In a new interview, which sees Jack White being asked questions by Duff McKagan – formerly of Guns N’ Roses – the former White Stripes man reveals that he finds it ‘boring’ to write songs about himself.
In Seattle Weekly, White was asked by McKagan about his debut solo album Blunderbuss: “A lot of people use different things to help them write lyrics,” said McKagan. “Sometimes it’s politics, and sometimes it’s pain. It’s hurt love, relationship pain. Was there a theme here with this record that struck a common chord?”
White responded: “I always find it kind of boring to write about myself. But whatever happens to you, if you’ve gone through anything – sort of a literal train wreck in your life, for example – you have to have that inside of you in some way; even if you choose not to write about being involved in a train wreck, it would come out of you no matter what choice you have.”
In the interview, White also explained that Blunderbuss was written and recorded in very different way from his albums with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, saying that a lot of his riffs and ideas came from “accidents”.
He revealed: “These things would not have happened years ago in the studio. I used to really force myself to go in there like, oh, a White Stripes album, or Raconteurs, we got to record this, and we have eight days to do it, and we’re going to do it for only $5,000, and have all these limitations to myself.”
He continued: “But now that I have my own studio, I can take advantage of those things right now – actually record something off the fly and come back to it. I never would have done something like that back in the day.”
White and McKagan finished the interview with White thanking McKagan for his role in his musical formation, saying “I listened to so much of your music when I was younger, by the way, and [it was] a really big influence on me. Thank you for all of that, I appreciate it.”
Duff McKagan responded by saying: “Thanks, Jack, man. I dig what you’re doing, I really do. This new record’s really great and authentic, and I appreciate getting snippets of authentic music here and there. It’s kind of rare these days. So thanks.”