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7:12 · 1,371 words of transcript · watch on YouTube
- The famous bass line is not a bass. It is Jack White's semi-acoustic guitar dropped an octave by a pedal, and the band used no bass guitar until the following album.
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- The rule of three runs through everything: three colours on every cover and stage set, a third album recorded in three days, and the label name itself.
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- The two-piece format meant each of them could play only one instrument at a time, which forced the arrangements back to guitar, drums and voice.
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- Despite the public presentation as siblings, the two were married for a period, which is when he took her surname because he liked how it sounded.
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- White's account of the drumming is that her playing liberated him, supplying rhythm and timing that let the guitar and voice do everything else.
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- They played without a set list, improvising from song to song, which is why the chemistry between them mattered more than technique.
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- The specific gear is a 1950s Kay hollowbody run through a DigiTech Whammy pedal set an octave down.
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- Nobody in the room reacted when he first played the riff, and he held it back hoping to use it for a Bond theme one day.
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- The label wanted a different lead single and he insisted this be the first thing anyone heard from the album, which then won a Grammy for best rock song.
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- The stadium life began in Belgium in October 2003, when Club Brugge supporters heard it in a bar before a Champions League match, carried it into the ground, and Roma fans took it home to Italy in 2006, just in time for the World Cup.
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