Jack White plans to get married on stage at a shocking concert in Detroit
A great day turned into a great Friday night for Jack White.
In a startled roar from a crowded audience at the Masonic Temple Theater, White culminated his return show in Detroit, proposing to his girlfriend, musician Olivia Jean.
Coming back for the show’s apparent encore five minutes later, White and Jean had another jubilant shake-up for the crowd, tying the knot in a stage wedding ceremony officiated by Ben Swank of Third Man. Their respective bassists were the best man and bridesmaid, while their family members, including White’s mother, Theresa Gillis, stood by.
In a long history of memorable performances by Jack White of Detroit – which stretches back more than two decades to the years of the White Stripes – he unexpectedly came close to the top. It was the beginning of White’s tour for supply chain issues and was expected to be a return of the artist’s standard holiday to Masonic, his favorite hometown.
But when he invited Olivia Jean on stage to join a show 80 minutes from the set, the show instantly became the subject of a local legend. The raven-haired singer and songwriter – born Olivia Jean Markel and raised in Detroit – was introduced by White as his girlfriend.
“And I love her so much,” White said of Olivia Jean, a member of his label’s Black Belles trio. After singing an opening set before White’s show on Friday, she joined her boyfriend and his band in the full “Hotel Yorba”.
And then, before the lyrics of the song “Let’s Get Married” in the third verse, something seemed to be going on. White walked to the edge of the stage, motioning for his assistant Lalo Medina to start filming on his cell phone. The music went down.
“I have a question for you,” White told Olivia Jean. “Will you marry me?”
White took out a ring for the overwhelmed Olivia Jean, who signaled a gossip. Her tear-filled face helped her finish the number before White took her off stage, to the sound of guitar feedback.
A Masonic crowd, knowing that they had just witnessed something special, waited for the invariable encore of the show. He came – but now with another surprise ready.
Swank, a co-founder of Third Man, officiated at an unexpected wedding ceremony while the couple took their vows.
White’s third marriage: his White Stripes bandmate Meg White married him between 1996 and 2000, while he was married to English model Karen Elson from 2005 to 2013.
Friday’s concert was the first of two Masonic shows for White, when he launched his Supply Chain Issues tour and marked the release of “Fear of the Dawn”, one of his two new albums this year.
He came a few hours after wearing the Detroit Tigers jersey to play an instrumental version of the national anthem at Comerica Park before the team’s opening game with the Chicago White Sox.
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At Masonic – before the wedding was at the center of the stage – there was a loud, fast-paced set by White, which sprinkled material from his assorted troupe projects.
The show included a concert debut for several songs: “Taking Me Back” and “Fear of the Dawn” from the new album opened the evening in a powerful, propulsive double, while “Love Is Selfish” from the upcoming album from July’s “Entering Heaven Alive” followed a few issues later.
A muffled cover of the 1991 U2 song “Love Is Blindness”, halfway through the show, with a keyboard workout from Quincy McCrary, also made its first appearance in White’s live repertoire.
McCrary, drummer Daru Jones and bassist Dominic Davis made a tight and weak combo with White, while a masked mannequin in the back was a memory of the moment.
Indeed, this was the largest concert centered in Detroit since the beginning of the pandemic and was White’s first solo show in his hometown since his 2018 visit to Little Caesars Arena.
Masonic has long been close to White’s heart: his mother was once a forerunner at the venue, and in 2013, he privately helped pay back a $ 152,000 tax bill to prevent the building from being blocked. A side theater there now bears his name.
He was at the height of the occasion on Friday in the main hall, including the most extensive video and lighting displays he has brought so far on the road. It was a night ripe in blue, from White’s freshly dyed hair to his guitar cords.
Going through a set of 15 songs that included numbers from White Stripes, Raconteurs and Dead Weather, White offered his reliable mix of dynamic push-and-pull, leading the band in explosive moments of musical significance.
Before Stripes’ “We’re Going to Be Friends,” White dedicated the song to his mother – whom McCrary had distracted behind the scenes by singing the old jazz song “Sweet Lorraine,” White said.
And Meg White received a dedication through “Stripes’ Ball and Biscuit,” a glorious, gloomy 2003 Detroit blues song that was both menacing and ecstatic.
“I love you so much, Detroit,” Jack White told the crowd before launching into the closing night of the “Seven Nation Army.”
A few minutes earlier, he had started the Raconteurs’ “Steady as She Goes” post-wedding encore and the opening verse: “Find a Girl and Settle Down.”
Contact Detroit Free Press Music Writer Brian McCollum at 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
