The White Stripes Playing ‘Seven Nation Army’ On Their Final Tour
Earlier this week The White Stripes announced that they had broken up, but they haven’t really existed since their last tour in 2007. Check out this killer performance of “Seven Nation Army” from their documentary Under Great White Northern Lights that chronicled their final tour.
The White Stripes in Rolling Stone: Interviews, Photos, Features and More
In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone Jack White said he recalled exactly where he was when he wrote the famous riff. “There’s an employee here at Third Man named Ben Swank, and he was with us on tour in Australia when I wrote that song at soundcheck,” he said. “I was playing it for Meg and he was walking by and I said, ‘Swank, check this riff out.’ And he said, ‘It’s OK.’ [Laughs]”
He continued: “The even funnier thing about that song is that the labels in America and in the U.K., neither of them wanted to put that out as the first single. It just shows you that you really never know…I didn’t have lyrics for it until later on and I was just calling it ‘Seven Nation Army’ — that’s what I called the Salvation Army when I was a kid. So that was just a way for me to remember which one I was talking about, but it took on a new meaning with the lyrics.”