Jack White gets his first cellphone ever as a 50th birthday gift

During all this time, Jack White lived as the rest of us was back when “Seven Nation Army” resumed the radio in 2003 – but now he caught up.

Singer White Stripes announced on social networks on Wednesday that he had finally obtained a mobile phone as a birthday present for his best half.

“Well, you are everywhere for me now or just the beginning,” wrote White (a little ironically) an Instagram post. “I am now the reluctant owner of a cell phone for the first time in my life! A nice 50th birthday gift graceful with my magnificent and thoughtful Ms. Olivia Jean (who also took these photos.)”

The musician noted that living without a cell phone during all these years was not easy.

“I say that my days have been counted for years,” wrote White. “I cannot listen to my music in my car, I cannot park in a parking lot by myself because of the QR codes, etc. and I suppose that Olivia has decided to be nice and to put myself (and all my loved ones) of my misery! I thought that if I could arrive at least without ever having one that I could be proud of myself and I am.”

He added: “I can’t wait to talk to you all soon. My phone number is the square root of all our social interaction times combined pi.”

White, whose birthday is July 9, has a point. Two decades after the start of mobile phones, 98% of Americans have one, with around nine out of 10 with a smartphone, reported the Pew Research Center in November. And yes, applications for parking, payment of invoices, activation of home safety systems and many other routine tasks are now part of daily life.

But the winner of Grammy 12 times had declared to the UK Channel 4 News in 2019 that he had not used or wanted a mobile phone, declaring: “I did not have this dependence”.

He is even known to ban them from his emissions to give fans a break from their devices. “I thought it was just a big artistic project at the start,” said White, “just to see if people thought it was funny or cool or just a new experience, almost like an escape room or something like that.”

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But the result was that people were happy to unplug for a while. “It was shocking how people like it,” said White. “And that raises these real questions like:” So you need someone to tell yourself that you can’t use it so as not to use it? “”

The new mobile phone owner will be inducted at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November as half of the white scratches.