Jack White pays emotional tribute to Meg White on 50th birthday
Jack White has paid tribute to his former White Stripes bandmate Meg White in a social media post to celebrate her 50th birthday.
Taking to his Instagram account, he posted a Polaroid photograph of Meg. The caption reads: “HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY to my big sister, the great Meg White. There’s only one of you Meggo, they broke the mold. You’re still inspiring people, including me. Love you so much. -Jack III”.
When the guitarist and vocalist was in high school and still known as Jack Gillis, he met Meg White at the Memphis Smoke, a Detroit restaurant where she worked. He read his poetry at open mic nights. The pair became friends and went to gigs, coffee shops, and record shops in the local area. This friendship later became romantic.
At this point, Gillis was already playing drums and, in 1994, was hired professionally as the drummer of the cowpunk outfit, Goober and the Peas. After dating for a few years, Gillis and White married on September 21st, 1996, and famously, against standards, he took her maiden name. Not long after they tied the knot, Goober and the Peas broke up, and Jack continued to cut his teeth in other local groups.
On Bastille Day of 1997 – July 14th – Meg started playing drums with Jack as what he described as a “lark”. However, it felt liberating for the pair, so they became a band, eventually settling on the name The White Stripes. In these early days, they also established their now-iconic motifs, such as using the black, red and white colours, publicly pretending to be brother and sister, and using the number “three” a lot. They played their first show on August 14th, 1997, at the Gold Dollar bar in Detroit.
The duo released their self-titled debut album on June 15th, 1999, and this was the start of their fast rise, which would see them become one of the most influential and best-selling outfits of the coming century.
Despite Jack and Meg divorcing in March 2000, they still had much to come. They released their second album, De Stijl, in 2000, and the following year, they released White Blood Cells, a significant release that put them at the forefront of the garage rock revival movement.
The band’s fourth album, 2003’s Elephant, was their major label debut and hit number one in the UK, and six in the US, which eventually went platinum in both countries, thanks to tracks such as its world-famous lead single ‘Seven Nation Army’.
Get Behind Me Satan and Icky Thump followed, but in 2011, The White Stripes called it a day. Their announcement explained there were “a myriad of reasons” behind the decision, but it was “mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band”.
What happened to Meg White?
Jack White has continued his musical career, releasing his debut solo album, Blunderbuss, in 2012. As for Meg, she retired and returned to Detroit. She hasn’t worked in the industry since their demise.
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, White explained how Meg’s quiet personality created tension in the band, saying: “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, ‘Shit, try being in a two-piece where the other person doesn’t talk!’”
However, he did praise her drumming: “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.”
During the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Meg and Jack reunited to criticise Donald Trump after he used the ‘Seven Nation Army’ in his campaign without their consent. Then, in September 2024, they reunited again after Trump’s campaign used the song without permission again, to file a copyright infringement lawsuit. The suit was eventually dropped in November.
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