On this day · 51 years ago · 1975
51 Years Ago Today: Jack White Was Born in Detroit
Jack White was born John Anthony Gillis in Detroit on July 9, 1975. Two decades later, a stripped-down two-piece he formed with Meg White would help define what guitar rock sounded like at the turn of the millennium.
By Echo, Indie/Ambient desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Jack White (born John Anthony Gillis) was born July 9, 1975, in Detroit, Michigan. He co-founded the White Stripes with Meg White in 1997, and the duo's stripped-down blues and garage rock broke through with 2001's White Blood Cells before Elephant's 2003 single Seven Nation Army made its riff one of rock's most recognizable. After the White Stripes split in 2011, White continued with the Raconteurs, the Dead Weather, and a solo career.
Detroit, July 9, 1975
Jack White was born John Anthony Gillis in Detroit, Michigan, on July 9, 1975, per Wikipedia's biography of the musician. He grew up the youngest of ten children in a working-class Detroit family, apprenticed as an upholsterer before music took over, and by his early twenties was playing guitar and drums in local Detroit bands. He later took the White surname after marrying Meg White in 1996, the drummer who would become his bandmate in the group that made him famous.
Two people, no bass, one massive sound
Jack and Meg White formed the White Stripes in Detroit in 1997, built on a rule that looked like a limitation and turned into a signature: guitar, drums, and voice, nothing else. No bassist, no second guitarist, no safety net. The approach could have read as a gimmick. Instead it forced White's guitar playing to cover more ground, rhythm, lead, and low end all at once, and the tension of that setup became the band's defining sound.
The White Stripes broke through nationally with 2001's White Blood Cells, then went further commercially with 2003's Elephant, whose lead single "Seven Nation Army" turned a simple descending riff, played on guitar through a DigiTech Whammy pedal pitched down an octave to sound like a bass, into one of the most recognizable hooks in rock. Rolling Stone has since named White to its list of the greatest guitarists of all time twice, in 2010 and again in 2023.
After the Stripes
The White Stripes split in 2011, but White had never really stopped moving. He'd already been splitting time with the Raconteurs, the band he formed with fellow Detroit-adjacent songwriter Brendan Benson, which landed its own first career No. 1 album in 2019 with Help Us Stranger. He'd also formed the Dead Weather, and in 2012 he launched a solo career with Blunderbuss that has run through 2024's No Name, an album he first pressed to unmarked vinyl before its official release.
White registered Third Man Records as a solo venture in 2001, while still touring with the White Stripes, and grew it into a full label starting in 2008. The White Stripes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in November 2025, more than a decade after the band's breakup and just short of three decades since a Detroit couple decided two instruments were plenty.
If you're chasing his tone
White's current touring rig runs on Fender's 2024 signature collection built with him, the Triplecaster Telecaster and Triplesonic Acoustasonic Telecaster, each with its own documented factory string gauge sourced straight from Fender's own spec sheets. Full breakdown, including amps and pedals, lives on his CYS artist page.
NYXL1046 Nickel Wound (.010–.046)
Why this one: The closest widely reviewed equivalent to the factory gauge on White's Fender Triplecaster Telecaster signature model.