Whites Stripes Call It Quits

Whites Stripes Call It Quits

Music News

By our guest blogger, Nick Hanover

Though they've been on hiatus since 2007, it still comes as a surprise to hear that the White Stripes are breaking up. The band, which has existed since 1997, released their last album Icky Thump to rave reviews and great success, receiving a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album and another for Best Rock Performance for the album's title track. It was around that time that the band went on its last tour, which took them through Canada for the first time and found the band playing in several eccentric venues, including the kick off performance in a youth center.

That tour was abruptly canceled after Meg White began to suffer from acute anxiety problems and 18 dates were left unfulfilled. Nonetheless, a documentary of the tour, called Under the Great Northern Lights was produced and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to good reviews. The band's announcement of their break-up this week on their website specifically claimed that the breakup was not because of health reasons though it did not specify why the band was no more.

Instead, the White Stripes used the statement to celebrate their fans, to whom they said the White Stripes now belonged, and say that the breakup was for the best, in order to preserve what was "beautiful and special about the band." Jack White, of course, continues to be involved in several different projects, including The Raconteurs and the Dead Weather as well as running his label Third Man Records, through which he has been reissuing the White Stripes' back catalog as well as works by bands like the Cold War Kids.

Meg White has yet to announce any new projects but since 2009 she has been married to Jackson Smith, son of late MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith and legendary performer Patti Smith.