Jack White

Jack White (born July 9, 1975, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who first gained fame with the White Stripes and later performed in other bands before launching a successful solo career.

Early life and career with the White Stripes

Gillis, the youngest of 10 children in a Polish Scottish family, grew up in Detroit. His father worked as a maintenance man and his mother as a secretary, both for the Roman Catholic archdiocese. After dropping out of college after a semester, Jack worked for several years as an upholsterer while playing drums or guitar in various Detroit bands. Along the way he developed a deep devotion to Mississippi Delta blues. After he married (1996) Meg White, he took her last name and joined her in a two-person band, the White Stripes.

Meg’s transparently simple but powerful drumming perfectly complemented Jack’s virtuoso guitar work, expressive vocals, accomplished songwriting, and increasingly complex production work. The White Stripes were in the vanguard of a garage-rock revival in the late 1990s and created an energized idiosyncratic 21st-century version of the blues. Although the Whites divorced in 2000, they continued to play together, long presenting themselves as brother and sister to avoid questions about postmarital collaboration. They released seven much-acclaimed albums—including their self-titled debut (1999); their breakthrough album, White Blood Cells (2001); the million-selling, Grammy Award-winning Elephant (2003); and Icky Thump (2007)—before officially ending their musical partnership in 2011.

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Solo releases and collaborative projects

Meanwhile, White performed in and contributed to the soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain (2003), produced Van Lear Rose (2004) for country legend Loretta Lynn, married (2005) British supermodel-singer Karen Elson (with whom he had two children before divorcing in 2013), and relocated from Detroit to Nashville, where he established Third Man Records. He also cofounded the power-pop-influenced Raconteurs—who released Broken Boy Soldiers (2006), Consolers of the Lonely (2008), and Help Us Stranger (2019)—and the Dead Weather, for which he played drums on Horehound (2009), Sea of Cowards (2010), and Dodge and Burn (2015).

In 2012 White released his first solo album, Blunderbuss (2012), which extended his stylistic reach and deepened his songwriting craft. The follow-up, Lazaretto (2014), garnered mostly glowing reviews and won a Grammy for the title track. His devotion to vinyl recordings was especially evident on the latter album—an ambitious mix of familiar and unexpected musical approaches—which incorporated a raft of technical innovations for turntable users. The eclectic Boarding House Reach (2018) featured a variety of genres, including funk and rap. Also in 2018 White released the concert film Jack White: Kneeling at the Anthem D.C.

In 2022 White released two albums: the experimental and synth-heavy Fear of the Dawn and the acoustic-oriented Entering Heaven Alive. He also married musician Olivia Jean in an impromptu ceremony before a concert audience in Detroit; Jean filed for divorce in 2026. White returned to the blues on No Name, which he released in 2024 with little fanfare; it was all part of the musician’s marketing ploy—free unlabeled copies were handed out to customers at Third Man Records shops without an announcement. Featuring politically charged lyrics and songs that took aim at organized religion, No Name garnered White another Grammy nomination for best rock album. Frozen Charlotte, his seventh studio album, dropped in the summer of 2026 and showcased more of the swaggering guitar-driven blues-rock that made his name.

Art and honors

In 2026 White held his first art exhibition at a gallery owned by Damien Hirst in London. The exhibition featured more than 100 sculptures, photographs, paintings, and piece of furniture created or designed by the musician. Some of the pieces were collaborations with Hirst and Ai Weiwei.

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The White Stripes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.