The White Stripes were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 8, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Iggy Pop introduced the Detroit duo, and Jack White accepted the honor for himself and Meg White. Meg didn’t attend, but Jack explained that she had helped prepare his speech, checking its punctuation and making corrections.
Iggy had already brought their music into the room by leading the audience through the riff from “Seven Nation Army.” In his induction speech, he praised Meg’s drumming and the support it gave Jack’s playing, as Rolling Stone reported. Jack then passed along Meg’s gratitude to the people who had supported her and said the recognition meant a great deal to her. Though she wasn’t onstage, both speeches gave her a central place in the evening.
The band’s beginnings were considerably smaller: their first performance was a three-song set at a Detroit open-mic night in 1997. They went on to make six studio albums before announcing their split in 2011. In their breakup statement, Jack and Meg explained that preserving what they valued about the band was central to the decision. They also left a route for unheard material to reach listeners, saying Third Man Records would continue releasing archival studio and live recordings. The Hall honor arrived after the partnership had ended, with other musicians performing its songs.
Olivia Rodrigo and Feist sang “We’re Going to Be Friends,” the acoustic song from the band’s 2001 album White Blood Cells. Twenty One Pilots performed “Seven Nation Army,” from 2003’s Elephant. The selections paired the band’s acoustic writing with the guitar riff Iggy had already used to get the room singing.
Rodrigo’s connection to the band went back well before the induction. Speaking to Elle in 2023, she recalled growing up with Elephant and being drawn to Meg’s playing on “The Hardest Button to Button.” That led her further into the White Stripes’ records. She described their music as a lesson in how much a direct arrangement could accomplish: “a truly great song doesn’t need to have crazy production or layers of sound.”
Jack used his own time at the podium to acknowledge the world that had shaped the band. He thanked their musical influences and spoke about representing Detroit’s punk and garage rock community. His acknowledgments extended to factories, tools and vacuum tubes, connecting the music to the physical work of making it. He also urged young artists to put down their screens and become absorbed in creating something of their own.
He saved a more personal piece for the end of the speech. Jack read a story he had written for Meg, beginning with a girl climbing a tree and finding a boy there. He told the audience he hadn’t gotten around to sending it to her, so he read it aloud at the induction instead.
