When the 2000s began, Jack White was witnessing the dawn of a new age of blues-rock. “That was enough to compel me to keep going and going and going, but I had no illusions at all about the mainstream ever thinking it was interesting,” he tells Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt. Just a few short years later, he was walking the line between the mainstream and indie success. “People coming up to you like, ‘Yeah, the Backstreet Boys sell a lot of records, too. What does that mean?’ ” he recalls. “So we were confused on that level.”
In interview extras from our special decade-end issue, White opens up about his respect for Jay-Z (”I love hip-hop if it’s done with a sense of the blues”), learning to appreciate pop (”There’s still a part of my heart that loves novelty songs”), Bob Dylan (”He’s injecting new life into it every time he goes out”) and his immediate future:
• The Decade’s Dirty Bluesman: Jack White on the Stripes’ Rise, the Industry’s Fall and His Next Move
Don’t miss our other exclusive Q&As with our Artists of the Decade:
• Springsteen’s Epic Decade: Bruce on “The Rising” to “Working on a Dream”
• The Decade in U2: The Edge Looks Back
• The Decade in Radiohead: Ed O’Brien on “Kid A” to “In Rainbows”
• M.I.A.’s Global Party: The Futuristic Pop Star on Her Decade’s Journey
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily