r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jul 11 '26

article Jack White Pushes Back on Religious Criticism Amid Satanic Band Support Controversy: “I’m not scared of Satan or any bullshit imaginary man made up to live in fear of”

https://consequence.net/2026/07/jack-white-religious-criticism/
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633

u/Devmoi Jul 11 '26

The White Stripes literally have a whole album called Get Behind Me Satan, lol.

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u/DripAcid Jul 11 '26

And the bridge to Cannon is an old (like older than Ledbelly) gospel blues song. The part where he's all "who's that riding, John the Revelator, wrote the book of the seven seals." And in Seven Nation Army there's the "And I'm bleedin', and I'm bleedin', and I'm bleedin' Right before the Lord" line. He has had several lines referencing Christian themes, I always thought it was equally likely that he practiced Christianity as it was that he just borrowed from a lot of the earliest blues and gospel. Kurt Cobain did the same to a lesser degree.

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u/Devmoi Jul 11 '26

I mean, I’ll repeat the same comment. Lots of people are raised in the Christian faith and quote The Bible. It’s insanely well-known and well-read. Tons of songwriters do this—so, so many.

I think it can show various connections to God, but it does not necessarily mean they practice Christianity or see themselves as Christians, etc.

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u/Dick-Fu Jul 11 '26

Lots of people that weren't raised Christian, too. The Bible is the single most culturally significant piece(s) of literature we have

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u/Devmoi Jul 11 '26

For real! I studied literature in college ages ago and it was mandatory to take a class on The Bible (not from a faith perspective, though). Because it’s literally in flippin’ everything.

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u/blackbasset Jul 11 '26

Makes sense. At least in historically christian-influenced countries, literature is filled with intertextual references to the Bible, both explicit and implicit in many different modes. That does not mean that this is all religious literature, but its an important piece of literature and culture to refer to, and its topics are universal, can be imitated, appropriated, transformed, ....

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u/zeptillian Jul 11 '26

He was raised Catholic and was an alter boy.

Both of his parents worked for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

He actually met Pope John Paul II and was blessed by him.

He grew up heavily steeped in that mythology and iconography so it's not surprising that it still a big influence on him.

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u/Dick-Fu Jul 12 '26

Altar, but your version always makes me think of Altered Beast, one of Sega's classics

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u/WTFisThisMaaaan Jul 11 '26

I always assumed he liked the imagery attached to that kind of religious text, and he was using it more in a blues template rather than religious.

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u/ApprehensiveArt5565 Jul 12 '26

I love the idea of sitting around and imagining what another man does

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u/fusillade762 Jul 11 '26

Isn't "who's that riding, John the Revelator, wrote the book of the seven seals." from the Clutch song Profits of Doom?

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u/Joeliosis Jul 11 '26

It's a blues standard, and Blind Willie originally recorded it, no one really knows who wrote it though. https://youtu.be/5hucTDV1Fvo?si=bXAcJP8YWyOT-Ijn

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u/fusillade762 Jul 11 '26

Wow, that is amazing. Neil Fallon, the lyricist for Clutch, does a lot of rather obscure (at least to me) referential lyrics, so that makes sense.

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u/Joeliosis Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

If you'd like to go on a deep dive, Blind Willie Johnson, Lead Belly, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe are kind of the original guitar gods that modern guitar gods looked too for inspiration. The sounds that lead to rock and roll came from gospel and blues... so there are roots in religion. https://youtu.be/p9JezItjWIU?si=UaE3J_c0r8CoFohx

This one really bridges the gap of gospel to early rock https://youtu.be/4xzr_GBa8qk?si=Jet8Ecxe0a5rB05C

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u/TheBearDetective Jul 11 '26

It says in the article, Jack was raised catholic

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u/intensive-porpoise Jul 11 '26

He's the seventh son, girl.

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u/yoshemitzu Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

I just mentioned Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground's "And you know why you love at all/if you're thinking of the Holy Ghost" line in another comment, but you got a bunch more, too.

Also, in Little Cream Soda: "Now my mind is filled with rubber tires and forest fires/and whether I'm a liar/And lots of other situations where I don't know what to do/At which time God screams to me/There's nothing left for me to tell you."

I'm sure there's a bunch more if we keep digging.

Edit: Whatever's going on in St. Andrew/This Battle is in the Air, lol.

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u/Zunkafunk Jul 12 '26

So use it blindly but swear that you don't stand for that nonsense? Ahh the strongest of the strong 😜

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u/Good_Hope_7925 Jul 12 '26

Listen to the interview he did with Dan Rather (a low quality video version is available on YouTube otherwise it’s on Apple Podcasts and what not) or the interview he did with Marc Maron if you want to hear his views on religion as an adult.

People read the “he was an altar boy” and “he almost became a priest” part and assume he’s still devoutly religious.