Happy Birthday, Jack White!

Happy 42nd birthday to Mr. Jack White III! Here are ten facts about the mysterious birthday boy.

1. White is the youngest of ten children – and the seventh son.

2. Born John Anthony Gills, Jack took his wife Meg’s last name when they got married. They divorced four years later but still continued to make music amicably.

3. Before music, White was headed to seminary school. He says “I was gonna become a priest, but at the last second I thought, ‘I’ll just go to public school.’ I had just gotten a new amplifier in my bedroom, and I didn’t think I was allowed to take it with me.”

4. When he was a teenager, White was an upholsterer’s apprentice for three years. This later inspired his own upholstering business with the slogan “Your Furniture’s Not Dead”.

5. White follows the Rule of Threes in each of his projects:

“What’s always been a question for us is: If we’re breaking things down, how simple could they be? It seems to revolved around the number three — songwriting is storytelling, melody, and rhythm, those three components. If you break it down but you keep the three components, then you have what songwriting really is, without excess and overthinking.”

6. While on tour with the Raconteurs in 2008, White lost his voice. Tour opener Allison Mosshart of the Kills stepped in during one performance and White was so impressed that he created an entirely new band to work with her. Together, along with Dean Ferttia of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs and City and Colour, they make up the Dead Weather.

7. Always a fan of distorted sound, White uses a specialised octave pedal in Seven Nation Army to make the guitar sound like a bass.

8. While touring his first solo album Lazaretto, White toured with two separate bands – one female, one male. The female band was called the Peacocks while the males were called the Buzzards. Before a show, White would choose the band he felt like performing with that night.

9. White is a massive fan of taxidermy. So much in fact that his office at Third Man Records features dozens of pieces.

10. In 2012, White appeared on American Pickers. The show’s hosts had found a taxidermy elephant while in Nashville and brought it to Third Man Records. White traded it for his first jukebox.

Happy birthday, Jack!  Treat yo’ self to a Little Cream Soda today.