Meg White

Megan Martha White (born December 10, 1974) is an American musician who was the drummer and occasional vocalist of the rock duo the White Stripes. She was a key artist of the 2000s indie and garage rock movements, noted for her minimalist drumming style and reserved public persona. The White Stripes split up in 2011 after which she ceased performing. Her last media appearance was in 2009, and she has not been active in the music industry since.

Born and raised in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, White met Jack Gillis in the early 1990s and the two married in 1996, with Jack taking her surname. She began playing the drums in 1997, and formed the White Stripes with Jack that year. They divorced in 2000, but continued performing at her insistence, presenting themselves to the music press as siblings. The band achieved international fame with four acclaimed albums released in the 2000s, establishing White as a leading figure in the decade's rock revival. She also had a short stint in acting and modeling, appearing in the 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes and a 2006 episode of The Simpsons. She was married to Jackson Smith from 2009 to 2013.

White's drumming initially polarized critics but has since become highly regarded and continually discussed. She has maintained an elusive media image and has given few interviews, which she attributes to shyness and a reclusive nature. With the White Stripes, she won six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025. Publications such as NME and Rolling Stone rank her among the greatest drummers in history.

Megan Martha White was born on December 10, 1974, in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan to parents Catherine and Walter Hackett White Jr. She has an older sister, Heather, and is of Scottish heritage. She grew up in the middle class Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, describing her childhood as "pretty normal" and non-religious. As a child, she went by her full name, and enjoyed the pastimes of roller skating, drawing, building snow fortresses, and doing makeup with her friends. As a teenager, she lived in Hamtramck, Michigan, and graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School, where she had a reputation for her artistic hobbies and quiet nature.

During her senior year, White met musician and fellow high school senior Jack Gillis at a coffee shop in either Ferndale, Michigan or Hamtramck. They formed a relationship and married in September 1996, with Jack taking her last name. They divorced in March 2000, though they resided in a house Jack purchased from his parents until 2003. She took on bartending jobs to pay for college, then attended a culinary school to pursue a career as a chef; she stated that, at that age, she was "super-shy" and lacked direction. She notably worked at a restaurant in downtown Royal Oak with Electric Six drummer Corey Martin.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.