Am Wochenende wurden die White Stripes in die Rock’n’Roll – Hall Of Fame aufgenommen. Meg White, die seit dem Abschied der White Stripes nicht mehr in der Öffentlichkeit aufgetreten ist, war nicht anwesend. Jack White nahm die Auszeichnung entgegen.
Iggy Pop hielt die Laudatio und Jack Whites Annahme-Rede ist so schön, poetisch und zugleich kämpferisch, dass ich sie hier auch noch einmal abdrucken möchte:
„Thank you, Uncle Iggy. I thank you and all of Detroit thanks you, always.
Today, The White Stripes are proud to represent the sound of Detroit punk and garage rock and all of its bands and artists. And also, the garage rock movement that caught folks‘ imagination around the world a few years back. I spoke with Meg White the other day. She said that she’s very sorry she couldn’t make it here tonight, but she wanted me to tell you that she’s very grateful to all of the folks who supported her through all the years and it really means a lot to her tonight. She helped me write all this in the last couple of days. I sent these things to her and she checked it for me. A lot of punctuation corrections too. She’s pretty good at that. (…)
Meg and I want to thank just a few of the bands and the artists that inspired us and came before us and also helped us along the way. The Gories, The Gun Club, Loretta Lynn, Fugazi, The Misfits, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Love and Arthur Lee, The Flat Duo Jets and Dexter Romweber, The Henchmen, Dick Dale, Beck, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Tampa Red, The Sonics, Pavement, Jethro Tull, The Strokes, Black Flag, Tampa Red, uh, Sleater-Kinney, Death, Jethro Tull, The Creation, The Breeders, The Cramps, Merle Haggard, The Hives, Them, The Damned, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Troggs, Minor Threat, The Rats, and Captain Beefheart.
To them, we all say, ‚Thank you.‘
To the factories, and tools, and electricity, and vacuum tubes, we say, ‚Thank you.‘ To the Coney Islands of Detroit and the honky-tonks of Nashville and the corner pubs of London, we say, ‚Thank you.‘ To the homeless and the powerless and the forgotten, we always say, ‚Thank you.‘ (…)
“One time, a girl climbed a tree, and in that tree was a boy — her brother, she thought. And the tree looked so glorious and beautiful, but it was just an oak tree.
And these two so loved the world that they brought forth a parade float — one they built in their garage behind the oak tree with their own bare hands. And the boy looked at this giant peppermint on wheels and felt pride — pride that it was produced in the Motor City, just like in the big factories — but it was just in their garage. He looked at the girl — his sister, he thought — and, like the Little Rascals, they said, ‘Let’s put on a show.’
And they paraded this float through the Cass Corridor, standing atop the peppermint pulled by white horses — or maybe it was a red Econoline van. Many of the blocks they traveled were empty, but some had people. And some of those people cheered, some laughed, and some even threw stones. And with their bare hands, the two started to clap and sing and make up songs.
And some people kept watching and swaying and moving. And then one person even smiled. The boy and the girl looked at each other, and they also smiled, and they felt — they both felt — the sin of pride. But they kept on smiling. Smiling from a new freedom, knowing that they had shared and made another person feel something.
And they thought the person smiling at them was a stranger, someone they didn’t even know. But it wasn’t just a stranger — it was God.
My sister thanks you and I thank you. Thank you all very much.“
