A baseball stadium-filled crowd singing him “Happy Birthday” (courtesy of John C. Reilly) wasn’t the only present Jack White received for his 50th birthday on Wednesday. As the musician shared on his Instagram, he was also gifted his first-ever cell phone.
“Well y’all it’s either all over for me now or just the beginning. I am now the reluctant owner of a cellular telephone for the first time in my life! A lovely 50th birthday present courtesy of my gorgeous and thoughtful wife Mrs. Olivia Jean,” White wrote. “I’ve been saying that my days were numbered for years, can’t listen to my music in my car, can’t park at a parking lot by myself because of QR codes, etc. etc. and I guess Olivia decided to be kind and put me (and all my loved ones) out of my misery! I thought if I could make it to 50 years old at least without ever having one that I could be proud of myself, and I am. Can’t wait to talk to you all soon. My phone number is the square root of all of our combined social interaction times Pi.”
White previously discussed his aversion to cell phones in a 2019 interview with the UK’s Channel 4. “I’ve never owned one, so when I’m out there I’m an anomaly and I’m looking at everybody. To me, everybody looks silly,” he said at the time.
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He also notably prohibited the use of cell phones at his live performances, becoming one of the first musicians to embrace the use of phone-storing pouches. “I thought it was a big art project at first, just to see if people would think if it was funny, or cool, or just a new experience, like an escape room,” he said of the move. “To my surprise, and to everyone else’s surprise, everyone loved it.”
On the other hand, White added, “It brings up these real big questions like, ‘So you need someone to tell you that you can’t use it to actually not use it?’ How sad, that’s pretty sad. Again, coming from someone who isn’t part of it, it’s easy for me to say because I don’t have that addiction.”
Content shared from consequence.net.