Jack White: How He Built an Empire From the Blues

by Nick Hasted

The only biography of Jack White, widely considered the twenty-first century's most vital rock star.  Jack White is the "coolest, weirdest, savviest rock star of our time" ( The New York Times Magazine ). White is best known as the frontman for The White Stripes, where his guitar virtuosity and shrieking rock vocals outstripped speculation about his relationship with his drummer and ex-wife Meg White, who he often insisted was his sister. Not content with launching a blues-rock revival in the early 2000s, White went on to collaborate with famous artists, including Loretta Lynn, Tom Jones, and Bob Dylan. In 2006, White founded The Raconteurs with Brendan Benson, and in 2009 founded The Dead Weather with Alison Mosshart. He starred in the Academy Award-winning film Cold Mountain, married (and split up with) supermodel Karen Elson, and rejuvenated a flagging Detroit art scene by making his hometown the headquarters of his record label, Third Man Records. But White is also a master of reinvention, trying on personas as they fit his changing tastes and priorities. The real Jack White--born John Anthony Gillis in 1975--can be difficult to pin down. Citizen Jack is the only book yet to tell the full story of the 21st century's most influential rock star, based on interviews from people close to White, including former bandmate Brendan Benson and Third Man artists such as Neil Young and Seasick Steve. Not only that, it is the definitive history of the Detroit scene in which The White Stripes first flourished. No other book goes as deep into the lore of Jack White and The White Stripes. 16 color photographs in 2 8-page inserts

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 11, 2016

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a book for the everyday White Stripes/Jack White fan who doesn’t care about nitty gritty details of no-name bands in Detroit’s music history.
There was a dizzying amount of name to muddle through in each chapter, and it was difficult to keep track of who is talking or what obscure band was being mentioned; there was too much written about other band dramas and infighting.
The main effect was that there was too much to dig through to reach the good insights and actual Jack White history.

[Mauro · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book should be called "How to not write about someone".

It made Jack White unappealing, something that I've never thought would happen...

Better stick with his interviews on YouTube or wait for his own biography

[Nestor Rychtyckyj · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was prepared to dislike this book – why is a Brit writing a book about Detroit’s own Jack White? How can anybody from 2000 miles away understand the Detroit garage scene? Come on – Nick Hasted never saw a show at the Gold Dollar. However, I was pleasantly surprised as I read through the story of the White Stripes and the impact that Jack has made around the world. Of course, I gleefully looked for and pounced on errors that only a non-Detroiter would make – putting the Pontiac Silverdome into Hamtramck was a particular favorite of mine. The book was done without any input from Jack, Meg or most of their close associates but in my opinion it presents a fair and balanced look at Jack White and the White Stripes.

I actually did spend a lot of time at the Gold Dollar and the Magic Stick and was fortunate to see the White Stripes and many of the other Detroit garage bands during that glorious time. I liked them a lot but didn’t realize how special they were till a later show at the Magic Stick. Otherwise, I would have scooped up extra copies of those early singles. Nick Hasted does talk to many of the people that made the scene special and he relies on much of the local coverage of the White Stripes from the Metro Times and other sources. It was a complicated story and there were people who resented the White Stripes for their success, but Jack White did a lot of great things for other Detroit bands until it fell apart and he moved to Nashville. The book ends with Jack’s triumphant return to the old Cass Corridor neighborhood with the new Third Man record store and pressing plant.

I liked the book – in parts it got repetitive as other interviews with Jack were repeated. Some of the descriptions of the White Stripe songs seemed to assume that the author knew exactly what Jack was thinking at the time he wrote the song, but I guess that goes with writing a book. Of course, the book leaves us wanting more, but that won’t come until Jack or Meg decide to tell their story. It seems weird reading about events that I was at, but Nick does a pretty good job of recreating those happy nights at the Gold Dollar where magic seemed to happen every night.

[BecSoBookish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only finished this because of my love for Jack White.

[Regina Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really admire Jack White for developing his visionj and then finding more to develop. But Hasted's book is just a list of bands from that era....while there is some good tidbits scattered throughout, I have to say if you want insight into How He Built An Empire from the Blues..
It is not really in this book. Also I am not convinced the author even liked Jack White...maybe just liked Jack White's success and what some by writing on a trending musician.

There is also too much emphasis on the downside of the relationship between Meg and Jack. I have dealt with Meg's personality type in others and while she is probably a very nice person, I completely understand the frustration.

But it is still worth reading to get a scope of what Jack White accomplished with what he had to work with.

Also, I wish Halstead touched on the psychology of the White Stripes color scheme and how it did help the WS rise from the plethora of the bands from that time period. Black, white and red are the first colors infants can distinguish and these colors were used in early website to attract male attention. I would have liked to have known if Jack White understood these principles or if it was merely intuitive.

Let's hope someday the subject matter writes his own take on his story and his thought processes as he is one if the few musicians that I'd be interested in learning about. I may not always like everything he does but he is pretty original in presenting what once was in an often visually appealing package.

[Scott Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously this one was rather slow going for me. Hasted writes well enough--it's a very journalistic nonfiction style as opposed some more novel-like biographers like David McCullough, or Walter Isaacson. but it has the strengths of good journalism, lots of facts, clarity like a clean pane of glass, and an open, conversational simplicity. Hasted clearly knows the stories of Detroit's music scene, Jack White, and all three of his bands quite well, but equally clear is a palpable distance between writer and subject. Hasted tries to create a sense of intimacy talking about how he visited all these sights associated with White's life and career, or with those who have been in his orbit and so come into the books's narrative, but the book's about Jack White, and everything we get on the man is second hand. He's a bit of a ghost in his own book, always just out of sight, just beyond reach. It's like he flits in and out of the book through the quotes from other writers' interviews, and the second-hand comments of Hasted's interviewees, but he's never quite there. How strong can a biography be when it feels like that?

[Zuza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen people complaining that they have stopped liking Jack after reading this book. Well, I've known about every single malicious behavior mentioned in here before reading, so it wasn't shocking for me to find out that he is... let's say, complicated.
It actually made me very nostalgic and become a bit more understanding about some of his actions, so I'm eternally grateful for this read. And yes, I agree that it was sometimes hard to get who's being quoted or generally navigate through the galaxy of bands I've never heard about before, but all in all, I consider it to be quite addictive, especially to a Jack White fan.
However, if you have not been obsessed with the guy for quite some time, this might be a painful and boring book. Consider yourself warned.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

For readers unfamiliar with the man behind the music, Jack White: How He Built an Empire from the Blues, is a poor place to start. This book was very disappointing. Jack White has been one of my favorite musicians for years yet this book made him very unlikable and unappealing. A travesty! It is easy to become overwhelmed by the mundane details of Detroit and other artists/bands in the area. It's painfully boring.

[Thomas Coucke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope this reads well, English is not my native language

This is one of the more recent (unofficial) books about Jack White/ White Stripes. This book uses its own resources but also draws info from other books published a long time ago. Some of it are:

- Fell in Love with a Band: The Story of The White Stripes
- The White Stripes and the Sound of Mutant Blues

Other resources I've read are:
- The White Stripes: Sweethearts of the Blues

Other (not used) existing books are:
- The White Stripes
- Morphing the Blues: The White Stripes and the Strange Relevance of Detroit
- Maximum White Stripes: The Unauthorised Biography of the White Stripes
- The White Stripes: Twenty First Century Blues

The author gets his information from own journalism, interviews (eg. DVD candy coloured blues) , music magazines and interviewers.

Indeed, as stated in other comments there are mistakes that should have been avoided and automatically makes you question the integrity of the book. The wrong song titles are the worst. As it is an unoffical book it draws to fans that know the discography of Jack White and his groups. Mess with that and you blew it.

It is also true that there is a lot of namedropping, especially in the first chapters. That didn't hold me back. You get to know the more important ones better the next chapters. The people who are named are also part of a scene that was important to the history of music like Seattle was/is. Throughout the book you learn how 'big' music magazines try to blow these scenes out of proportion like "New York is the capital for Rock 'n Roll". Like someone noted in the book "the water isn't deep" in these scenes. There is a lot of dynamic going on. The names and presented people are important for understanding this and history of the White Stripes.

You get a nice portrait about the good and the bad but more importantly about the values Jack White holds. I always admired Jack White's philosophy and respect for elder genres and values. The White Stripes introduced me to blues and analogue music, a debt I will never get to pay back. If you read between the lines it's a very good read.

Unofficial books will always have their flaws, their mistakes and second hand sources. But it will do in awaiting an official one. This one got me a very nice insight in the man behind the bands. It got me searching for other, earlier mentioned unofficial books. You can get them very cheap, second hand. It got me listening to the mentioned bands and dig deeper for more information. If a book does this for me it's a sign I enjoyed it very much.

[Portia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book being a big Jack White fan. Although I did learn some about his time in the White Stripes and other bands and solo career, I found this book somewhat hard to follow. It was difficult to keep up with the different people and bands and felt like there was too much about Detroit and these other bands and not enough about the man himself.

[Emilia · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5

[Breanna Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative for casual Jack White fans. Written through the lens of other journalists and quotes from previous articles.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read much of this book a few years ago but never got around to reviewing it. The main thing I remember about it was it wasn’t written very well unfortunately.

[Isaac Pears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good. Massive amount of sources used, thoroughly researched. very objective (which i prefer in a biography)

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, and I did. Jack White is my favorite singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. However, the author tends to use huge redundant words so often that I find I cannot follow along. It took me nearly a year to finish the whole thing.

[FrozenDecemberMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine when the author talked about Jack White.

A lot of it talked about Detroit's history, some of it not pertaining to Jack. He also during the end made Jack kind of a villain while also giving him praises.

Not to mention he got a few song names wrong and quoted the wrong lyrics to a White Stripes song (the song in question being "It's not my Fault for Being Famous").

[Wrapped Up in Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Jack White digs deep and expands into other bands and musical artists from Detroit. I read an advance copy from Netgalley as an e-book (all opinions are mine and I’ll always be honest) and it took me awhile to read through the book as it’s dense with information. In particular, there are a lot of people interviewed in the book and I had trouble keeping track of the names. I read the book straight through over the course of a couple weeks, but if I can see getting lost with all the details if you put the book down for a few days and revisited it. The book is well researched and does not shy away from any details, including White’s second divorce and his temperament issues.

The most exciting thing about this book is that each chapter links to an excellent Spotify playlist with White Strips songs discussed in the chapter as well as songs from the bands that inspired White or that he played in. There are, of course, old Blues songs as well as a lot of garage rock. I found this to be totally innovative and something maybe White would appreciate. I found myself pausing from reading to constantly look up bands on Youtube because I wanted to learn more about them.

The author is British, which I figured out by some of the English terms in the book. I was happy to be reading it as an e-book so I could click on words such as “spanner” to find out it means “wrench”. Overall, an excellent and informative read

[Michael Lovito · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's something interesting stuff here, and I'd even go as far to say that the first half of the books is a decent history of the late 90s early 00s Detroit garage rock scene. That said, Hasted's insistence on inserting his own observations and experiences about Jack White's hometown and his own experience's seeing White and his bandmates live really harms the flow of the book. The early years are used as a crutch, too. I'd like to see a more critical lens on the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, not to mention White's other guest appearances and projects. Not being able to interview White obviously hurts, and maybe it's an argument that this book shouldn't have been written in the first place. The other two deep dive artist biographies I've read -- Robert Hillburn's Johnny Cash: A Life and Dave Marsh's Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who -- benefit from their authors' intimate acquaintance with their subjects. Hasted's regurgitation of White's interviews in other outlets shows that he's researched Jack White well, but it offers little new penetrating observations or insights.

The most serious problem with this book, however, are the factual errors about things as basic as song names. A full list of the ones I found include:

-Indicating that the White Stripes' self titled debut came out in 2001, not 1999

-Listing "St. James Infirmary Blues" as the closing track of their 1999 debut (it is in fact "I Fought Pirhanas")

-Misnaming Dexter Romweber as Dominic Romweber

-A three sentence analysis of "Apple Blossom" that mistakes the song as "Little Bird"

- Twice referring to the Raconteurs tracks as "Carolina Incident" instead of "Carolina Drama"

-Reffering to "Little Cream Soda" as "Ice Cream Soda"

While Hasted manages to tie together his lopsided focus on Detroit, these errors are kind of unforgivable, if only because of how basic they are, and kind of makes you think that this book might actually be a hastily constructed cash grab. That feelings bolstered by the tired use of the Citizen Kane parallels and "Little Room" metaphor. Outside of the field work in Detroit, this is feel like a book that most people could probably do better, which is kind of a shame, because Nick Hasted seems like a nice guy. He just really needs an editor.