Iggy Pop Inducts The White Stripes Into Rock Hall - Read His + Jack White's Full Speeches

The White Stripes are among the Class of 2025 now enshrined in the Rock and Roll of Fame. The alt-rock icons were inducted by punk legend Iggy Pop, while Jack White was in attendance to accept the honor and deliver a speech of his own.

In 2023, the group received their first Rock Hall nomination, which happened to coincide with their first year of eligibility. While the wait for so many rock legends has been rather long an overdue (some are still waiting), The White Stripes didn't have to endure a gauntlet of nominations to be granted the honor.

Performing in tribute to The White Stripes was Olivia Rodrigo with indie pop singer-songwriter Feist ("We're Going to Be Friends)", followed by Twenty One Pilots ("Seven Nation Army").

Iggy Pop's Induction Speech for The White Stripes

Iggy Pop, wearing platform flip-flops, took the podium and immediately riled up the crowd, vocalizing the immortal riff to The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." Then, he moved onto the "more boring" part — the speech, transcribed in full below:

I wrote a speech — that's more boring. All right, let me see if I can read this shit. All right, the White Stripes were not like the other bands. The first time I saw them, it was in a photograph. It was just the two of them, standing there side by side, grinning like they had some kind of fun secret, like they stole some cookies from a cookie jar. They looked really young. And, basically, I was looking at a 21st century Adam and Eve, who had started a rock 'n' roll band.

I thought, 'Cute kids, they'll probably go places.' And they did! They did go places.

They started their career in a dive bar in Detroit, Michigan called the Gold Dollar. They played with bands like the Gories and the Dirt Bombs. I love that name — Dirt Bombs. They made a big, big load of noise. I liked it right off. Not everybody did. One guy wrote, 'Lousy drummer.' [crowd boos] That's right, boo. Another more famous guy said, 'He needs guitar lessons.' But the kids liked it and that's what counts.

All right. Meg, Meg White, Meg White... Meg White, who is a timeless beauty. Meg White, who gave her name to the group, was a charismatic, naturally likable person. I met her once and she had the most genuine and charming smile. She played the drums for the benefit of her band, like [jazz drummer] Baby Dodds said, she gave the drum kit a good whack, like Fred Below did for Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry.

I think it was Meg's support that helped launch the rocket of racket that was Jack White.

Jack could screech like an owl. He could twang like a hillbilly. But he could also write. Now where was I in this pile...

I hear echoes of The Who, Small Faces, The Beatles, hard rock and country blues in Jack's playing. He could do it all. And the writing he is capable of was something that was not typical of the great Detroit bands of the '60s and '70s. This was more melodic, more hooky.

After all, it was a new century and the White Stripes' music was coming from a foundational love instead of revolution and with time to turn a page.

But fuck it, let me tell you how I met Jack.

Jack picked me up. That's right, he picked me up. We were both playing Coachella and he said, 'I've got an idea for a photo. Look, man, I wanna pick you up in my arms like you're the dead Jesus.' I guess that made him the Virgin Mary. So we did the shot until he dropped me.

It was a short relationship and, yeah... Anyway, we did the gig and it was a damn good gig. So in honor of that gig and many others we've done since then and will do again, let's watch the White Stripes in action.

After Iggy Pop's speech concluded, a video tribute played, quickly recollecting the history and significance of The White Stripes.

Then came Jack White's speech.

Jack White's Acceptance Speech

As Iggy Pop welcomed Jack White to the stage, the musician, dressed in a red suit with black labels, a black white and white tie with a black pocket square with white polka dots, opened up his speech with a mention of his former bandmate, Meg White.

He said he spoke to Meg recently and she helped him with some punctuation as well as some guidance on what to say, including a message of her own to the fans.

See Jack White's full speech below.

Thank you, Uncle Iggy. I thank you and all of Detroit thanks you, always.

Today, The White Stripes are proud to represent the sound of Detroit punk and garage rock and all of its bands and artists. And also, the garage rock movement that caught folks' imagination around the world a few years back.

I spoke with Meg White the other day. She said that she's very sorry she couldn't make it here tonight, but she wanted me to tell you that she's very grateful to all of the folks who supported her through all the years and it really means a lot to her tonight.

SShe helped me write all this in the last couple of days. I sent these things to her and she checked it for me. A lot of punctuation corrections too. She's pretty good at that.

She wanted me to tell y'all that she said, 'Do you remember, Jack, when we used to walk around and animals, for some reason, animals would stare at us? They would stop and stare at us for some reason. And even at the Detroit Zoo, an elephant did the exact same thing one time.'

She just wanted me to tell you that.

There's so many people who helped The White Stripes come alive and climb new mountains. And I know it can be tedious to hear a list of names of people you don't know, but it means a lot to us to tell these people thank you: Ian Montone, Ben Blackwell, [indecipherable] Matt Pollack, Stacy Pass, David Weiss, Ben Swank, Greg Simons, John Baker, Lala Medina, David Swanson, Dead Pastor, Tiffany Steffens, Martin Richard and Leo at XL Records, Andy Grisham at V2 and everybody at Third Man Records, of course.

I, myself thank all of my brothers and sisters, parents for adding pieces of my life to my life and to help push me forward. And for letting me make all that noise in the house all the time growing up. I thank my children, Scarlet, Henry Lee, and my wife, Olivia Jean, for also pushing me to make all that noise in the house nowadays.

[crowd shouts out 'We love you, Meg.']

Yes, we love Meg. Meg and I want to thank just a few of the bands and the artists that inspired us and came before us and also helped us along the way. The Gories, The Gun Club, Loretta Lynn, Fugazi, The Misfits, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Love and Arthur Lee, The Flat Duo Jets and Dexter Romweber, The Henchmen, Dick Dale, Beck, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Tampa Red, The Sonics, Pavement, Jethro Tull, The Strokes, Black Flag, Tampa Red, uh, Sleater-Kinney, Death, Jethro Tull, The Creation, The Breeders, The Cramps, Merle Haggard, The Hives, Them, The Damned, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Troggs, Minor Threat, The Rats, and Captain Beefheart.

To them, we all say, 'Thank you.'

Sorry, I lost my place there. I think I said a couple names twice, sorry.

To the factories, and tools, and electricity, and vacuum tubes, we say, 'Thank you.' To the Coney Islands of Detroit and the honky-tonks of Nashville and the corner pubs of London, we say, 'Thank you.' To the homeless and the powerless and the forgotten, we always say, 'Thank you.'

A long while back, there was a duo of songwriters, important around the time of the birth of rock 'n' roll, called Leiber and Stoller. They wrote a lot of songs that a lot of people probably never heard of. But they also wrote a couple that really connected with folks, like 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'Stand by Me.'

You for sure heard those songs. There was once a duo called Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and they were a comic book hero writing team who came up with all kinds of heroes you never heard of, like Slam Bradley and Doctor Occult, and so forth. But they also came up with this character that really connected with people named Superman, who I'm sure you heard of.

And there was once a comedy duo called Abbott and Costello, that I once remember hearing from my father as a child, that had thousands of jokes kept on white cards in a file cabinet. Jokes and routines that nobody had ever heard before and never got performed. But they also developed a joke that, for some reason, really connected with people, and the routine was called Who's On First? And I know you've heard that one.

I, myself have been in a lot of bands you've probably never heard of. But for some reason, people especially connected with this one two-piece duo project that I was in called The White Stripes.

We don't know why these things connect with people. But when they do, it's the most beautiful thing you can have as an artist or a musician when people are responding and sharing with you. And so, to the young artists, I want to say, get your hands dirty and drop the screens and get out in your garage or your little room and get obsessed.

Get obsessed with something. You know, get passionate. We all want to share in what you might create. Lastly, I was going to send this to Meg, but I didn't get around to it, so I thought I'd read it to y'all tonight.

One time, a girl climbed a tree and in that tree was a boy — her brother, she thought. And the tree looked so glorious and beautiful, but it was just an oak tree. And these two so loved the world that they brought forth a parade float, one they built in their garage behind the oak tree with their own bare hands. And the boy looked at this giant peppermint on wheels and felt pride. Pride that it was produced in the Motor City just like in the big factories, but it was just in their garage.

He looked at the girl, his sister he thought, and like the Little Rascals, they said, 'Let's put on a show.' And they paraded this float through the Cass Corridor, standing atop the Peppermint, pulled by white horses or maybe it was a red Econoline van. And many of the blocks they traveled were empty, but some had people.

And some of those people cheered and some laughed and some even threw stones. And with their bare hands, the two started to clap and sing and make up songs. And some people kept watching and swaying and moving and then one person even smiled. And the boy and the girl looked at each other and they also smiled.

And they felt, they both felt the sin of pride, but they kept on smiling, smiling from a new freedom, knowing that they had shared and made another person feel something. And they thought the person smiling at them was a stranger, someone they didn't even know. But it wasn't just a stranger, it was God.

My sister thanks you and I thank you. Thank you all very much.

When Did The White Stripes Last Perform?

The White Stripes have only performed live once since their final full show on July 31, 2007 in Southaven, Mississippi. Nearly two years later, on Feb. 20 of 2009, the group performed one song — an alternate version of "We're Going to Be Friends" — on Late Night With Conan O'Brien.

It wasn't until another two years had gone by, after Jack White had alluded to future material in the works under The White Stripes name, that the band officially broke up.

Jack has maintained an active musical career, releasing albums with The Raconteurs, Dead Weather and, most prolifically, as a solo artist. The label he began in 2001 — Third Man — has also been operational the whole time.