The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was probably the furthest thing from the minds of Jack White and Meg White when they stepped into a gritty Cass Corridor bar to play their first gig for a handful of folks.
But 28 years later, the White Stripes are indeed headed for posterity in the hall of fame: The Detroit duo is part of a 2025 class of inductees revealed Sunday night, also including Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast and Soundgarden.
When the White Stripes are officially inducted during a Nov. 8 ceremony in Los Angeles, they’ll become the 22nd Detroit artist enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s prestigious performer wing. It’s a legacy that began in 1987, when Aretha Franklin was the rock hall’s first female inductee.
The 2025 honorees were revealed Sunday night on “American Idol,” part of a broader RRHOF-Disney-ABC alliance that will include a live stream of the Nov. 8 ceremony on Disney+ and a later special on ABC-TV, which will then live on Hulu.
In the years following their summer 1997 debut at Detroit’s Gold Dollar, the White Stripes became flagbearers for a raw, minimalist movement broadly known as the garage rock revival, leading a wave of bands such as the Strokes and Black Keys. The Detroit duo drew on a deep well of hometown influences for its blues-brewed sound, with Meg White’s straightforward drumming undergirding Jack White’s explosive guitar and expressively yelped vocals.
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Their music was accompanied by a signature red-and-white aesthetic and a whimsical mythology that portrayed the duo as brother and sister. (They were in fact a formerly married couple.)
Before they bowed out in 2011, the White Stripes served up six studio albums and hits such as “Hotel Yorba,” “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “We’re Going to Be Friends” and the crowning “Seven Nation Army,” whose riff endures as a popular sports-stadium anthem around the globe.
More: Revealing the White Stripes: The inside story of the early years
More: Insane Clown Posse in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? You asked for it.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also announced 2025 inductions in other categories, including musical influence (Salt-N-Pepa, Warren Zevon) and musical excellence (Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, Carole Kaye). The Ahmet Ertegun Award, an industry executive honor, will go this year to Lenny Waronker, best known for his time with Warner Bros. Records.
In the world of the White Stripes, Sunday’s announcement presents immediate intrigue: What will be Meg White’s involvement come November at L.A.’s Peacock Theater? Beyond occasional spottings around Detroit, the Grosse Pointe Woods-born drummer has been a reclusive figure since the band’s 2011 split. Her last public performance came in 2009.
So would she join Jack White for a White Stripes reunion set?
Those aren’t unprecedented questions at the RRHOF, where history is lined with drama involving original band members — including contentious situations among the likes of Kiss, Van Halen and Journey. There’s no apparent animosity between Jack and Meg White — she regularly attends his Detroit solo concerts — so that wouldn’t seem to factor in here.
We can assume Jack White is up for some sort of live performance on Nov. 8: The southwest Detroit native has a way of rising to the prime-time spotlight, most recently last summer’s hometown Michigan Central spectacular and February’s “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary concert, where he closed the show.
The reemergence of Meg White for the first White Stripes performance in 16 years would certainly make for a gripping, stop-the-presses moment. But given the duo’s convictions when it comes to history, place and time, it wouldn’t be shocking if they opted to leave the purity of their legacy as it is.
This year’s Rock & Roll of Fame induction was a second shot for the White Stripes: The band was originally nominated in 2023 during their first year of eligibility, which kicks in 25 years after an artist’s first commercial release. (In the White Stripes’ case, that was the 1998 single “Let’s Shake Hands”).
And this might not be Jack White’s only opportunity for RRHOF glory: Along with his various other band projects, he will eventually will become eligible for induction as a solo artist, presumably in 2029.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].
Detroit artists in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (performer wing)
Aretha Franklin — 1987
Marvin Gaye — 1987
Smokey Robinson — 1987
Jackie Wilson — 1987
The Supremes — 1988
The Temptations — 1989
Stevie Wonder — 1989
Hank Ballard — 1990
Four Tops — 1990
John Lee Hooker — 1991
Martha and the Vandellas — 1995
Gladys Knight & the Pips — 1996
Little Willie John — 1996
Parliament-Funkadelic — 1997
Bob Seger — 2004
Madonna — 2008
The Stooges — 2010
Alice Cooper — 2011
The Miracles — 2012
Eminem — 2022
The Spinners — 2023
The White Stripes — 2025
