Jack White

From Stripespedia

Revision as of 03:24, 28 August 2006

Jack White is the lead vocalist, guitarist, lyricist, songwriter, and pianist for The White Stripes. He is also the vocalist and guitarist for The Raconteurs.

Early Life/Childhood

Jack was born John Anthony Gillis on July 9, 1975 in Detroit, Michigan. He was the youngest of ten siblings born to Gorman Gillis, who worked as the maintenance man for the Archdiocese of Detroit, and Teresa Bandyke, who worked as the Cardinal's secretary for the Archdiocese of Detroit. Jack, like his six brothers, later become an altar boy, which landed him a small role in the movie The Rosary Murders, which was filmed in Southwest Detroit. When he was 5, he taught himself how to play the drums.

Costumes/Looks

He has worn several different things in pictures, album covers, promo shoots, concerts, etc. Some of these things include :

• White T-shirt and red pants (for many occasions, including the album covers for their eponymous debut album and White Blood Cells)

Equipment

Guitars

• 2 1964 JB Hutto Montgomery Airline electric guitars
• 1 Harmony Rocket
• 1 1970s Crestwood Astral II
• 1 1950S Kay Hollowbody (Jack usually plays this with a slide)
• A Gretsch guitar (Jack usually plays this with the Raconteurs)
• Unknown acoustic (seen in the video for Hotel Yorba)
• Unknown electric hollowbody (seen in the video for We're Going to Be Friends)
• Doubleneck guitar (only seen once in a bootleg video, only used for Astro. This guitar has been confirmed to be a Danelectro.

FX Pedals/Amps

• Digitech whammy pedal (for the rapid modulations in pitch for his solos)
• Vintage MXR Micro-amp
• Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Distortion/Sustainer (for main distortion)
• Electro-Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG)
• 1970s Fender Twin Reverb
• 100-Watt Sears Silvertone 6x10 combo amplifiers
• BOSS TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
• Triple Tremelo amp
  • This is an amplifier that can be found in the De Stijl artwork. It is not used much but it can be seen in the David Letterman performance and the Daily Show performance. Johnny Walker from the Soledad Brothers did all the wiring. Jack built it. It has three speakers, and the front one revolves with a peppermint swirl design.

Strings

• GHS strings (they were made in Detroit)

Keyboards

• Fender Rhodes bass keys
• Pump organ
  • Jack : I just got this pump organ that I got shipped up here from Memphis. I found it in a thrift store down there. I've been playing on that a lot. I had to fix it. One of the pedals was broke, so I had to get in there and do some upholstery again! But now I can pump my organ just fine, thank you very much."

Facts

• Many White Stripes were saddened and shocked to hear that Jack White had been in a car accident on his 28th birthday. Jack was making a left turn when another car ran a red light and struck the side of Jack's car. Jack later said : "This 75 to 80 year old woman drove right out in the middle of the street, right in front of us. There was nothing I could do to get away from it. It was lucky that there was nobody seriously injured. The airbag hit my hands on the steering wheel. I didn't know about any injuries until I got out of the car and kind of looked around. It didn't hurt: it was more, 'That's not supposed to be bent like that.' It was bent in a really strange way. And it was shattered, from here to here [draws line along lower half of finger]. I immediately thought 'That's not going to be good, is it?'. It was a multiple fracture which means it didn't actually go through the skin but it shattered inside the finger. I can't write, I can't play piano, I can't play guitar, I can't do anything creative. I can't even tie my shoes. The airbag broke my finger when it deployed. Maybe I would have been better off without an airbag. But I wasn't too freaked out. I was OK with it. It was one of those things where your mind acclimates to whatever the situation is. It just sort of upset me that I had to stop touring and I couldn't write music or play guitar or piano." Ironically, as Jack has a fascination with the number three, doctors put three screws in Jack's finger during the operation to fix it. Jack has also said that doctors told him the finger may require more surgery.

Side Projects/Other Bands/Credits

• Jack was briefly in a band called "The Walker-White Trio" with guitarist Johnny Walker of the Soledad Brothers and possibly Ben Swank (also of the Soledad Brothers).
• Jack briefly played lead guitar for a Detroit garage rock band, The Go in 1999 for 6th months, and is featured on the band's debut album, Whatcha Doin'. He left soon after its release due to creative tension between himself and the lead singer, Bobby Harlow.
• Jack played guitar and sang alongside Blanche's frontman, Dan Miller, in the short-lived country-punk band Two Star Tabernacle. They released one 45 and there is only one known live recording of this band, at Detroit's Gold Dollar on January 16, 2006.
• Jack drummed for Goober And The Peas during the mid-1990's.
• Jack worked with Loretta Lynn on the production of her most recent album, Van Lear Rose, and was featured on the album as a guitarist, appeared in her music videos, and more.
• Jack is the co-guitarist and lead singer of The Raconteurs, a rock band from Nashville, TN, alongside Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler', and Jack Lawrence. They debuted with their radio single, Steady As She Goes, and their first album, Broken Boy Soldiers, had a number 9 spot on the billboard charts when it was released on May 16, 2006. Jack seemed to have dropped the minimalistic aesthetic that he had developed in his time with The White Stripes, and is known to play a copper-plated guitar when on stage, giving him the nickname Copper Kid. The Raconteurs are supplying the soundtrack for the VMA's, occuring on August 31st, 2006.

External Links