Q&Amp;A: Jack White
The White Stripes are the little indie duo that could. They're up for an album-of-the-year Grammy, and leader Jack White is emerging as the new weirdo to watch. He spoke with Lorraine Ali.
Were you nervous about working with Loretta Lynn?
I would've been, but we became instant friends. But the fact that I was allowed to produce and arrange the record--I can't believe I got away with it.
Did you take her sound back to its mountain roots?
Yes, ma'am [Southern drawl].
It's amazing T-Bone Burnett pulled you in to do "Cold Mountain's" music.
I know. If someone casually listened to the White Stripes, they might say we're just punk or rock. It's flattering he heard our love for American folk music.
Was it terrifying to work with big-name actors?
There's a scene where I run down a mountain to tell Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger something. I was on a hill in Transylvania, waiting for them to call "action," thinking, this is very strange, this thing I'm doing.
Now you and Renee are tabloid fodder.
It has nothing to do with my music. I don't live my life so that fat housewives in the Midwest can have something to gossip about.
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Lorraine Ali is a Los Angeles-based culture writer who's covered everything from gay divorce to Christian rock to the Arab American experience. She's a Newsweek Contributing Editor and has written for the New York Times, GQ, Rolling Stone and Esquire. Ali is currently working on a book about her Iraqi family that's due out next year.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
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