Fans have been pushing for two Grammy-winning musicians with similar but opposite names to come together for years and it’s finally happened.
Jack Black and Jack White have joined forces to become the superior Jack Gray — and they even recorded a “stone-cold jam” together at White’s Tennessee home. A video blog of their long-awaited meeting is up on Black’s YouTube channel, JablinskiGames.
“We’re heading over to Jack White’s house to record a single. This is a legendary collab — the D with Jack White. Everyone’s been waiting for it and now it’s here,” says Black in the nearly 18-minute clip.
The story began last June, when Black’s comedy rock duo Tenacious D (Black and Kyle Gass) posted a photo with the frontman of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs. White was holding up a Tenacious D band shirt and the caption was: “We hired a new merch guy.”
A month later, after their Lollapalooza set in Chicago, Tenacious D jetted to Nashville to visit White’s independent label Third Man Records, which he founded in 2001. Black and Gass took a tour of the space, including an impressive live recording space used by the likes of Pearl Jam and U2.
“I didn’t realise, but they’re actually not very nice guys — they’re actually really mean,” White whispered to the camera, while the duo were distracted with a photo shoot in the background.
Black and Gass headed to White’s home afterwards, improvising a version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Black Or White’ for the occasion: “If you’re thinking about being my baby, it don’t matter if Jack Black or White.”
“It’s an amazing facility,” said Black of Third Man’s headquarters. “It’s kind of a museum, it’s a recording studio, it’s an art house gallery.”
Black and Gass weren’t able to continue filming inside of White’s residence, but it lived up to their expectations of the vocalist’s eclectic tastes.
“His house is crazy. I’ve never seen so many cool antique toys and little Moviolas and furniture,” Black said. “It’s what you would expect: Jack White’s house is gonna be off the chain. I’m still floating — floating on Cloud 9. I think our song is the kickin’ chicken too. It’s a stone-cold jam.”
Black added that it was an “old-school recording” on 8-track tape and Gass compared it to The Beatles.
“We were like the Beatles,” agreed Black. “We had to nail it. And it wasn’t like, ‘Can I do another take?’ ... It was that kind of thing.”
It’s unclear when the track might release, or whether it will be a hit or a miss. You could say it’s a bit of a grey area.
