Oh, you know, it would be great since we're putting out these 45s, what if we put a buzzer out front and you could just sell a couple of records once a week if someone rings the buzzer, probably never happen." Now there's like 300 people a day coming to the store. They came, and it was just baby step after baby step - "Well, it would be great to rehearse back here, because then I don't have to rent a rehearsal space for tours, we can test the monitors and lighting out in the room. So I asked (Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank) if they could come to Nashville for at least a little while and test it out and get those back in print, and maybe they'd move back home or something. The major labels I was signed to with other projects, it didn't really make sense to ask them, "By the way, could you put out these old records of mine?" (Laughs)
#JACK WHITE I THINK LOVE SHOULD HOW TO#
I got all the records' ownership back, but just hadn't figured out how to reissue those. I'd regained ownership of them because V2 collapsed, the label the White Stripes were on in America. I'd also talked to Ben (Blackwell), that we should also get these older White Stripes 45s back in print. I'd built my studio at my house to record, but if I said, "Oh, I want to use a Mellotron in this song, or that one amplifier - aahhh, it's in storage, forget it, it's too much trouble." I needed to have one building where I can get everything if I need it really fast. I just wanted to put it all in one place. Tour gear, things from Detroit, recording equipment. I had 11 or 12 storage units all over town. The first building was purchased in 2008.) At that point, did you envision all this?ĪNSWER: No, not at all. QUESTION: (Third Man is White's eclectic operation, including retail store, vinyl distributor, recording space and offices. It's a turn-of-the-century type of slide projector - a magic lantern - and includes slides portraying the tale of Damon and Pythias, the Greek myth about moral fortitude and friendship. The setting: White's personal office at Third Man, where he's smoking cigarillos ("I don't inhale") and music is playing distantly in the background, amid a room of funky knickknacks, animal heads and Americana, including an antique stereopticon device recently gifted to him by a fan. He's got poignant reflections (his late teenage years in Detroit), pointed pronouncements ("entitlement is sort of the disease of modern times") and even a few marketing ideas for Detroit foodstuffs.
In a rare, lengthy and wide-ranging interview at his Third Man Records complex in Nashville, Jack White sits down with Brian McCollum to discuss everything from his new album, "Lazaretto," to his creative freedom at Third Man.