Hastings Street (page 8)
At the time of his death in 2001, John Lee Hooker owned a home on Hastings St. in a San Francisco suburb.

Free John Sinclair (page 10)
Sinclair needed to be freed because he had been imprisoned for the sale of two marijuana cigarettes. Yippie Jerry Rubin, Black Panther Bobby Seale, poets Ed Sanders and Allen Ginsberg and musicians Phil Ochs and Stevie Wonder also appeared at the Ann Arbor rally starring John Lennon and Yoko Ono, held on Dec. 10, 1971. Sinclair was released from jail three days later.

Burn, Baby, Burn (page 11)
The expression Burn Baby Burn was popularized by the DJ, Magnificent Montague; it was a catch phrase he used to describe how "hot" a record was. During the Watts Riots in California, he accidently let the signature phrase slip and the powers that be declared it in bad taste; he wasn't allowed to use it anymore. Yet it didn't stop rioters of the era who used it from coast to coast, appropriating the phrase anytime there was rioting or looting to be done. Magnificent Montague's story is chronicled in his book , Burn Baby Burn, published in 2003.
When in Detroit, beware of Devil's Night, the arsonists holiday the night before Halloween, and residents' general enthusiasm for torching things for no reason at all. When I visited during the Great Blackout of 2003, I saw two guys starting a fire in a motel parking lot in Warren (Eminem country), which was situated next to a trailer park (see Iggy Pop, page 57). Their excuse was they were cooking out. I don't think so.

Chapter 1: Broken Bricks
Dave Buick (page 24)

Maybe downtown business-owner Buick could tell us about the city-wide pre-occupation with burning stuff. I forgot to ask him, "Any relation to the Buick automobile?"

Janet Weiss (page 27)
Janet played drums in the indie-rock duo Quasi, alongside her husband/then ex husband, guitarist Sam Coombes. The pair also worked as the band behind singer-songwriter, Elliott Smith.

"I didn't get the feeling Jack and Meg knew or really cared much about Quasi, and that was fine with me," says Janet. "I might have given them some playful 'been there, done that' cajoling, but it was only in good fun. Each night when Meg set her drums up on an angle at the front left side of the stage, I did smile a little, just to myself."



The Big Three (page 30)
In addition to being the nickname of the three major U.S. automakers, The Big Three was also an early '60s beat/garage group from Liverpool. Also from Liverpool about 20 years later: The Crucial Three featuring Julian Cope, Pete Wylie and Ian McCulloch.



Chapter Two: Sympathetic Sounds

Iggy, the MC5 and the Detroit Rock Sound(page 57)
How to account for next to nothing happening rock-wise in Detroit post MC5/Stooges and pre-Stripes? A documenary film chronicling the unheard music of Detroit's punk era (direced by Ivan Svanjieff aka Mark Norton formerly of the Ramrods) began shooting in 2003. We look forward to it!

Chapter 3: Style and Substance

Son House (page 79)
White Stripes blues hero Son House lived for a spell in Lyon, MS. Jack and Meg were married in Lyon, MI in 1996.



The Wizard of Oz (page 93)
Frank L. Baum's classic, published in 1900, is considered to be the first American fairytale. The story of the White Stripes is the first fairytale of the 21st Century.

Chapter 4: Gonna Need a Bigger Room

Senator John McCain (page 121)
There is no relation between Senator John McCain and Davis McCain of Easley McCain Studios where White Blood Cells was recorded (not that we know of). Senator McCain (R-AZ) was a five-year prisoner of war in Vietnam. He has made a name for himself proposing campaign and general government reform (despite being a Republican). The White Stripes are non-partisan, Jack going as far as to say that he doesn't vote. The author urges you to ignore this quirk of his: If you are of voting age, exercise your right to vote, especially in this presidential election year.

When in Hanoi, you may consider visiting the "Hanoi Hilton," the prison in which McCain was held that these days operates as a "tourist attraction."

Chapter 5: Going to Wichita

Cole Porter (page 139)

Please refer to This is Orson Welles (page 104)

Three facts about Porter: he was originally from the Midwest, he often dedicated songs to his mother and his marriage was a "fake" (he lived as a gay man for most of his life).



"SWLABR" (page 141)

The song is from the 1967 Cream album, Disraeli Gears, which alongside "Sunshine of Your Love" features "Mother's Lament," a Ginger Baker-sung ditty with a reference to "the youngest of 10".



Jason and the Argonauts (page 152)

Not to be confused with Jason and the Von Bondies.

According to myth, Jason and his army of Argonauts were commanded by his uncle Pelias to obtain the Golden Fleece from the King of Colchis. His daughter Medea, falls in love with Jason and aids him in his mission to obtain the Golden Fleece. The lovers flee but are pursued by Medea's brother; the Argonauts decide it may be necessary to give up Medea in order to keep the Golden Fleece. I thought this had something to do with the White Stripes at the time I wrote the book but at this point, I can't make the connection. It may have had something to do with Meg and the Soledad Brothers.

Chapter 6: 21st Century Blues



Dionne Warwicke (page 143)

Mostly known as Dionne Warwick (without the "e"), the soul-pop vocalist added the vowel to her name from 1971-1975 on the advice of a numerologist (see page 86, Black Math).



Sofia Coppola (page 154)



Sofia Coppola, daughter to Fracis Ford Coppola, is an esteemed director. Her first film was her own adaptation of award-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides' the Virgin Suicides. Eugenides is from Michigan and the Virgin Suicides--a fictional work about five sisters lost in suburbia and the boys who love them--was set there (Eugenides' brilliant follow-up, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex, also takes place in Detroit/Grosse Pointe).Coppola's (ex) husband, Spike Jonze, is also a film director (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and multiple Music Video Award winner. To date, the pair have displayed excellent taste in the bands with whom they collaborate (Beastie Boys, R.E.M. and French popsters, AIR) while keeping a keen eye on underground culture as well. These facts will help, I hope, to put Coppola's direction of the White Stripes video for "I Just Don't Know What to do With Myself" in some kind of context. To continue, Coppola is also the official muse (see page 63, Robert Graves) of fashion designer Marc Jacobs. Jacobs is most remembered for bringing "grunge" fashion and "heroin chic" to the runaways and into department stores. The look was popularized in the early '90s heyday of the supermodel; Kate Moss is frequently photographed in Jacobs' designs.







On the subject of pole dancing, the art of dancing with a pole a la an exotic dancer: it's is a fitness trend that's caught on from Hollywood wives to London ladies, students of which are promised a lean physique and an interested partner. These facts are noted why? Prior to this point in the White Stripes' career, and aside from Jack White's liaison with actress Renee Zellweger and role in Cold Mountain, the White Stripes had almost exclusively aligned themselves with rock'n'roll, rockers, rock-style, rock life, rockin' in general, and not too much associated with Hollywood, high fashion, mainstream cultural icons or pastimes.

In 2005, Jack married fashion model Karen Elson. Jack's first wife Meg was one of their witnesses.

Johnny Cash (page 156)

Cash once held a job as an autoworker in Pontiac, Michigan.

"It's All Happening"