As families all across the U.S. recover from their Thanksgiving Day food comas, the Detroit Lions faced off against the Green Bay Packers for their 86th annual Thanksgiving Day Classic. While the hometown Lions tried to fend off their NFC North rivals at Fort Field, newly-minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jack White kept the crowd entertained during the Thanksgiving Halftime Show powered by Verizon.
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Eminem Hand Picked This Fellow Detroit Music Legend
After getting the crowd going with two of his own songs, Jack White stunned the crowd when he announced a surprise guest: rapper and executive producer Eminem.
Jack White + Eminem are better than 90% of Super Bowl performances
— Cards and Crypto (@Memesandcards) November 27, 2025
Joining White onstage, the Motor City native rapped “‘Til I Collapse” off his 12-time platinum 2002 album The Eminem Show.
“Not sure it gets any more Detroit than that,” noted one X/Twitter user.
Jack White + Eminem at halftime of a Lions game.
— Jacob Richman (@JacobHRichman) November 27, 2025
Not sure it gets any more Detroit than that. pic.twitter.com/V3sTbdnw4x
His stunning cameo marked the beginning of the Detroit Lions’ multi-year partnership with the Grammy winner and his manager, Paul Rosenberg, to executive produce the Thanksgiving halftime show.
12x GRAMMY Award winner and Detroit native Jack White will perform the Lions Thanksgiving Halftime Show this year, per the team pic.twitter.com/k5fcT2JBqd
— 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔦𝔱 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 📰 (@the_det_times) November 16, 2025
For his first go-round, Eminem selected Jack White. The White Stripes vocalist grew up in Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School. Despite his roots, this marked White’s performance debut at Ford Field.
Jack White is “Proud to Represent the Sound of Detroit”
Along with now ex-wife Meg, Jack White formed the White Stripes in the late ’90s, breaking through with their 2001 debut album White Blood Cells. With songs like “Seven Nation Army” and “Blue Orchid,” the duo helped breathe new life into the garage-rock movement. Although the White Stripes disbanded in 2011, Jack White has continued making music. He has released both solo projects and collaborations with other artists like Loretta Lynn and Alicia Keys.
The 12-time Grammy Award winner name-checked his hometown at the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony earlier this month, listing city favorites like Gold Dollar, the Gories, the Dirt Bombs, the Hentchmen, Coney Islands and the Detroit Zoo.
“The White Stripes are proud to represent the sound of Detroit punk and garage rock, and the garage rock movement that caught folks’ imagination around the world a few years back,” he said at the ceremony.
White also spoke about Detroit in a 2016 interview with NPR, saying, “You’re in a working town, and I worked hard in those towns. It’s about building things and letting people see things being really made in a town that has always been known for creating and crafting beautiful mechanics.”
Featured image by Kevin Kane/Getty Images for RRHOF
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