Detroit-born singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Jack White, has won a whopping 12 Grammys as well as awards for “Songwriter/Artist of the Year” in the Nashville Songwriter's Association International and for “Breakthrough Video” in the MTV Video Music Awards.
The 47-year-old first made a big impression in 1997 as the lead singer and guitarist in Detroit's favourite underground rock band of the time, the “White Stripes”. Along with his then-wife Meg White who played the drums as well as vocals, Jack was signed with the California-based label Sympathy for the Record Industry.
The pair released 28 singles and several albums, the first of which being “De Stij”l in 2000. This was shortly followed with “White Blood Cells” in 2001 (praised for its "back to basics" approach before being listed in Q magazine as one of "50 Bands to See Before You Die" in 2002) and “Elephant” in 2003, which Jack was said to have self-produced with some rather worn-out equipment, held together with duck tape.
Despite this, “Elephant” received a five-star rating from Rolling Stone magazine and Jack was ranked number 17 on their list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" thanks to his rocking guitar solo.
In 2005, Jack, along with Brendan Benson (an American musician and singer-songwriter), Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler formed “The Raconteurs”. The band came to light after Jack and Brendon wrote the song “Steady, As She Goes” which reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100. Also known as “The Saboteurs” in Australia, the members quickly dampened the speculations of being a supergroup (due to each of their previous success stories) and told how they were simply "a new band made up of old friends."
In 2009, Jack formed a new group called the “Dead Weather” with Alison Mosshart (frontwoman for the Kills). She’d sung in place of Jack during The Raconteurs' tour to promote their second album, “Consolers of the Lonely” when he’d been struck down by bronchitis. The pair, along with Dean Fertita (guitarist of Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence from the Raconteurs., released their debut album, “Horehound”, in July 2009 which hit the ground running at number 6 in the U.S. Billboard 200 Album Charts.
Jack’s huge success opened up many doors, including collaborations with some big names such as The Rolling Stones in 2001, Loretta Lynn (an award-winning American singer-songwriter) in 2004, and Alicia Keys with the song "Another Way to Die" for the 2008 James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.
More recently, Jack performed at Glastonbury 2022 with a 15-song set. It included “Love Interruption” (taken from his 2012 debut solo studio album “Blunderbuss”) and “I Cut Like a Buffalo” (a song for his band, The Dead Weather’s album “Horehound”). Jack finished the incredible performance with “Seven Nation Army” (a White Stipes song from the critically acclaimed album, “Elephant”) which the crowd sang along to in a truly epic fashion.
And, unsurprisingly, the fans don’t stop there, with Youtube followers saying “This is the best band Jack White has ever had behind him, solo-wise. loving this peak-energy Jack White.” And “How good does Jack look at the minute? Awesome performance, still remember watching him fall over the drum kit at Glastonbury some years back. Legend.”
So what’s next for Jack? His new album “Entering Heaven Alive” is set to be released on 22nd July 2022 and after the fantastic reviews on his last album “Fear Of The Dawn”, Jack is sure to impress us all once again. Plus, if you want to catch him on stage yourself, there’s been a ton of tour dates released from now through to November.
If you want to see more from Jack White, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Facebook.