Jack White was the latest guest to appear on Josh Homme‘s Beats 1 radio show known as the Alligator Hour.
On the show, the two rockers covered a range of subjects that included the expectations that are placed on them as artists, the challenges they have of having a dedicated fan following and who would be the victor in a fight between the two rockers!
Accordng to the NME, The QOTSA lead singer began hosting the show back in 2015, just after Beats 1 was oficially launched alongside Apple Music.
White discussed his recent admission that he doesn’t carry a mobile phone with Homme:
“What I don’t like is the generalisation of different cultures,” White said. “If you generalise everything about them, usually that’s considered a politically incorrect thing to do. If someone says: ‘How do you record your album, Jack?’”
“I say I record it on tape. OK, I got my headline: ‘Jack White hates all technology’. Got it. That’s not what I said. You’re just asking what I prefer, but then it becomes – now I’m defending what I’m actually doing in real life and I shouldn’t have to do that.”
White expanded on the concept that “the artist is not at the service of the people:
“The best thing about being any kind of artist, a painter or sculptor, you start off your day not giving a fuck what anyone thinks. Then there’s moments when people tap you on the shoulder and try to get you to care about what everyone else thinks and remind you the artist is in service of the people.”
The artist is not at the service of the people. It’s only when artists can interact and can share with other people.”
Homme joined in, saying that, “it’s a dangerous thing to circle back and listen to what your supporters are saying or wanting. If you’re lucky enough to have a following, they’re supposed to be following you. If you go by committee now you’re following them. I think that’s how toilets are made. Swirling toilets. You cannot check with your audience. You can’t move forward.”
“You have to foster this relationship and environment based on change where they can see you’re in motion because you’re either growing or dying,” he continued. “For some people that’s sales, for some people that’s a philosophical thing for inner growth and imagination, and what you’re headed for.”
“So I see the need to keep moving, but it’s a dangerous game to play because you acknowledge you have an audience if you’re lucky enough to have one, but you could lose a portion of them every time.”
White discussed the recent Raconteurs reunion: “I feel like, with The Raconteurs we just released a record. What’s cool about this to me the most when I’m staring at the mirror for hours, which I do every day, I feel most proud that I didn’t plan this year at all. I didn’t plan this record. I didn’t plan to call these guys up.”
In arguably the most important section of the show, Homme and White speculated on who would win in a fight between the two of them. Homme argued that White would.
“When we were on tour? No, absolutely not,” White replied. “But I don’t know why that’s such a thing [for them to fight]. See, that’s so us, that we would both say the other,” Homme said.
Then White argued that Homme is “like six inches taller than me”. “I’m actually a hugger,” Homme replied.
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