Jack White is an American musician and producer who found fame as frontman of alternative rock band The White Stripes.
Real name John Anthony Gillis was born in Detroit, Michigan and is the youngest of ten siblings. His earliest musical influences came from his brothers and he began playing drums at the age of sixteen after finding an old discarded kit in his attic. He began listening to iconic artists such as The Doors and Led Zepplin at an incredibly young age before finding a love of blues and 1960s rock in his teenage years which would go on to inspire the sounds for The White Stripes. He met future collaborator and wife Megan White in a restaurant that she worked in when he was a senior at college, they began a courtship and quickly married.
Whilst finding his way in the music world, Jack was running an upholstery company called 'Your Furniture isn't Dead' during the day and moonlighting in local bands in the evenings to gain live experience and debut some of his solo material. It was only by chance that White began to play the drums yet after the couple branded themselves The White Stripes they scored their first live gig just two months later.
The pair publicly presented themselves as a brother/sister duo and kept a monochromatic theme whilst performing live, only wearing white, black and red. Jack enjoyed huge successes with the White Stripes, winning a handful of Grammy awards, critical acclaim for their revolutionary sounds and numerous sell out worldwide tours along with a prestigious headline slot at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival. In 2011 the band announced they would be splitting "mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band". Due to the successes of his work with White Stripes, Jack White had the chance to collaborate with many esteemed artists on his debut 'Blunderbuss' which was a huge success worldwide charting atop UK and US album charts and performed all over the world with his promotional campaign.
Still working on experimental blues rock, his 2014 LP 'Lazaretto' was another huge success and was applauded by critics for the intelligent minimalist style that has been consistent through his career. Jack White is an eccentric, mysterious artist who has kept the music at the heart of everything he has done.
Steve Lacy
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