THE SEVENTH SON Jack White
Jun 22, 2009
In the confession booth with the White Stripes/Raconteurs/Dead Weather mainman.
BY PAMELA DES BARRES
I have to admit I am a bit spoiled when it comes to rock star greatness. Having been in front of (behind, upside down, sideways and beside) many brilliant innovators, it takes a whole lot of genius to turn my flaming red head and perk up my jaded, rocked out ears. Before the White Stripes came along, the last important rock god for me, was Kurt Cobain, an obviously tortured fellow who reflected the angst of his discontent young audience to raging perfection. I believe Eminem does that for his pissed-off young followers, but as winningly dangerous as it is, I don't quite classify his music as rock ‘n' roll.
I have interacted with most of my musical heroes, and truth be told, there are very few in the last couple of decades who have intrigued me enough to dash out and make their acquaintance. Jack White of the White Stripes being the Magnificent Exception. (Or is that "Obsession"?)
It took a few months to pin him down, because Mr. White is just about the busiest man in show business, but I am finally winging my way to Nashville for a meet-and-greet with what my Goddaughter Polly Parsons (Gram's daughter) calls "An audience with the modern Elvis."
Besides acting, producing and running a company, Jack White has three bands - the White Stripes with his "sister" ex-wife, Meg, the Raconteurs (love ‘em!) and most recently, moody the Dead Weather, in which he play drums. Their debut album is out July 16.
The sun pours down like blazing honey today in the sweaty south, and as I wend my rental car through the maze up and down hilly streets, I soon realize most of them are blocked off, and thousands of Nike-clad runners have taken the place of all the vehicles. I am in the middle of an annual marathon and cannot get anywhere near my all-important destination - Jack White's new studio/office/complex where our interview is taking place. Not even sure where I am, I park under a shady tree and start hiking in the 90 degree heat, wearing my favorite strappy snakeskin high heels, purchased in Roma, of course. Ouch. But despite the probable sunburn and blisters, the show must go on. I will meet Jack White today. I will. I will. Feeling like a thief, I snatch someone's Wall Street Journal to shade my eyes, and at 20 minutes past our designated meet time, my cell phone rings. It's Jack's assistant wondering where I am. I explain about being lost in the massive marathon and she promises to come fetch me for her master.
Dressed all in black (as I am sure you know, he only wears red, white & black) the modern Elvis welcomes the bedraggled visiting journalist into his inner sanctum within his shimmering gothic lair and we settle in on a cozy couch to chat. His charisma is bombastic, but surprisingly, his spirit is gentle, centered and serene. I am thrilled to hear he is reading my first book, I'm With the Band.
"I remembered when I first saw it in the bookstore when I was a kid," he confesses. "I was scared of you when I saw that book and I'd actually flip through and look at the photos every time I went to the bookstore. I don't know why, but you scared me, like this girl's too much! She's like, over the top, outrageous!"
Jack is the seventh son in a religious family of nine children, (Born Again Dad, Catholic Mom) and I try to picture him at 12, feeling naughty for peeking into my life. "But redheads have always attracted and repelled me magnetically at the same time," he adds, "That's in line with Ginger from Gilligan's Island." (For those few who aren't familiar with that wacky ‘60s sitcom, it featured a scantily clad red-haired B-feature "Movie Star.")
I suggest that perhaps the fiery depictions of the Lord's muse, Mary Magdalene may have engaged his youthful fascination. "Maybe so," he ponders, "but she wasn't a whore." Aaahhh, a man after my own heart! I knew we were kindred spirits.
I hope you're not expecting the typical rock talk here, dolls. This is where I like to go with my interview subjects: deep. When he tells me he's read one of my faves, The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene, we revel in the discussion between a disciple and Jesus: "Why do you kiss her on the mouth?" The answer? "Because I kiss her on the mouth." We agree that the Lord was very Zen indeed. Jack then tells me something that totally blows my mind because it's a brand new way of hearing a certain biblical quote. "I named one of my albums Get Behind Me Satan, my favorite phrase Jesus said, because the triple meaning behind that is so powerful: The idea that the devil could ‘get behind me' as in back me up. The idea of Satan not as just some evil figure, but the idea beneath all, is get behind me, man, get with me on it."
Wow. I have to fan myself after that one.
Despite growing up in a "Christian battleground," Jack is pleased with the outcome. "I've taken a lot of things from it, most importantly God. I'm just glad I got God out of all of that because I would hate to have waited until I was in my thirties to have discovered God, in whatever aspect." Jack pauses, very thoughtful. "I sort of default to Jesus. Do you know what I mean? I listen to all kinds of spirituality and respect all of it, and if I'd grown up in China, I would have had a different path. So I don't believe this one's better than the rest, but I default to Jesus because that's the one I know."
I tell Jack that my belief is that we all are a part of God, that the all and everything, every person, creature and atom make up the entirety of God. "My main focus on God is that he's creating from nothing and we're creating from the pre-existing materials, especially as artists," he insists, "We can only take the wood that he put here and make something out of it. We can't create from nothing. That's what divides him from everything, not only from people, because we are all a part of him, like you said. But it divides it all because it's the one thing he has that we can't touch, and we could never come close. I mean, the greatest thing we could ever create, be it the Empire State Building or a pyramid, it's laughable compared to a planet or a solar system."
For this particular redhead, rock ‘n' roll is an ideal way to get way inside Great God Almighty, and the raucous, masterful, multi-level music Jack White creates is its own unique solar system.
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