Jack White Opens Up About Taking Phones Away From Fans At Shows

For seemingly the entirety of his career, Jack White has fought the good fight to keep rock and roll alive. When he first debuted with The White Stripes, he was prophesized as the savior of the genre. While that prophecy might not have come completely true, the popularity of White has never faded.

Now deep into his solo career and having just released a new album, Jack White is opening up about his music, which has included a “no phone” policy at his shows – an idea he came up with years ago that he thought would fail within a matter of weeks.

Speaking with Vulture, White explained why he thought no phones would fail and how it ended up being a positive experience:

“I thought it was something that we would be able to do for about two weeks. It would be almost like an art project and then people would quickly be upset. You’ve taken their favorite thing out of their hands. That’s not a diss or anything — this is what life has become. Or their most reliable thing in their hands. Let’s put it that way. So I thought, for sure, this would be two weeks tops and we’d be back to whatever.

“But still to this day, it’s been years now, and it’s just universal positivity from people. The only negative stuff I’ve heard is from people who haven’t experienced it yet. I love the stories that people tell me like, ‘Between the warm-up band and you guys, I started talking to a stranger next to me about music!’ It was like before phones, but it was along the lines of, ‘Do you have this record?’ ‘Yeah, I’ve got that record. I saw those guys are coming to town next week. I’m going to go check them out.’”