It is rock ’n’ roll — obviously — to be very loud, but in certain cases it is also rock ’n’ roll to be incredibly quiet. Meg White, the singularly spirited drummer of the White Stripes, who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this weekend, is a rare embodiment of both extremes.
Onstage, White made a shambolic ruckus alongside her lone bandmate and ex-husband, Jack White. But offstage, Meg was unusually reticent, provocatively withholding and never particularly interested in explaining herself. “I’m quiet,” she said with a shrug in the 2009 White Stripes documentary “Under Great White Northern Lights.” “What can I say?”
Her laconic nature made her a photo negative of Jack, a loquacious frontman prone to pontificating and mythmaking, who eventually settled into his current role as a sort of front-facing spokesman for 21st-century rock. He always seemed preternaturally comfortable with fame; she, visibly, did not.
In July 2007, just after the band released its sixth album, “Icky Thump,” and celebrated its 10th anniversary, Meg supposedly told the band’s archivist, Ben Blackwell, that the Mississippi show they were about to perform would be their last. She was right, and she hasn’t played drums onstage since. The band canceled its upcoming world tour and issued a statement that said Meg was suffering from “acute anxiety.” In February 2011, the White Stripes announced their official dissolution, “mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band.”
The rest has been silence. After exactly a decade with the White Stripes, Meg White disappeared into the quiet banality of a private life. It’s highly unlikely that she will break that lull by appearing at this weekend’s Rock Hall ceremony in Los Angeles, even as her band earns the honor of being inducted in its first year of eligibility.
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