During his performance in Detroit last night (April 8), Jack White proposed to – then just moments later, married – his girlfriend, fellow singer-songwriter and local Olivia Jean.
The historic moment came at the end of White’s set at the Masonic Temple Theatre, during a rendition of The White Stripes’ 2001 tune ‘Hotel Yorba’. Jean – whose band also opened for the show, according to local outlet ABC 7 WXYZ – joined White and his band to perform the song, before he popped the question to an onslaught of cheers.
To begin White’s encore – consisting of The Raconteurs’ ‘Steady, As She Goes’ and the Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’ – he and Jean returned to the stage, this time flanked by White’s mother, Jean’s father and ordained minister (and Third Man Records co-founder) Ben Swan, the latter of whom formally wedded the couple.
White’s shows reportedly have a strict no-phone policy, though one punter was lucky enough to film the proposal and subsequent marriage. Take a look at the footage below:
Until yesterday, White and Jean’s relationship had been kept secret; it’s unclear how long they dated before being married, though they’ve been in a working relationship since 2009. Jean signed to Third Man Records that year, and has released three albums – two solo efforts, 2014’s ‘Bathtub Love Killings’ and 2019’s ‘Night Owl’, as well as her self-titled 2011 debut with The Black Belles – with the label.
This marks White’s third marriage. He wedded White Stripes bandmate Meg White in 1996 (a year before that band formed), and the pair were divorced in 2000. He then married model and singer Karen Elson in 2005, before the pair split in 2011 and were divorced in 2013.
Yesterday also saw White release the first of his two new albums, ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ – with the other, ‘Entering Heaven Alive’, due out in July – and perform the US national anthem for the Detroit Tigers’ opening game of the new baseball season. The North American leg of his current world tour, dubbed ‘The Supply Chain Issue Tour’, will continue tonight (April 9) with a second show in Detroit.
The UK and European leg of the tour will begin on Monday June 19, when White and his band play the first of two shows at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London. Tickets for those gigs can be found here, with tickets for the US shows available here. For his UK and European dates, White will be joined by Chubby & The Gang, Yard Act, SONS, Doctor Victor, Ko Ko Mo, Larkin Poe, Equal Idiots, and Mdou Moctar.
In a three-star review of ‘Fear Of The Dawn’, NME’s Mark Beaumont said the record was best summed up by a lyric on closing track ‘Shedding My Velvet’, where White sings: “I’m not as bad as I was / But not as good as I can be.”
Meanwhile, White revealed earlier this week that he was once given guitar advice by Prince. “The phrase he had said to me was like, ‘No one is going to tell you how to play your guitar, Jack.’ And he talked about the [2008] James Bond song [‘Another Way To Die’] I had just done,” White recalled. “And he said, ‘I really like it.’”
