Jack White marries Olivia Jean on stage at tour opening in Detroit

Jack White’s to-do checklist was busy on Friday: releasing a new album. Sing the National Anthem for the opening day of the Detroit Tigers. Open tour in Detroit. Get married during the encore.

The rocker married Olivia Jean, a singer on his Third Man label who had performed earlier in the evening as the opening act for his concert, onstage at the Masonic Temple Theatre, a historic venue in the couple’s mutual hometown. . The surprise marriage proposal itself had come minutes earlier, in the middle of a performance of “Hotel Yorba.”

Third Man’s best man, Ben Swank, presided over the wedding, with White and Jean’s bassists serving as best man and maid of honor.

on behalf of Detroit Free Press Headliner writer Brian McCollum was 80 minutes into his set and performing “Hotel Yorba,” which had brought Jean onstage to sing backing vocals, when the show was diverted. White introduced her as her girlfriend and said, “And I love her very much,” an unusual PDA for White, though things were about to get more unusual.

The song has a lyric, “Let’s get married”, the focus of which was White’s signal for the band to stand down and his assistant to begin filming the proceedings on a cell phone.

“I have a little question for you, Olivia Jean. Will you marry me?” he said. After she “signaled a resounding, tearful yes,” as McCollum put it, they finished the signature White Stripes number, and White picked it up with a jubilant reading of the line “Let’s get married,” and he led his fiancee offstage.

Minutes later, they returned to the stage for an encore that included a wedding ceremony, for which White’s mother, Theresa Gillis, was in attendance. Jean’s father also came onstage mid-voting, prompting White to pull him aside and ask if they had his blessing: “Be honest!” The video posted by TMZ shows that Swank personalized the vows so that Jean promised to always tell her husband “what’s up,” while only White swore to “obey” her spouse.

Fan footage of the nuptials is scarce, as White is a longtime proud advocate of requiring fans to have their phones locked in Yondr bags at his concerts, but fans leaked a video of the proposal and the subsequent ceremony.

It is the third marriage for White, who was previously married to White Stripes drummer Meg White and model Karen Elson, who also recorded for Third Man.

Jean has a long history on White’s label, releasing a solo album with her group The Black Belles in 2011, followed by a couple of solo works for Third Man, the most recent of which was “Night Owl” by 2019.

White’s busy day on Friday had begun with the official release of his new solo album, “Fear of the Dawn,” from which Variety he said in a review, “White’s latest is exciting enough to almost single-handedly make up for how unexciting most of the rest of rock ‘n’ roll is right now.” (See the full review here.)

The album’s release date coincidentally coincided with what turned out to be his beloved Detroit Tigers’ opening day late game, with the prominent baseball fan wearing a team jersey at Comerica Park. Lest anyone worry if White could hit the notes as well as Whitney Houston, he performed the tune as a slide guitar-based instrument with his touring band (see video below).

Detroit native Jack White performs the national anthem on Opening Day. #RootsDetroit pic.twitter.com/cANcnHZOYm

— Bally Detroit Sports (@BallySportsDET) April 8, 2022

“God bless you, Detroit,” White was reported by fans to have said as Friday’s show ended. “What a day.”

Any honeymoon may have to wait a while, as White’s Supply Chain Issues tour remains steady through May 1, though there’s a gap of several weeks before it resumes on May 23. Jean is also set to open the next two shows, tonight again in Detroit and then Sunday in Grand Rapids, though what they’ll do for an encore of that encore remains to be seen.