it was a frequent site at the white
stripes concerts to see jack white
introduce his band mate as big sister
meg
the white stripes formed in the late 90s
at a time when rock and roll was kind of
in a weird spot
the dust had settled on the alternative
rock movement of the early 90s
and while there still were bands on the
charts from that era it was a far cry
from their heyday
most of the popular rock songs of the
time were considered pop rock
and what some would call post grunge the
white stripes seem like a fresh breath
of air
while also being a throwback a band that
paid homage to the blues
the white stripes would go on to heavily
influence the revival of garage rock in
the late 90s and early 2000s
with bands like the black keys and the
strokes following in their footsteps
but from day one jack and meg white
concocted a story that
they were brother and sister despite the
fact that they were married
so how did they get exposed and why did
they come up with this idea in the first
place
stay tuned to find out
hailing from detroit jack white was
originally born john gillis
as a teenager he attended a mostly
ethnically mixed school
hip-hop was popular with the kids at the
school he attended
but jack didn't count himself a fan
instead he focused on mastering the
guitar
as his influences included led zeppelin
captain beefheart pink floyd the doors
and countless old-time blues musicians
obviously he became the odd man out of
school
and music wasn't jack's first calling in
life as he would reveal to rolling stone
that he initially had several ideas of
what he wanted to do after graduating
including entering the priesthood and
possibly joining the marines
there was one moment though in white's
life that he can vividly remember
that turned him on to the blues it would
be a 1993 radiohead gig
when he heard sunhouse's john the
revelator played as the intro music
and it was something that caught his
attention immediately eventually he
would get his hands on a copy of sun
house's house of the father of the folk
blues lp
from 1965. the stripped down yet
effective sound
caught his ear he would reveal in the
film it might get loud with jimmy page
and u2's the edge
i didn't know you could do that just
singing and clapping it meant
everything i heard everything
disappearing it was as if with a single
blow of the axe
had opened up the world to me after that
my life received meaning
soon afterwards jack started to pick up
other blues albums and apart from
playing guitar
he also played drums and was heavily
into poetry he would also attend open
mic nights at a local restaurant called
memphis smoke
where he met future band mate and wife
meg white who worked there as a waitress
the two hit it off immediately and began
dating
eventually getting married on september
21st 1996
john gillis became jack white taking
meg's last
name then on bastille day in 1997
everything changed meg white sat down
and played drums for the first time on
jack's kit
white would tell rolling stone in 2008
when she started to play drums with me
just on a lark
it felt liberating and refreshing there
was something in it that opened me up
he'd remember
soon afterwards the pair formed a band
and threw around a few names to call
themselves including bazooka and soda
power
thankfully the band chose the white
stripes due to the fact that their last
name was white
and that meg loved peppermints after
they formed the band the two concocted a
story of them being brother and sister
but why go through all this trouble of
doing that well white would tell rolling
stone in 2005 that the lie forced people
to take them more seriously
if we had presented ourselves in another
fashion how would we have been perceived
right off the bat
when you see a band that is two pieces
husband and wife boyfriend and
girlfriend
you think oh i see when they're brother
and sister you go oh that's interesting
you care more about the music
not the relationship he'd say what's
amazing is that the pair were married
for four years from 1996 to 2000
and would quietly divorce without people
knowing it probably also helped that the
band didn't really achieve mainstream
success
until after their divorce but in 2001
the detroit free press exposed jack and
meg when they published the couple's
marriage certificate
the same year some other publications
also questioned the couple's story
while others didn't get the memo the may
11th issue of entertainment weekly
reported the rumor is she's his ex-wife
while the june 15th issue of the new
york times announced that the couple
were divorced
but not everyone got the news as the new
yorker magazine referred to them in the
2001 story as
two siblings from detroit but even as
news reports started to publish more
accounts of their marriage
jack white denied the stories in 2001
british magazine
enemy published a story titled white lie
in august of that year announcing the
couple's divorce
while also assuring fans that the white
stripes were still together and would be
playing dates in the uk
white responded to the article saying
we're brother and sister
someone started a rumor about how we
used to be married and we played along
with it
that was a bad idea we get asked this
all the time now he'd respond
a few months later the white stripes sat
down with spin magazine who literally
asked them six variations of the same
question
of why they pretended to be brother and
sister at one point jack claimed the
marriage certificate was
fake that the detroit free press had dug
up while also not denying that they were
married
at the end of the interview white
bluntly stated america loves gossip
everyone loves gossip jack and meg would
dissolve the white strips almost a
decade after their marriage had ended
and jack would marry model and singer
karen nelson in 2005 and they would
divorce in 2013
while meg married patty and fred sonic
smith's son jackson smith in 2009
and they divorced in 2014. and as
recently as last month it appeared the
former bandmates are revisiting this old
story once again
as they're set to release the greatest
hits compilation with the line my sister
thanks you and i thank you on the album
cover
even jack's own label third man record
states on their website
in 1997 a brother and sister climbed
into the third floor attic of their
southwest detroit family homestead
and bashed out a primitive cover of
david bowie's moon each daydream
if you guys want to see what's happened
to meg white and her relationship with
jack
following the disillusion of the white
stripes click the link below in the
description box
that does it for today's video guys
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we'll see you again tomorrow on rock and
roll to stories take care