Alan Cross - The White Stripes: the secret history

The White Stripes story is both fascinating and confusing. There's misinformation and disinformation, plus some great minimalist rock and roll. I mean, this is a band with just two people, and not a bass player in sight. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last band to get this big without a bassist was The Doors more than 30 years ago.

And who are Jack and Meg White? Are they brother and sister, husband and wife, or are they something else completely?

The story of the White Stripes starts with a guy named John Gillis. He grew up in an area of Southwest Detroit known as Mexican Town. Johnor Jack, as he was knownhad nine brothers and sisters and was born into a big Catholic family.

All the kids at his school were either into hip-hop or house. Jack loved rock music, but he was very particular. Bob Dylan and old blues were the best. Jack's first instrument was the drums and the guitar came a few years later.

His dad was a maintenance man, while his mom worked as the local cardinals secretary. Meanwhile, Jack and his brothers served as altar boys. (By the way, theres a 1987 movie called The Rosary Murders, which was shot in a local church. A young Jack can be seen playing an uncredited role as an altar boy.) There was a time when Jack contemplated being a priest, but he had a change of heart when he feared that he wouldnt be able to take his guitar and amp to the seminary.

In 1992 when Jack was 17, he got an apprenticeship at an upholstery shop called Muldoon Studio, run by a family friend named Brian Muldoon. His new boss was big into music, too, and introduced Jack to The Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, The Cramps and other rough and raw bands. After work, Brian would fire up his guitar and Jack would bring out his drums.

Jack got pretty good at refinishing furniture. He had this quirky habit of dropping slips of papers in the frames of the couches he was redoing. These were little tiny poems aimed at the next upholsterer who might work on that couch. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of couches all over Southeastern Michigan with little bits of early White Stripes lyrics trapped inside.

When Jack finished his apprenticeship, he tried film school but found that he just didn't get along with the rest of the students. That's when he opened his own shop called Third Man Upholstery. Jack would make a sofa in any color you liked, as long as those colors were yellow, white and black. The shop's motto was Your furniture is not dead. He was 21 at the time.

During this period, Jack was also in a bunch of different local bands. His very first band was a group called Catalyst, which had been formed by three of his six brothers. There was Two Part Resin, with Brian Muldoon. They played just one gig, but recorded something that was later released under the name The Upholsterers. The other guy in this band was Dominic Suchyta, a drummer. He and Jack played together between 1993 and 1996, but Dominic had a day job and other responsibilities, so he didn't have enough time to devote to the band.

There was a stint in a weird cowboy outfit called Goober and the Peas where he was listed as Jack 'Doc' Gillis. He also spent time in a band called The Go, and then there was 2 Star Tabernacle.

Some of these bands released records. If you look carefully at the liner notes, you'll find Jack White's name on some Goober and the Peas albums. The Go was eventually signed by Sub Pop, and Jack can be heard singing on an album called Whatcha Doin'.

Meg White grew up in the affluent suburb of Grosse Point, Michigan. When she got out of school, she got a job as a bartender at a blues bar called Memphis Smoke in an area of Detroit called Royal Oak. That was the only gig she could get after graduating from catering college.

Here's where it gets a little murky. By this time, Jack had met Meg. One day, he was jamming on the guitar when Meg came by his house. Some drums were set up and Megwho had zero experience, by the wayjust started bashing away. Jack appreciated Meg's complete lack of virtuosity and suggested that she replace Dominic in his new band.

The timeline is still a little weird, but here's what we think happened: Meg and Jack fell in love. John Anthony Gillis and Meg Martha White were married on September 21, 1996. Jack, being a liberated guy, took Meg's last name and became Jack White."

Jack and Meg started playing around Detroit using the name The White Stripes. They had thought about using the name The Peppermints because Meg really likes peppermints. They also considered the names Soda Powder and Bazooka because Meg liked those candies, too. To fit the theme, both started to dress like red-and-white peppermints.

The name seemed to fit, so it was too bad that people kept getting it wrong. There was a whole year playing around Detroit where they were mistakenly billed as The White Lines or The White Strikes, or something similar.

However, Jack and Meg did begin to attract attention from some record labels, including a very cool local indie called Sympathy for the Record Industry. They were the ones who got to release the first White Stripes album, which was a self-titled effort recorded at a studio in Southwest Detroit called Ghetto Recorders. It was released June 15, 1999.

Jack and Meg were still playing together, but they weren't living together. They had separated that February and were on their way to a divorce. The end of their marriage was made final on March 24, 2000.

When everyone began to get into the White Stripes, we all believed that Jack and Meg White were brother and sister. I mean, look at them. The resemblance is there, so why shouldn't we believe it? When the White Stripes started attracting attention, their brother-sister relationship was dutifully and solemnly reported by everyone.

But Jack and Meg are husband and wifeor, more accurately, ex-husband and wife.

Everyone in the Detroit music scene knew their story and would confirm it to anyone who asked. The Detroit Free Press published a profile exposing the lie. Entertainment Weekly printed their marriage certificate. And their divorce decree was posted on the Internet. Nevertheless, Jack and Meg refused to admit anything.

The lie could have just been a way to give people and the media the gossip they want. The White Stripes were messing with us because we expect to be messed with. The bottom line is that fans should believe what they want to.

The second White Stripes album was the one that they couldn't keep in stock at Rough Trade Records in Notting Hill. It was called De Stijl, which is a Dutch phrase meaning for style.

This was a design movement of the early 20th century where things were reduced to geometric shapes and primary colors. Jack learned all about De Stijl design when he was working as an upholsterer. He liked it as an album name because the art movement was all about breaking things down to their simplest parts. This is exactly what the White Stripes did with rock and roll. (It also explains all the squares and rectangles in the artwork.)

Here are a couple of facts about that record. Firstly, the album is dedicated to Blind Willie McTell, a country blues guy from before WWII, and Gerrit Rietveld, one of the inspirations for the De Stijl movement.

The bands second album was recorded at Third Man Studios, which was really Jack's living room. It was the house he grew up in, too. When his parents moved to the suburbs, he bought the place for himself.

By the time the momentum behind their second album had run its course, the White Stripes were hailed as one of the most innovative new bands in the world. Their sound was fresh. They knew how to rock. They had a cool twist on the blues. They had tons of indie credibility. And they had a simple, uncluttered visual lookplus, they were either lovers, or brother and sister.