Watch Jack White Solo While Seated In A Gerrit Rietveld De Stijl Chair In The Netherlands

By Andy Kahn Feb 27, 2025 • 8:09 am PST

Before he was one of the premier rock ‘n’ roll guitarists, before founding his Third Man Records label, Jack White worked as a professional furniture upholsterer, after having been trained as a teenager in Detroit by Brian Muldoon.

In 1996, White founded Third Man Upholstery and ran the shop until its closure in 1998. Around that time, White and Muldoon formed a short-lived band, calling themselves The Upholsters.

According to White’s arts and design website:

While White may have stopped doing upholstery as a “job” he’s never stopped his actual practice of the trade. In the intervening 20+ years Jack has always kept an operational upholstery shop in his house or on his property. Third Man Upholstery is now located in Nashville.

White’s Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame nominated band The White Stripes titled their second album, 2000’s De Stijl, after the Dutch art movement of the early 1900s. Dutch furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld was a prominent figure in the De Stijl movement, designing the iconic The Red and Blue Chair that became representative of the style.

White’s appreciation for Rietveld was on display at his show at TivoliVredenburg Ronda in Rietveld’s hometown of Utrecht in The Netherlands. While performing the first song of the evening, “Old Scratch Blues,” White called for a Rietveld chair to be placed onstage for him to sit in while playing his guitar solo.

Footage of White honoring the legendary De Stijl artist in his hometown can be viewed in the video posted below: