Jack White isn’t planning on writing lyrics about his own life experiences, the musician has confirmed in a new interview.
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Speaking to The Guardian about his new book, Jack White: Collected Lyrics & Selected Writing Volume 1, he discussed artists like Taylor Swift, who he said often write about their high-profile break-ups, but explained that it wasn’t for him.
When asked if any of his songs are entirely autobiographical, he replied, “Not too much”. He went on: “Now it’s become very popular in the Taylor Swift way of pop singers writing about all of their publicly aired break-ups, which I don’t find interesting at all. I think it’s a little bit boring for me to write about myself.”
The singer explained that he doesn’t want to write songs about his own experiences and relive them whenever he sings them. “If it’s something really painful, I’m not going to put this important, painful thing that I went through out there for some idiot on the internet to stomp all over.
“So I put a percentage of that into what I do and then morph it into somebody else’s character. I can’t really learn about myself until I put it into somebody else’s shoes.”
Elsewhere, the interview touched on US President Donald Trump – someone White has been a fervent critic of. When asked why he’ll make anti-Trump statements on social media but doesn’t tend to write “explicitly political” songs, he explained: “Well, when [Bob] Dylan said the answer was blowing in the wind he didn’t tell you what the answer was.
“I think a lot of people in the protest days were torn: you want to make a statement but the speaker can be chewed up and spat out,” he added. “The search for hypocrisy becomes intense once somebody takes the podium and condemns somebody else. When it comes to the president, I know a lot about it so I feel comfortable saying it.
“But if I were to put it in artistic form, I don’t think I would say those things directly. I wouldn’t say the names. I would make up a character.”
Last month, White criticised Trump for his military campaign in Iran and mocked him for being the leader of the Board of Peace. A couple of weeks before, he called on Trump to be removed from office after a racist meme was shared on his Truth Social account, depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
In January, he mocked Trump’s rambling anniversary press conference, and in December, he was one of many celebrities to criticise the president for his comments regarding the death of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle.
His book, meanwhile, is out now. Edited by official archivist Ben Blackwell, it follows 2023’s The White Stripes Complete Lyrics 1997-2007 and covers every song White has written outside the band, as well as a collection of poems, notebook scans, and notes from Instagram.
“I wanted to test the waters about doing a full book of my poetry and writings,” he said about sharing the book. “I was a little bit worried about that being taken the wrong way. It’s tough when you say the word poetry out loud. People can immediately think there’s a pretension to it.”
Meanwhile, the musician’s first visual art show is set to open in London this spring. ‘These Thoughts May Disappear’ will open at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery on May 29 and run until September 13.
