There is a long article about Jack White in the NY Times, a sort of narrative interview done when they recently visited him in his Nashville headquarters, Third Man Records. The guy is an eccentric, no doubt about it, he for example dresses up like a gothic dandy but is actually obsessed by colors and wants his employees to wear the same colors (black and yellow) as the building. He has also a very controlling side over his own material, since he has a vault maintained at 64 degrees where he keeps all his master recordings.
Bu the whole article-interview is bizarre since the journalist asks White if he can embellish details embellishing details, to which White answers ‘Yes’…. So I have no idea what is really true in all this.
One thing is certain, White seems to be a guy who likes neat details, and beside the colorful matching employee clothes, there is also the ‘myth’ that the place was an old candy factory,… candy… White Stripes… peppermint candy imagery… got it? Almost too perfect.
So what else do we learn?
He has quitted smoking cigarettes six years ago, but he smokes cigars saying he does not inhale,… errr cigars are worst Jack!
He worships vinyl, ‘the pinnacle of musical expression’, he does not own a cell phone, but has an iPod, and shows his cranky side when talking about this new generation:
’This generation is so dead. You ask a kid, ‘What are you doing this Saturday?’ and they’ll be playing video games or watching cable, instead of building model cars or airplanes or doing something creative. Kids today never say, ‘Man, I’m really into remote-controlled steamboats.’ They never say that.’
I know, his generation was the last creative one and Jack White is the last rebel against modernity and the digital world. That’s a little crazy!
Actually, this doesn’t seem to apply to his own kids, Scarlet (5) and Henry (4), who are ‘little vaudeville kids’, as he explained:
‘They’ve been onstage for school plays and stuff, and they’re not nervous at all. You can see in Henry’s eyes that he really watches the creation of things. And Scarlett is very much a producer — she likes to tell how it’s going to happen. We were messing around a couple of weeks ago, and she was like, ‘I’m hearing two pianos. . . . ’’
According to White (but who knows?) the kids have already formed their own band, ‘Coke’, although they have never had a Coke. At 5 and 4 year-old, these kids seem to be little prodigies!
But do you want more weirdness? He has a totally red and white recording studio with a South African 70s TV studio mixing board, and he does not use anything like Pro Tools as he thinks it is ‘like cheating’. He does not believe monogamy is a rule that still applies, but still feels an affinity for Catholic martyrs and saints like Simeon, he considers having three dads, his biological father, God and Bob Dylan, and, as everyone knows, started the rumor that his wife Meg White was his sister when he invented his red-and-white-obsessed band.
Regarding the White Stripes, Jack White says it was Meg’s decision to end it all, not even giving a valid reason for the break up: ‘You’d have to ask her, I don’t know what her reasons are. Having a conversation with Meg, you don’t really get any answers. I’m lucky that girl ever got onstage, so I’ll take what I can get.’
And also:
‘Meg completely controlled the White Stripes. She’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, and you don’t even get to know the reasons.’
Because, if it were up to him, the White Stripes would have never broken up:
‘I’d make a White Stripes record right now. I’d be in the White Stripes for the rest of my life. That band is the most challenging, important, fulfilling thing ever to happen to me. I wish it was still here. It’s something I really, really miss.’
After all this, you may like him more,… or less, depending on your taste for the weird. He sure is an original, he has created his own myth, and very few people manages to do so!