Jack White has never been the biggest fan of cellphones. Since 2018, he’s banned them at his concerts. In a Wednesday (June 19) interview with the UK’s Channel 4 News, the crooner admitted that he doesn’t even own a cell phone.
“For someone like me, who is one of the few who doesn’t own a cell phone, it is pretty funny to walk down the street and see everyone doing this,” he explained, before bending his head down pretending to look at a screen.
“I’m an anomaly and I’m looking at everybody and to me everyone sort of looks silly,” he continued. “And then you’re like, whatever, that’s their lives. Or who knows, maybe this is the way everything is going to be from now on. I have no idea. Nobody really does. Maybe it’ll turn into implants. Probably it’ll turn into a microchip behind our eyeball or whatever.”
Additionally, he elaborated on the concert cellphone ban. “I thought it was a big art project at first just to see if people would think it was funny or cool or just a new experience, almost like an escape room or something like that. ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we had this arena show and everyone who showed up we told them they couldn’t use their phones?’”
“We thought maybe even at first people would be mad enough to demand their money back, and it might be something interesting would happen,” he continued. “To my surprise and everyone around me’s surprise, everyone loved it, and we’ve been doing it now for over a year.”
Watch the interview via Twitter below.
“If you can’t just put that [mobile phone] down for an hour and experience life in a real way, that’s sad.”
Musician Jack White talks about why he doesn’t own a mobile phone and why he’s banned mobiles from his concerts, in the latest Ways to Change the World podcast. pic.twitter.com/hFkSQI9hTr
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) June 19, 2019