Jack White

On returning to the Raconteurs, his advice for younger musicians, and his friendship with Bob Dylan

- Patrick Doyle

After making 2018’s wild Boarding House Reach, Jack White decided it was time to take a little pressure off himself. So he re-formed the Raconteurs — the band he put together in 2006, just before the dissolution of the White Stripes, with fellow Detroit musicians including co-frontman Brendan Benson. Their first two albums have become fan favorites; their third, Help Us Stranger, is a welcome return to their garage-y looseness and the blend of White’s aggressive vocals with Benson’s “sweet-sounding voice,” as White, calling from Nashville, puts it. “He’s an actual singer,” he adds. “I’m not.” This time, White branched out by taking on some of the more sentimental songs while letting Benson sing some of the rockers. “What’s cool is it’s not competitive,” White says. “It’s more like trying to inspire one another to leave their comfort zone, over and over again.”

What’s changed the most in your life since the last Raconteurs album, in 2008?

I was married with kids, and now I’m not married and everyone else in the band is. We’re 10 years older, and we’ve been doing music for 25 years. I remember when I had my upholstery shop and I would’ve done anything to only play music, but I thought, “There’s no way. Forget about it.” It’s astonishing to think that you can go one day — let alone another decade — being an artist and getting away with it.