The White Stripes on Conan's last show!!!!
JACK WHITE BIO
(WIKIPEDIA)
Jack White (born John Anthony Gillis on July 9, 1975) is an American musician, record producer, and occasional actor best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist of the alternative rock musical duo The White Stripes. He is also a member of rock band The Raconteurs. 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 then-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. Jack was ranked #17 on Rolling Stone magazine'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 Loretta Lynn, whose 2004 album Van Lear Rose he produced and performed on, Beck, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. In 2005, White became a founding member of the rock band The Raconteurs.
White has appeared in movies as a cameo and in acting roles. He is sometimes called eccentric, a charge stemming from his behavior and interests on and off the stage. On July 29, 2008, it was announced that White would be performing the title song to the 22nd James Bond film Quantum of Solace with Alicia Keys, entitled "Another Way to Die".
EARLY LIFE
White, the youngest of ten children (seven sons, three daughters), was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Teresa and Gorman Gillis. White makes reference to the fact that he is the seventh son in the song "Ball and Biscuit", when singing the line "But it's a fact that I'm the seventh son". His father and mother worked for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, as the maintenance man and the Cardinal's secretary, respectively. Jack, like his six brothers, 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.
White began playing instruments (a drum) at the age of five. Although White grew up near Mexicantown, a lower-middle-class Hispanic 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.
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,'" White said. "I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn't think I was allowed to take it with me." At fifteen, 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.
CAREER
White's first professional music experience came in the late 1980s as a drummer in his brother's band Catalyst, with his brothers Ed, Joe, & Leo, along with their cousin Paul Ossy. In the early 1990s White was the drummer for the Detroit cowpunk band Goober and the Peas. This led to work with various other bands such as the garage punk band The Go on their album Whatcha Doin', and 2 Star Tabernacle. Also, in addition to being his mentor and neighbor, Muldoon played drums with White in late night jam sessions; informally, they called themselves "Two Part Resin", although their post-breakup debut single on Sympathy for the Record Industry from 2000 is credited to The Upholsterers.
THE WHITE STRIPES
Jack and Meg White were married on September 21, 1996. In unorthodox fashion, Jack took Meg's surname. Post-marriage, Jack continued to dabble in multiple bands, but it was in 1997 that Meg first tried her hand at the drums. In Jack's words, "When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up." The young couple then became a band, and in July of that year, the newly-christened White Stripes made their first live appearance at the Gold Dollar in Detroit. Despite their status as a married couple, the two presented themselves publicly as siblings. In keeping live performances to three elements, Jack fulfilled his lead in The White Stripes, which was guitar and vocal duties while Meg played drums. Starting out as an underground favorite in Detroit and other circles, the White Stripes recorded two albums for an independent label. The couple divorced in 2000 before becoming nationally famous.
The White Stripes came to international attention when, in 2001, British DJ John Peel raved of the band on his radio show. The buzz turned the White Stripes into a sensation in Britain, and the enthusiasm soon crossed over back to the United States. The 2001 single, "Fell in Love with a Girl", became an alternative hit, and the band's third album and major label debut, White Blood Cells, was seen as leading the trend for garage rock in the early 2000s, earning comparisons to The Strokes. In 2002, NME's first ever Cool List named Jack White "the coolest person in rock".
By 2003, the White Stripes had become one of the nation's most popular rock groups, with their fourth album, Elephant, winning Grammy Awards (including for the single "Seven Nation Army") and appearing on end of year lists. In a 2003 special issue, Rolling Stone named White the 17th best guitarist of all time. The White Stripes' 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan saw White playing less guitar, concentrating on piano, marimba and other instruments, but achieved the band's highest debut on the Billboard 200 chart, at #3. White received praise from Lou Reed as well as gaining the admiration of other musicians such as Slash, Jimmy Page, and fellow Detroit musician Iggy Pop.
In 2007 White recorded the sixth White Stripes album, Icky Thump in addition to recording several tracks for the second Raconteurs album, in Nashville, TN. A US tour to support Icky Thump began on July 22, 2007, but in September of that year, the rest of the tour was canceled due to Meg's battle with anxiety.
While playing live (and on many recordings), Jack often plays slide guitar, usually while using a killswitch, and a wah-wah pedal.
SOLO CAREER
From The The Cold Mountain soundtrack. It was performed by Jack White for the film, in which he played the character Georgia Problems listening to the file? See media help.The critical and popular success of the White Stripes opened up new opportunities for White. In 2003, he was well-received in the role of Georgia in the feature film Cold Mountain, directed by Anthony Minghella. He also performed several songs for the film's soundtrack (produced by T Bone Burnett), in a traditional Appalachian mountain music style. Later in that same year, he and Meg appeared in one of the shorts comprising Jim Jarmusch's film, Coffee and Cigarettes. Meanwhile, White produced Loretta Lynn's 2004 album, Van Lear Rose, singing with her on the duet "Portland, Oregon". The album was released in April 2004 to critical acclaim, and earned five Grammy Award nominations, going on to win both Best Country Album and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the duet. White has referred to The Stooges' 1970 album Fun House as "the greatest rock 'n' roll record ever made."As a result, he was invited by Rhino Records to contribute liner notes to the 2005 deluxe reissue of the album. He also wrote the liner notes to Holly Golightly's album Truly She Is None Other. In 2007, he had a small role playing Elvis Presley in the comedy Walk Hard.
White made a surprise appearance with Bob Dylan in Detroit on March 17, 2004, performing the White Stripes song "Ball and Biscuit" during the second encore. White again performed as a special guest with Dylan during both shows performed at the Ryman Auditorium on September 19 and September 20, 2007. On September 19, White sang lead vocals and played guitar on "Meet Me in the Morning" from Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks; it was the first time that Dylan had ever played the song live in concert. White returned on September 20 on the songs "One More Cup of Coffee" and "Outlaw Blues", the latter of which had not been performed live since a Dylan sound check in 1975.
In April 2006, a long-rumored and extremely low-profile Coca-Cola commercial titled "What Goes Around Comes Around" debuted during the MTV Australia Video Music Awards, which featured the original song "Love is the Truth" that White wrote exclusively for Coke. Regarding the situation, White stated, "I've been offered the opportunity to write a song in a way which interests me as a songwriter."However, according to InTheNews.co.uk, the ad was only played once in the UK, late at night on Channel 4, and was available for only a short time at the Coke website.
Jack and Meg made a cameo appearance on the September 17, 2006 episode of The Simpsons titled "Jazzy and the Pussycats", in which Homer and Marge buy a drum kit for Bart and he becomes a jazz drummer, making Lisa jealous. In 2007, The White Stripes and The Raconteurs appeared in the popular Irish web-cartoons of Eyebrowy.com. making them one of only a few non-Irish acts to be parodied. The clip is styled like the 60's Batman TV show.
Interestingly, throughout White's career he has worked out an arrangement with his distributors (both V2 Records and Warner Bros. Records) that allows White to maintain ownership of the master recordings, a rarity in the modern music industry. Additionally, the label has allowed him to produce for other bands with his personal label, Third Man Records %u2014 most notably for fellow Detroit act The Muldoons (featuring his former upholstering partner Brian Muldoon) and Whirlwind Heat. V2 president Andy Gershon said, "Jack has interests that extend outside the White Stripes, and I think it is important to support him in these areas." In 2005, White recorded and produced the first 45 record for his former teacher Brian Muldoon's family project, The Muldoons. Muldoon's two sons, Hunter and Shane, front the trio. White has also worked with artists Pete Townshend, and Billy Gibbons. White was part of an effort to set the last lyrics Hank Williams ever wrote (found in a briefcase) to music. He tackled the song "You Know That I Know". The project was initiated by Bob Dylan and is set to be released in 2008 or 2009. In April 2008, Martin Scorsese released Shine a Light, the Rolling Stones concert documentary that included a guest appearance by White. He also appears on the soundtrack to Shine a Light performing the song Loving Cup.
THE RACONTEURS
Jack White in concert with The Raconteurs at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2006 In the summer of 2005, White and his friend Brendan Benson got together and wrote "Steady, As She Goes". The song would turn out to be the first single of their new band, the Raconteurs, with Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence. The band came together in Detroit during 2005 and recorded when time allowed for the remainder of the year. Due to the various members' success in other bands, they were quickly dubbed a supergroup but they asserted they were actually "a new band made up of old friends." In 2006, White toured following the release of The Raconteurs' (or the Saboteurs, as they are legally known in Australia) debut album Broken Boy Soldiers.
In January 2008, they entered the studio to begin production on their follow-up album. The result was Consolers of the Lonely, released March 25. Despite efforts of the band to thwart "leaks" (including, but not limited to announcing their release date one week prior to release,) iTunes mistakenly began selling the album in advance of its slated release date.
The band has played a number of music festivals in Europe, Asia, and North America (including Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Vegoose in Las Vegas, Lollapalooza in Chicago, Illinois and Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin, Texas), Coachella music festival and Bonnaroo Music Festival.
MUSICAL EQUIPMENT AND SOUND
Jack White uses numerous effects to create his powerful live sound, most notably a Digitech Whammy IV to create the rapid modulations in pitch he uses in his solos. The guitars he uses live are two 1965 JB Hutto Montgomery Airlines (one which he received from a fan), a Harmony Rocket, a 1970s-era Crestwood Astral II, 1950s-era Kay Hollowbody, a Gretsch White Penguin (as seen in the music video for "Icky Thump"), and a custom Gretsch Rancher acoustic guitar Western Maple Satin (which he also uses when playing with The Raconteurs). When playing with the Raconteurs, White usually plays two custom Gretsch-styled copies of the Duo Jet guitar, and a Gretsch Anniversary Jr. w/ Bigsby with three Filtertron pickups, dubbed by Jack the Triple Jet. 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 the use of 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.
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 songs "Seven Nation Army" and "The Hardest Button to Button".
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), an electric piano on such tracks as "The Air Near My Fingers" and "I'm Finding it Harder to be a Gentleman" in which he used a Rhodes Mark II stage piano. White also plays percussion instruments such as the marimba (as on "The Nurse"), drums and tambourine. On Broken Boy Soldiers, he is credited as playing the album's synths and organ; however, bandmate Brendan Benson also received credit for these instruments and it is unclear who played on which song.
White plays barre chords with a different technique than most musicians. Instead of using his ring finger to fret the higher notes, Jack uses his little finger. This is because of a car accident in which his left index finger was injured and also the fact that his brothers would never teach him the proper way to do so, which he explains in an appearance with the Raconteurs on the show In the Attic.
Solo discography
As musician
Cold Mountain (2003
"Wayfaring Stranger"
"Great High Mountain" (Unknown)
"Sittin' on Top of the World" (Walter Vinson; Lonnie Chatmon)
"Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over" (Unknown)
Van Lear Rose (2004) — Loretta Lynn
"Little Red Shoes" (also wrote)
"Go It Alone" (2005) — from the Beck album Guero.
"Another Way to Die" (2008) - with Alicia Keys
As producer
Soledad Brothers (2000) - Soledad Brothers
Sewed Soles (2005) — The Greenhornes[62]
Do Rabbits Wonder? (2003) — Whirlwind Heat[62]
Van Lear Rose (2004) — Loretta Lynn
The White Stripes (1999) - the White Stripes
De Stijl (2000) - the White Stripes
White Blood Cells (2001) - the White Stripes
Elephant (2003) - the White Stripes
Get Behind Me Satan (2005) - the White Stripes
Icky Thump (2007) - the White Stripes
Broken Boy Soldiers (2006) - the Raconteurs
Consolers of the Lonely (2008) - the Raconteurs
Red and Black EP (2005) - the Muldoons
Filmography
The Rosary Murders (1987) — uncredited altar boy
Cold Mountain (2003) — Georgia
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) — Himself
The Fearless Freaks (2005) — Himself
Walk Hard (2007) — Elvis Presley
Shine a Light (2008) — Himself
It Might Get Loud — Himself
WIKIPEDIA
The Raconteurs MTVu Performance!!!
ANOTHER WAY TO DIE VIDEO!!!! JACK WHITE AND ALICIA KEYS!!!
JACK WHITE BASICS:
STATIS:
HE KICKS FREAKN' ASS!!!
BIRTHDAY:
July 9, 1975
BIRTHPLACE:
Detroit, Michigan
ZODIAC SIGN:
Cancer
NUMBER:
Three (3)
BANDS:
Goober and the Peas
The Go
2 Star Tabernacle
The Upholsterers (Two Part Resin)
THE WHITE STRIPES
THE RACONTEURS
MOVIES:
The Rosary Murders (1987)
Cold Mountain (2003)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
The Fearless Freaks (2005)
Walk Hard (2007)
Shine a Light (2008)
HEIGHT:
6' 2" (nice!)
NICKNAMES:
The Third Man
Three Quid
Interview at the Reading Festival
Top Yourself- Lollapalooza Live!!!
I love this song!!!
>
HERE'S A LINK TO THE DETROIT FREE PRESS ARTICLE FROM SUNDAY EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT!!!
By the way, its a beautiful piece. I wish he were from my hometown...(don't know if he would have enjoyed it so much??? Not a whole heck of alot goes on there...)
THIS IS THE PICTURE I DREW THAT I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE CHANCE TO GIVE TO JACK WHITE...
(I had to scan it in sections which caused dark lines where I pasted them together to post the whole thing...its big!)
CARTOON JACK!!!
.. ..CARTOON MEG!!!
.. ..