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 Jack White | The Third Man | 3 Quid
Name: John Anthony Gillis Born: July 9, 1975 in Detroit/Michigan Age: 33 Instruments: Guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, piano, marimba, keyboard and vocals Other Instruments: Drums and bass. Guitars: 1964 JB Hutto Model Montgomery Airline Late 1950s Kay Hollowbody 1960s Domino Dawson Gretsch White Penguin G6022CWFF Rancher Falcon Cutaway (named 'Rita') Other bands/Worked with: The Go, Von Blondies, 2stars Tabernacle, Whirlwind Heat, The Wildbunch, The Upholsterers, Soledad Brothers, Goober & The Peas, The Hentchmen, Loretta Lynn, Beck, The Strokes, Bob Dylan, Brendan Benson. Movies: Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Cold Mountain (2003), The Rosary Murders (1987), Walk Hard (2008). Marital Status: Married to Karen Elson Religião: Católica Hero: Blind Willie McTell Biography: Wikipedia Early Life 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. 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." It would turn out to be a life-defining decision. 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. Early Career White's first professional music experience came in the early 1990s as a drummer for the Detroit country-punk band Goober and the Peas. This led to work with various other bands such as 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. 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, Jack often, during solos, uses his guitar like a slide guitar, with a slide on his finger, usually while using a killswitch. His style is similar to that of Tom Morello, and he has demonstrated that on his performances on Saturday Night Live and other shows. Solo Career 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 1965. 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 — 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. |
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