“Passing The Torch”

From Deirdre, in response to our cover story, JACK WHITE: Music Business Maven or Artist on the Run?

White has been having quite an impact on the last decade of music, both in terms of broad cultural influence and the widespread critical acclaim that has greeted most of his projects. Then there are all the nods of approval in his direction from the elder statesmen of rock, such as Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page, and even Paul McCartney. It does seem to reinforce the common idea that there’s been some sort of a “passing of the torch” and that Jack White is off and running with it. Is that enough to justify dubbing him “the musical artist of the decade”? Hard to say. But any short list of such candidates would be hard to take seriously unless it included him.

One thing I’ve observed from reading is that Jack White appears to be a very smart cookie; and interviewers who realize that up front tend to dig deeper and come up with more colorful nuggets of original insight than most.