. The city he grew up in, a city in decline, a place of empty factories, of Motown’s ghost, of a music scene that was raw and independent, taught him that you make things with your hands, and the lesson is in every record he makes, in every chair he re-covered, in every record he pressed, in every guitar he built. Detroit is not a backdrop, it is a character, and the character is alive, and the aliveness is the reason his work matters. He did not leave Detroit behind when he got famous, he brought it with him, to Nashville, to the studio, to the stage, and the bringing is the story.

The red, white and black aesthetic is the last thing I want to mention, because it is a visual identity as simple, as bold, and as memorable as the music. The colours, which appear on every White Stripes record, video, and stage, are a statement, a belief that a band should look as distinctive as it sounds, and the statement has been copied by a generation of bands, who learned from White that a visual identity is as important as a sound. The aesthetic, like the music, is a product of Detroit, of a city that taught him that you make things, and that the making, whether it is a chair, a record, or a colour scheme, is the art.

And one more thought, about the priesthood. He was an altar boy who considered becoming a priest, and the consideration, which he has spoken about, is a clue to his character: a person who thinks seriously about a life of service, of discipline, of faith, and who chose music instead, but who carried the discipline, the seriousness, and the faith into the music. The priesthood is not a footnote, it is a window, and the window shows a musician who believes that art is a calling, and that a calling should be answered with everything you have, and Jack White has answered it, with a guitar, a drum kit, and a record label, and the answer is still coming.

One last thing, and it is about the future. Jack White is fifty-one, he has twelve Grammys, a label, a catalogue that runs from the White Stripes to No Name, and he is still growing, still recording, still touring, still pressing records by hand. The next album, whatever it sounds like, will be worth waiting for, because he has never made a record he did not believe in, and he has never played a riff he did not mean. The boy from Detroit who was the youngest of ten is now a legend, and the legend is still being written, one riff at a time.

Boarding House Reach, his third solo album from 2018, is the record that showed me how restless he is, because it is not a White Stripes record, it is not a Raconteurs record, and it is not a blues record, it is an experiment, recorded in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville, with new musicians, new sounds, and new ideas, and the experimenting, which is the point, is the mark of an artist who refuses to repeat himself, even when repeating himself would be easier, and more profitable. I love the album because it is brave, and brave, in a career that had been defined by a sound, is the best kind, because it says: I am not a sound, I am a musician, and the musician, which is the point, is still, after thirty years, searching, still, after all these years, trying new things, and the trying, which is the art, is the reason his records are still, after twenty-five years, worth listening to, and the listening, which is the point, is the reason Jack White, who made Boarding House Reach, is still, after all these years, one of the most interesting guitarists in rock, and the most interesting, in this case, is also the most restless.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Jack White from?

Jack White was born John Anthony Gillis on 9 July 1975 in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest of ten children in a Catholic family. His mother was a secretary and his father worked in maintenance for the Catholic archdiocese. He was an altar boy who considered becoming a priest before choosing music.

What bands was Jack White in?

He is best known for The White Stripes, the duo he formed with Meg White in 1997. He also formed The Raconteurs with Brendan Benson in 2005, and The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart in 2009, and he has had a solo career since 2012.

What is Seven Nation Army?

Seven Nation Army is the lead single from The White Stripes’ 2003 album Elephant, built on a famous seven-note guitar riff. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Song and became a stadium anthem, chanted by football fans around the world, including at the World Cup.

What is Third Man Records?

Third Man Records is the record label Jack White founded in 2001, first in Detroit and then in Nashville. It releases his own music and other artists’ records, operates a pressing plant and a record store, and is known for vinyl innovations including direct-to-acetate recordings and hidden features on LPs.

Did Jack White produce Loretta Lynn?

Yes. He produced Loretta Lynn’s 2004 album Van Lear Rose, which won the Grammy for Best Country Album and revitalised her career, introducing the country legend to a new generation of listeners.

What is Jack White’s solo album No Name?

No Name is his sixth solo studio album, released as a surprise in July 2024. It was first pressed in plain white sleeves and sold in Third Man stores before being formally announced, and it was praised as a return to the raw garage-rock sound of the White Stripes.

What instrument does Jack White play?

He is best known as a guitarist, playing a plastic Airline guitar with a small set of effects, but he is also a drummer, a pianist and a singer. He played drums in The Dead Weather and played every instrument on some of his early recordings. He trained as an upholsterer before music took over.