Music
Meg White
born 1974 · drummer, singer
Grosse Pointe-born drummer of the White Stripes, whose minimalist beat helped launch Detroit's late-1990s garage-rock revival.
- Born
Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
age 51- Birth name
- Megan Martha White
- Detroit years
- 1974–2000s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Meg White was born in Grosse Pointe Farms and grew up in neighboring Grosse Pointe Woods, graduating from Grosse Pointe North High School; as a teenager she also lived in Hamtramck. She worked at a restaurant in downtown Royal Oak and met Jack Gillis at a coffee shop in Ferndale or Hamtramck. They married in 1996, and he took her surname. She started playing drums in 1997, and that summer the duo played their first gig as the White Stripes at the Gold Dollar in Detroit. They became part of a lively garage scene alongside the Dirtbombs, the Detroit Cobras and the Von Bondies, and Detroit's Italy Records released their first single in 1998. The couple divorced in 2000 but kept the band going, presenting themselves as siblings. After four acclaimed albums and six Grammys, the band ended in 2011 and she left public life.
Highlights
- First White Stripes show at Detroit's Gold Dollar, 1997
- Graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School
- Six Grammy Awards with the White Stripes
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2025
- Appeared in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1997–2000
The Gold Dollar
Demolished · 1934–2001
Cass Corridor bar where the White Stripes played their first show in 1997. The empty building burned in 2019 and was demolished.
Studied here · early 1990s
Grosse Pointe North High School
Public high school in Grosse Pointe Woods from which she graduated.