1994–2004: Beginnings and formation of the White Stripes At 19 years old, White had landed his first professional gig as the drummer for the Detroit band
Goober & the Peas, and was still in that position when the band broke up in 1996. Meg began to learn to play the drums in 1997, and according to Jack, "When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing." Two months after forming, on July 14, 1997 (also known as
Bastille Day, which White recounted), Jack and Meg performed their first show at the Gold Dollar in Detroit; of the three songs on the setlist, one of them was "Jimmy the Exploder", which would be the intro of
their debut album in 1999. Despite being married until 2000, they publicly presented themselves as siblings. They kept to a chromatic theme, dressing only in red, white, and black. They began their career as part of Michigan's
underground garage rock music scene. The band released its eponymous debut album in 1999, and a year later the album was followed up by the cult classic
De Stijl. The album eventually peaked at number 38 on
Billboards
Independent Albums chart. In 2001, the band released
White Blood Cells. The album's stripped-down garage rock sound drew critical acclaim in the US and beyond,
John Peel, an influential DJ and the band's early advocate in the UK, said they were the most exciting thing he had heard since
Jimi Hendrix.
White Blood Cells was followed up in 2003, by the commercially and critically successful
Elephant. The critic at
AllMusic wrote that the album "sounds even more pissed-off, paranoid and stunning than its predecessor ... darker and more difficult than
White Blood Cells". The album's first single, "
Seven Nation Army", became the band's signature song, reaching number one on the
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for three weeks, winning the 2004
Grammy Award for Best Rock Song, and becoming an international sporting and protest anthem. Rumors began to circulate in 2003 that White had collaborated with
Electric Six for their song "
Danger! High Voltage". He and the Electric Six both denied this, Later,
Dick Valentine and Corey Martin (Electric Six band s) said White was involved but not paid. Also in 2003, White played guitar and performed backing vocals on the title track of British musician, DJ and producer
Mark Ronson's debut album
Here Comes the Fuzz featuring
Freeway and
Nikka Costa on vocals. White worked with
Loretta Lynn on her 2004 album
Van Lear Rose, which he produced and performed on.
2005–2009: Formation of The Raconteurs and the Dead Weather The album was a critical and commercial success. Reaching the Top Ten charts in both the US and the UK, The Raconteurs set out on tour to support the album, It debuted at number two on the US
Billboard 200 chart, and entered the
UK Albums Chart at number one, selling over 300,000 vinyl copies in England alone. Of his excitement for vinyl, White explained, "We can't afford to lose the feeling of cracking open a new record and looking at large artwork and having something you can hold in your hands." A few days later, the duo canceled the remainder of their 2007 UK tour dates as well. In February 2008, White participated in releasing limited-edition
Holga cameras stylized around the White Stripes. He returned to work with The Raconteurs, also in 2008, for their second album,
Consolers of the Lonely. The album and its first single, "
Salute Your Solution", were released simultaneously on March 25, 2008. The album reached number seven on the
Billboard 200 chart, and received a Grammy nomination for
Best Rock Album.
Alison Mosshart, the frontwoman for
the Kills (who was touring with the Raconteurs at the time) would often fill in as his vocal replacement. The group debuted a handful of new tracks on March 11, 2009, in Nashville from their debut album
Horehound. It came out on July 13, 2009, in Europe and July 14, 2009, in North America on White's Third Man Records label. White revealed that the White Stripes were planning to release a seventh album by the summer of 2009. On February 20, 2009 (and during the final episode of ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien), the band made their first live appearance after the cancellation of the Icky Thump
tour, and a documentary about their Canadian tour—titled The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights''—debuted later that year at the
Toronto International Film Festival.
2010–2014: Breakup of the White Stripes and solo debut In October 2009, Mosshart confirmed that the second Dead Weather album was "halfway done", and the first single, "
Die by the Drop", was released on March 30, 2010. The new album (again on the Third Man Records label) was titled
Sea of Cowards and was released on May 7 of that year in Ireland, on May 10 in the United Kingdom, and on May 11 in the U.S. In 2009, Jack White was featured in
It Might Get Loud, a film in which he,
Jimmy Page, and
the Edge come together to discuss the electric guitar and each artist's different playing methods. White's first solo single, "
Fly Farm Blues", was written and recorded in 10 minutes during the filming of the movie that August. The single went on sale as a 7-inch vinyl record from Third Man Records and as a digital single available through iTunes on August 11, 2010. In November 2010, producer
Danger Mouse announced that White—along with
Norah Jones—had been recruited for his collaboration with
Daniele Luppi entitled
Rome. White provided vocals to three songs on the album: "The Rose with the Broken Neck", "Two Against One", and "The World". After almost two years with no new releases, the White Stripes reported on their official website on February 2, 2011, that they were disbanding. White emphasized that it was not due to health issues or artistic differences, "but mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band". White finished and performed the song "You Know That I Know", and it was featured on
The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, released on October 4, 2011. In that same year, he produced and played on
Wanda Jackson's album ''The Party Ain't Over''. To her delight, his studio also released the album on a
7-inch vinyl. On January 30, 2012, White released "
Love Interruption" as the first single off his debut, self-produced solo album,
Blunderbuss, which was released on April 24, 2012. The album ultimately debuted number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and in support of the album, he appeared on
Saturday Night Live as the musical guest and played at select festivals during the summer of 2012, including the Firefly Music Festival,
Radio 1's Hackney Weekend, the
Sasquatch! Music Festival, the
Fuji Rock Festival in Japan (one of the biggest festivals in the world), and
Rock Werchter in Belgium. Later in the year, he headlined the
Austin City Limits Music Festival. During his tour for the album, White employed two live bands, which he alternated between at random. The first, called the Peacocks, was all-female and consisted of
Ruby Amanfu,
Carla Azar,
Lillie Mae Rische, Maggie Björklund,
Brooke Waggoner, and alternating bassists
Bryn Davies and
Catherine Popper. The other, the Buzzards, was all male and consisted of
Daru Jones, Dominic Davis,
Fats Kaplin,
Ikey Owens, and
Cory Younts. White said maintaining two bands was too expensive, It was released on June 10, 2014, simultaneously with the first single off the album, "High Ball Stepper". The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and, and later performed as one of the headliners at the
Coachella Festival over two weekends in April 2015.
2015–2023: Further collaborations and experimental period On April 14, 2015, White announced that the festival would be his last electric set, followed by one acoustic show in each of the five U.S. states he had yet to perform in, before taking a prolonged break from live performances. However, he performed on the inaugural episode of the radio show
A Prairie Home Companion with the new host, Chris Thile, on October 15, 2016, in support of his compilation album
Acoustic Recordings 1998–2016. He co-wrote the song "Don't Hurt Yourself " with Beyoncé on her album
Lemonade, and accompanied her on the vocals. Ahead of his next effort, White worked in isolation and without a cell phone; he rented an apartment in Nashville, recorded quietly so no one would know what he was working on, and slept on an army cot. He drew inspiration from rap artists of the 1980s and 1990s (as well as
A Tribe Called Quest,
Kanye West, and
Nicki Minaj), and chose his backing musicians from talent that had played in live shows supporting hip-hop artists. In January 2018, White released "
Connected by Love", taken from his third solo album
Boarding House Reach, which was released on March 23, 2018. Like its two preceding albums, it landed at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. In promotion of the album, White appeared on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and on
Saturday Night Live as the musical guest, playing "
Over and Over and Over" and "Connected by Love". White released
Jack White: Kneeling at The Anthem D.C., his first concert film as a solo artist, on September 21, 2018, exclusively on
Amazon Prime Video. The Raconteurs reunited in 2018 with the release of two singles. They released their third studio album,
Help Us Stranger, in 2019. The band went on a hiatus in 2014, though at the time Benson believed that they were split. Critically praised, the album was followed by a US tour. In October 2021, White released "
Taking Me Back"—his first solo single since 2018—which appeared in the video game
Call of Duty: Vanguard. In November 2021, White announced that he planned to release two solo albums in 2022:
Fear of the Dawn, featuring White's traditional rock sound, on April 8, and
Entering Heaven Alive, a
folk album, on July 22. White released a video for "Taking Me Back" on November 11, 2021. White released three more singles from
Fear of the Dawn: the title track on January 18, 2022, "
Hi-De-Ho" on March 3, and "What's the Trick?" on April 7 (the day before the album released). Each of these singles was backed by a track from
Entering Heaven Alive, promoting both albums in tandem. Together, the albums were named the dual number one album of the year by
Rough Trade UK. In December 2021, White announced the
Supply Chain Issues Tour, which went on throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, reaching a total of 103 shows. It kicked off with its first concert on April 8, 2022, in Detroit, Michigan – during which White proposed to his girlfriend
Olivia Jean, with the two marrying onstage – and ended on February 24, 2023, in Aspen, Colorado. White performed on
Saturday Night Live on February 25, 2023. He played two songs from his
Fear of the Dawn album and was presented with a jacket for being a
Five-Timer on the show.
2024–present: Resurgence On July 19, 2024, White distributed test pressings of his upcoming sixth solo studio album by secretly including copies of it with purchases made at Third Man Records locations. Select tracks from the mysterious new album premiered on the
WDET radio station that same day. White later announced the album to be called
No Name, which was released on August 2, 2024. It received acclaim from critics, who noted his return to blues, the album's raw nature and the similarity to the sound he championed with the White Stripes. The
Detroit Free Press said White's album-release methodology "made a stand for rock mystique". White commenced the “No Name Tour” on July 27, 2024. Shows on the first leg of the tour took place in small, club-like venues and were announced only days before they happened. The first leg of the tour consisted of 43 ticketed shows in the United States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. On November 15, 2024, White announced the second leg of the tour, consisting of 52 higher-ticketed shows in another eight countries, from November 17, 2024, to May 24, 2025. As of December 14, 2024, all but five of White's 2025 tour dates have sold out. In January 2025, the White Stripes were nominated a second time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In April 2025, during a sold out two-show stint at
The Salt Shed in
Chicago, Illinois, the venue debuted the "Jack White Vintage Poster Experience," an art exhibit in its adjacent Elston Electric Arcade featuring an array of White-related promotional touring posters from over the years. In November 2025, they were
inducted by
Iggy Pop into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Jack accepted the award for the band and gave a speech written by him and Meg. He said, "she said she's very sorry she couldn't make it tonight, but she's very grateful for the folks who have supported her throughout all the years, it really means a lot to her tonight." He also read a poem dedicated to her. That same month, at the 86th
Thanksgiving day game, White performed at
Detroit Lions's
halftime show with
Eminem. == Other ventures ==