GNR's Duff McKagen Interviews 'Outside Lands' Co-Headliner, Jack White

 
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/LIVE 105) - Having just headlined this year's Lollapalooza Festival, Jack White is one of the main attractions at this weekend's Outside Lands Festival inside Golden Gate Park in San Francisco alongside Metallica, Neil Young and Stevie Wonder.

[GET 'OUTSIDE LANDS' LINE-UPS & TIMES]

Duff McKagen, the original bassist for hard rock legends Guns 'N Roses and more recently super-group Velvet Revolver, used his recurring column in the Seattle Weekly to interview rock's current golden boy, Jack White.

"Creativity knows no boundaries with him," McKagen wrote in the piece, comparing Jack White to such creative luminaries as Prince, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Clint Eastwood. "And while the rest of us may think that the guy just can't sit still (what, eight different band projects in the last dozen years?), success in pretty much all that he does has afforded him the opportunity to have healthy outlets for his growing creativity."

McKagen proves to be a genuine fan of White's work, asking poignant questions about White's no-hold-barred songwriting process.

"I always find it kind of boring to write about myself. But whatever happens to you, if you've gone through anything–sort of a literal train wreck in your life, for example–you have to have that inside of you in some way," White said when asked about the "pain" embedded in the lyrics of his Blunderbuss album, obviously referencing his unorthodox divorce from model/musician Karen Elson last year. "So whatever characters I was writing about during the record, I'm giving them these problems. But the problems are only things that I probably have seen or experienced sometime along the way."

Over the course of the thoughtful and engaging interview, White also reveals his love for former Iggy Pop drummer Hunt Sales (son of Detroit celebrity Soupy Sales), touring with two different bands and how he came to produce the most recent album from old school rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson ("I've had a lot of experience working with septuagenarians," he quipped to McKagen).

Jack White ended the interview by revealing his hard rockin' roots, telling McKagen, "I listened to so much of your music when I was younger, by the way, and [it was] a really big influence on me."

Can a Jack White cover of "Used to Love Her" be far behind?

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)