Former White Stripes frontman Jack White has opened up about his relationship with other half of the band, Meg, and the now solo artist has some bleak insights for fans hoping against hope for a reunion.
When Jack White discusses the White Stripes, you definitely get the feeling that he (like us) sort of regards the band as a little magical, the thing of when something comes together in the right way at the right time, and cannot really ever be reproduced.
In fact, maybe this is addressed in a White Stripes track:
For years, the duo lingered in a sort of limbo — not officially kaput, but also not doing anything White Stripes related. We still got a Jack fix from The Raconteurs, but it just wasn’t the same:
It was still really, really good. But not the same.
Anyway, Jack is currently on the cover of Rolling Stone , dreamy as ever and talking about his current work. And Meg.
Meg, who is and always was enigmatic, naturally came up in the discussion about White’s work — and the hinty prospect of a Stripes reunion.
Ever loquacious, Jack spilled on his relationship with Meg right now. Which is, by his description, basically non-existent. It’s not a Jack White-specific ban, he says, just that Meg isn’t all that chatty.
He began:
“I don’t think anyone talks to Meg. She’s always been a hermit… When we lived in Detroit, I’d have to drive over to her house if I wanted to talk to her, so now it’s almost never.”
Awwww. Sad face. Jack even says that Meg’s approval — which he seems to have desired to some degree — wasn’t easy to get. He continues:
“She’s one of those people who won’t high-five me when I get the touchdown… She viewed me that way of ‘Oh, big deal, you did it, so what?’ Almost every single moment of the White Stripes was like that.”
White adds:
“We’d be working in the studio and something amazing would happen: I’m like, ‘Damn, we just broke into a new world right there!’ And Meg’s sitting in silence.”
Loose dramatization, above.
However, despite being a quiet, hard-to-impress reluctant celebrity, Jack also says that Meg was the heart and soul of the White Stripes in many ways ( which he’s expressed before .) He continues:
“I would often look at her onstage and say, ‘I can’t believe she’s up here.’ I don’t think she understood how important she was to the band, and to me and to music… She was the antithesis of a modern drummer. So childlike and incredible and inspiring. All the not-talking didn’t matter, because onstage? Nothing I do will top that.”
But he harbors a bit of frustration still, despite his current success and years passing since the band officially broke up:
“I remember hearing Ringo Starr say, ‘I always felt sorry for Elvis, because in the Beatles we had each other to talk about what it felt like. Elvis was by himself.’ I was like, ‘S***, try being in a two-piece where the other person doesn’t talk!’”
Jack White’s full interview is available in this month’s issue of Rolling Stone .
