Meg White

Megan Martha White (born December 10, 1974) is an American retired musician who served as the drummer and occasional singer of the rock duo the White Stripes.

Megan Martha White was born in the affluent Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, on December 10, 1974, the daughter of Catherine and Walter Hackett White Jr. She has an older sister, Heather.

She attended Grosse Pointe North High School and, according to one classmate, was "always the quiet, obviously artistic type, and she just kept very much to herself".

While still in high school, she decided not to go to college and instead pursue a career as a chef.

She began to work at Memphis Smoke, a restaurant in downtown Royal Oak, where she first met budding musician Jack Gillis, a fellow high school senior from a Detroit neighborhood known as Mexicantown, and they frequented the coffee shops, local music venues, and record stores of the area.

While in the White Stripes, Meg and Jack portrayed themselves as siblings, however they were actually a couple married in 1996 and divorced in 2000 before the band became well known.

White began playing the drums on Bastille Day in 1997, and formed the White Stripes with then-husband Jack White that same year.

According to the band, on Bastille Day (July 14) of 1997, Meg tried playing Jack's drumkit on a whim.

In Jack's words, "When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up."

The two then formed the White Stripes—a name which originated both from their last name and Meg's love of peppermint—and soon played their first gig at the Gold Dollar in Detroit.

Their live performances were made of three basic elements: Jack did the guitar and vocal work, and Meg played drums.

Jack and Meg presented themselves as siblings to an unknowing public, and kept to a chromatic theme, dressing only in red, white, and black.

They began their career as part of Michigan's underground, garage rock music scene.

They played along with and opened for more established local bands such as Bantam Rooster, the Dirtbombs, Two Star Tabernacle, Rocket 455, and the Hentchmen, among others.

In 1998, the band signed with Italy Records, a small and independent Detroit-based garage punk label of Dave Buick.

The band released its self-titled debut album in 1999, and a year later the album was followed up by the cult classic De Stijl.

The album eventually peaked at number 38 in Billboard's Independent Albums chart.

She is credited as one of the key artists in the garage rock revival of the 2000s, and has won six Grammy Awards among other accolades with the White Stripes.

Although they were divorced in 2000, Meg insisted that they keep the band going.

They enjoyed success within the Detroit music scene before achieving international fame with their 2001 breakthrough album White Blood Cells.

The White Stripes rose to widespread recognition in 2001 with the release of their album White Blood Cells, which brought them to the forefront of the garage rock revival and made them one of the most acclaimed bands the following year.

This success was propelled with the release of their 2003 album Elephant, which similarly earned acclaim and its first single, "Seven Nation Army", became the band's signature song and a sports anthem.

Several writers for AllMusic called Meg's drumming "hypnotic" and "explosively minimal", and Bram Teltelman of Billboard described it as "simple but effective".

Elephant won a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and "Seven Nation Army" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.

White has appeared on the cover of Whirlwind Heat's single "Pink", in a Detroit Cobras music video "Cha Cha Twist" as Little Red Riding Hood, and appeared with Jack White in a segment of Jim Jarmusch's 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes.

Their later albums, 2005's Get Behind Me Satan and 2007's Icky Thump, each won acclaim and Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album; the latter's title track also won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song, totaling six Grammy Awards won out of ten nominations received throughout her career, among other accolades.

Meg occasionally sang for the White Stripes, most notably performing lead vocals on "In the Cold, Cold Night" from Elephant and "Passive Manipulation" from Get Behind Me Satan.

Her vocals on "In The Cold, Cold Night" were particularly praised.

Tom Breihan of Stereogum described her voice as "magnetic", and Andrew Katchen with Billboard magazine wrote that she sounded "delicate and sweet".

Wanda Jackson later covered the track as a tribute.

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone described her vocals in "Passive Manipulation" as "chilling", while Matthew Murphy of Pitchfork thought that the song "begs the gentle suggestion that Meg not be allowed to sing lead."

Meg and Jack share vocal duties on the tracks "Hotel Yorba" and "This Protector" from White Blood Cells, "Well It's True That We Love One Another" on Elephant, "Rated X", and "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)" and "Rag and Bone" from Icky Thump, among other tracks.

She has done some modeling for Marc Jacobs' 2006 Spring line.

Two of her pictures appeared in the March 2006 issue of ELLE.

She was chosen by Bob Odenkirk to compose a drum theme for Dax Shepard's character in the 2006 film Let's Go to Prison; against Odenkirk's wishes however, the studio removed it from the film.

While on tour in support of their 2007 album Icky Thump, she suffered a bout of acute anxiety; the remaining dates of the tour were canceled.

From 2009 to 2013, she was married to guitarist Jackson Smith, the son of musicians Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith.

After a few public appearances and a hiatus from recording, the group disbanded in February 2011 and White retired from performance.

White calls herself "very shy" and keeps a low public profile.

Rolling Stone included her on its list of the "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time" in 2016.