Detroit Rock City (52 page)

Chris Fuller:
One of the best White Stripes shows ever was at the Magic Bag shortly after Jack and Meg had broken up. Jack played a lot of piano that night, and he was staring right at Meg. It was frustration and anger.

Eddie Baranek:
One of the first times I met Jack White was at the Magic Stick, and he asked me, “Can I record your band?” I was kind of weird with him because I was like, “I heard, like, you have to play guitar on the recording. Is that true?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “In that case, no.”

Jim Diamond:
I mixed the first White Stripes 45. He recorded it at home and then brought the tapes over here to mix. They had a really good look. They were more conscious of that kind of stuff than everyone else. Everyone else is walking on stage, looking like they just got done weeding the garden. People didn't really have a look. The Dirtbombs had a look because they had a black guy and two drums. That was the look. Jack and Meg came to Ghetto to do their first album, and we had to do a lot of takes because she wasn't a drummer. He taught her how to play the drums, but he didn't play any of the drums—he let her. We had to do take after take after take, because she would fuck up.

Marcie Bolen (
Von Bondies, Baby Killers, guitarist, vocalist
):
I started dating Jack in '99. He still played in the Go once in a while at that time, and he was still married, but they were separated. She moved out and I moved in. They had been separated for a while. We dated right when they started doing some random touring. They were traveling in a van together and going around, and he was calling me and said, “You know we play these weird small towns, and people are kind of rude to us beforehand. But after we get done playing people treat us totally different.”

Ben Blackwell:
Early on the White Stripes did three shows opening for Pavement, which would probably be the first real touring. That was in Towson, Maryland, someplace in North Carolina and the 40 Watt in Athens, Georgia. The album came out in May, and this was September. We had an album and a single on Sympathy and two singles on Italy, a smaller label.

Larry Hardy (
In the Red Records, founder
):
One of the big regrets of my career is that I missed the White Stripes. Jack sent me the first single with a really nice
letter asking me if I wanted to work with them. I was working with the Doll Rods and Andre Williams at the time, and they both had releases where I was going to employ a publicist, and I thought, “Well, I'll get back to him.” Mick and the Doll Rods were strongly urging me to work with Jack, and I had heard nothing but good stuff. But I just didn't, and the next thing I knew they were with Sympathy with Long Gone John. I felt like the guy at Decca who lost the Beatles. I still have the letter from Jack. I have collectors asking me to trade them for the letter, but I don't want that out there as a testament to my badness.

Ko Melina:
Long Gone John was doing records with all the bands in Detroit; he was really ahead of it all. He knew something.

Dave Buick:
As far as anybody outside of Detroit, Long Gone John put out a Cobras record and through Steve Shaw and myself, we got him copies of the White Stripes singles on Italy. And he just realized that they had something. I encouraged Jack to put stuff out with Sympathy because I knew it would get out there more. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't done that.

Long Gone John (
Sympathy for the Record Industry, founder
):
Later on there was a movie,
It Came from Detroit
, and someone said I offered these bands $5,000. It was unheard of for anyone to give someone money who didn't have something going on.

Rachel Nagy:
Long Gone made it possible for us to even exist. I mean, if we had $5,000, we could have done this all ourselves, but he had it. He did it. The guy is kind of a scammer, but at the same time anytime we need anything, he's there. So he's also pretty much a peach.

Long Gone John:
I had always done records with Detroit bands. I did a single with Ron Asheton, Destroy All Monsters. I love Niagara.

Ben Blackwell:
I was working for Italy Records, trying to move records. It was fun talking to people and asking, “What's going on there?” or “What records you got coming out?” The closest I had ever come to that before was doing phone orders with people at Sub Pop when I was still fifteen or sixteen and trying to tell them about the White Stripes. I'd say, “There's this really good band in Detroit.” I'm just short of saying, “Should I send in a demo or something?” They said, “Oh, you know, the best a band can do is just put out their own records and tour.” That's
really cool, because the White Stripes ended up doing a single on Sub Pop basically through the power of putting out their records and touring. After
De Stijl
had come out was the point where Meg quit her day job. They were touring strong; there's only two people, so it's a lot easier when you're playing $500 a night gigs. So when I heard that, I was kind of like, “What? Meg doesn't need a day job? She can get by just on the band?” I knew the money from being around and seeing day sheets and knowing what their take for shows was. I was selling the merch too, so I definitely knew that. But I was a kid; I don't think I knew in real life what a person needs to get by.

Marcie Bolen:
Von Bondies were playing in Buffalo, and they were playing in New York. I took a train down to New York and met him at Grand Central Station and then went on a tour with him and Meg in their van. There was me, Jack, and Meg. I drove once in a while. Then the White Stripes and Von Bondies toured together, first in the US.

Jason Stollsteimer:
We knew who Long Gone John was because he put out a record by the Makers, who were one of my favorite bands. I knew he was at the Magic Stick one New Year's Eve. He looks like the beast from Beauty and the Beast, hair-wise.

Joe Burdick:
Von Bondies weren't on Long Gone John's radar until after the White Stripes. John did the Cobras then the White Stripes then Von Bondies. He had come from LA to a New Year's Eve show in Detroit to see the Cobras and the White Stripes. Steve Nawara went up to Long Gone—he never saw him before and didn't know who he was—and he goes, “Sammy Hagar, what up?” Steve was trying to be funny, but no one wants to be called Sammy Hagar. We were like, “Ah, shit man.”

Jason Stollsteimer:
John—which is how he gets away with murder, bless his soul—helped a lot of bands that weren't very good at the time. We were just sloppy rock 'n' roll. There were certain things that he required from bands. If a band had a girl in it, there was a 90 percent chance he would put it out. One girl—it doesn't even matter if they play tambourine, if they're the singer, or the main song—he doesn't care. One of the opening bands was the White Stripes. We played by the men's bathrooms, with a little PA system with one microphone, and we're on floor level, so all you could see is me. He had no idea there were girls in the band because they were so short. The only thing he can see is from my nose up. “I really like
the sound and I really think you could put out a record with this. I'm Sympathy Records. I'll sign you for $2,500.” He was a mix between Seymour Stein and some cartoon character. He gave us the $2,500. We spent $1,300 making the record and took the rest of the money and got a van. Jack produced it, and we recorded at Diamond's. The album with Sympathy came out in 2001. Jack produced it, and they were going on tour and invited us. The White Stripes weren't big yet. In Montana there were 45 people. Chicago, 200 to 250 at the Empty Bottle. For the Detroit scene they were the biggest band by that time, late 2001. Kid Rock was bigger, but we never had seen him at a show in our lives.

Marcie Bolen:
Jack would call me when they were starting to break and say, “Oh my God, we played this show, and all of a sudden I looked out, and I could see these people singing all the words.”

Ko Melina:
The White Stripes went on tour with Sleater-Kinney, and that was a huge deal for anybody in Detroit. They also got offered to do an ad for the Gap for something like $75,000, and Jack turning it down. I thought, “Man, they're a really big deal now.”

Jack White:
I think that was one of the first offers we got for some money, and we turned it down. The funny thing was, a lot of those things, we really didn't know what to do. We needed the money, but we said no to it.

Tyler Spencer:
One of the biggest solids I've ever had done for me came from Jack. He sang background on our song “Danger High Voltage” and never asked for a dime. His involvement in that song was a big part of us getting a deal, and my life changed dramatically. He could have reasonably asked for money, and he didn't.

Timmy Vulgar:
When the Stripes made it, Jack invited Clone Defects to come on a few shows and open for them. We played six shows with 'em. We played for two thousand people. He took a few bands from Detroit on the road with him. Totally cool. You know, support your buddies with what you got. When we did that tour, they were on tour in a beautiful, nice, rock-star bus, and we were in a rusty, old, shitty minivan, following 'em. We had all our equipment stored underneath, inside the bus. We'd get to where we were gonna play at 6:00 p.m. We'd set up, do a sound check, and go backstage and drink a bunch and hang out with Jack and Meg. They weren't ego'd out at all. They made sure we were taken care of. When we played our set, we didn't have to set up our shit—there was crew. Then the crew would help
take our shit down. Then we'd go on our way. Every bar we went to afterwards we got kicked out of. After playing in Milwaukee, we were still at the hall, and I went up to a cop, that was like a security cop. Aren't those real police that do the security? I took a Clone Defects button and I went up to him and I pinned the Clone Defects button onto the cop. He's like, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I'm like, “That's my button, man.” And he says, “Walk away. Walk away.” I walk away and I go towards the backstage, and I started breakdancing in this little area. Then I fell over and knocked some shit over. Then I went back in the backstage area, passed out on the couch, and they had a security guard watching the room to make sure I didn't come out and fuck any more shit up.

Jim Diamond:
The first White Stripes record didn't do much at the time. But they always had a good gimmick with the color scheme and the way they looked. And they toured a lot; they worked really hard. I did their second record, which they recorded at Jack's house and mixed it here. I asked, “Why?” Jack told me the first record cost $2,000, including the tape. The second record, he said, “Yeah, all those drums, all the time it took, we wasted too much money, doing all the takes. So I'd rather do it at home.” So the second record probably cost $1,000. Who knows what I charged him to mix the whole thing. Probably nothing. The third album, that was the one. They recorded that in Memphis.

Marcie Bolen:
I went to Romania when Jack was doing the film with Renee Zellweger. He was talking about Renee a lot, but we had already broken up and got back together a few times. It was toward the end of our relationship. He was talking about how cool Renee was. He found a skull in Romania in an antique store, and he's like, “It's a skull, and Renee could tell how old the skull was just by looking in its mouth.” I said, “You guys have become really good friends.” He said, “Yeah, she's really cool. Talk to her on the phone.” I talked to her on the phone, and it was like, “Hey, how are you?” Next thing I know they're dating. We were broken up, though. We were on and off, the last five months—we were like on and off. He'd bought a new house. I don't know about their breakup, but she got married to Kenny Chesney right after him.

Larry Hardy:
Fat Possum offered $25,000 for that third LP
White Blood Cells
. Sub Pop was in there too, and I understood Jack didn't want to work with them because the Go had released a record with Sub Pop, and he didn't like the way it was handled. Bobsled wanted to do a record with them too, but Sympathy came up with the $25,000.

Long Gone John:
I licensed and put out their records and paid for all of that. I just didn't make money on it.

Jack White:
We were involved with all the other small labels because of their knowledge of Sympathy and Long Gone John. And I think they all kind of just backed off, like, “It's Long Gone's project; he's gotten a hold of these guys” or something. But he didn't really have a hold of us. We were loyal people, me and Meg, but there were no contracts. There was no mainstream major label, real label interest, until our third album was already out.

EWolf:
Jack was really open and friendly at the start of everything. I did some photos, and it was all fine. Later, though, after they got signed to V2, they wanted to relicense the photos. I'm used to doing things with just a handshake, and all of a sudden I've got their management and legal team on me, demanding possession of the negatives. I didn't know if it was Jack, because initially I had to get the negatives back from him, after he had used them for the graphics, and he was fine. But now their management was coming back, and they're trying to demand possession of them and all the rights and everything.

Marcie Bolen:
Jason said something to me about Jack being jealous, but I didn't see it. Not of me and him but, he told me that Jack got jealous of me and Meg, but I never saw it. If anyone's going on tour with their ex-wife, of course it's a little weird. They were on tour, and we were on tour, and we'd talk on the phone. I liked Meg, and I wanted to know that I could trust him with Meg. What am I going to do? I'm not going to say, “Don't be in a band with her.” They were doing really well. I could either break up with him or deal with it.