The White Stripes did not reunite for their Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction, and no one expected them to. Since the garage rock band’s official dissolution in 2011, singer/guitarist Jack White has kept busy with a high-profile solo career, the intermittently active Raconteurs and Dead Weather, and his company Third Man. (He’s also got a cellphone now.) But drummer Meg White promptly quit the music industry and has maintained an extremely low profile, making no public appearances or statements. In the duo’s place at the Rock Hall ceremony at LA’s Peacock Theater, Olivia Rodrigo, Feist, and Twenty One Pilots performed.
But first fellow Detroit punk Iggy Pop gave the induction speech, beginning by chanting “White Stripes!” and imitating the “Seven Nation Army” riff. Meg “played the drums for the benefit of her band,” he said. He noted that she donated her last name to the group and said, “I think it was Meg’s support that helped launched the rocket of racket that was Jack White” before sharing an anecdote about first meeting Jack at Coachella ’03.
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Accepting the honor in a red-and-black tuxedo and white tie, Jack said Meg helped him write his speech in recent days and that, while sending her regrets that she couldn’t attend, she’s “very grateful to all of the folks who supported her.” He also shouted out over 30 bands that inspired the White Stripes; notably none have been inducted:
Rodrigo (who has called White a mentor and hero) and Feist did an acoustic duet of “We’re Going To Be Friends” from 2001’s White Blood Cells, which was the song White Stripes played in their final performance, on Late Night With Conan O’Brien‘s finale in 2009. “I had a white stripes fan account when I was 13,” Rodrigo wrote on Instagram, calling the White Stripes the “best band ever.”
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Columbus alt-rockers Twenty One Pilots, a duo that formed the same year the White Stripes played that Conan swan song, then covered “Seven Nation Army.” (Rodrigo dubbed the 2003 anthem “the most iconic song of all time” in the retrospective video that preceded White’s speech.) Both wearing dangly face coverings, Pilots bassist/singer Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun switched to keys for a bit mid-song. Flea, who helped open the show with an all-star Sly Stone tribute, gave the performance a standing ovation.
Watch the performances and speeches from the White Stripes induction below.
Along with the White Stripes, the other inductees in the Rock Hall’s 2025 class are Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, Outkast, and Soundgarden in the Performer category; Salt N Pepa and Warren Zevon in the Music Influence category; Carol Kaye, Nicky Hopkins, and Thom Bell in Musical Excellence category; and Ahmet Ertegun Award honoree Lenny Waronker.
