Jack White

**BDP** · 02-06-2015, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by OkieHornet

The William Morris Endeavor Entertainment talent company has blacklisted OU after fallout related to an article about Jack White’s contract.
Entertainment company bars OU as a venue for future acts - OUDaily.com: News

This is so much manufactured drama, it's hilarious. $80k and a bowl of guacamole for a top tier touring artist sounds like a reasonable deal to me. Why JW got upset with the info being realized and why the OU Daily got so pissy is a mystery to me. When did our college students and rock stars get so uptight?

**Urbanized** · 02-06-2015, 03:23 PM

I've seen a number of concert riders in the past couple of years, and I've seen more "odd" stuff for much less successful acts. And even then it's usually not that odd. Mike_M is right in that a lot of it has to do with routine. Also, a lot of requests sound silly on the surface but make total sense when you think about them. For instance some have very specific instructions regarding a certain number of white T-shirts of a certain brand and size, or socks of a very specific type. But that is because a lot of these bands are literally living in vans for much of their lives, have limited time and mobility - with multiple people having different priorities with off time - making it difficult to say, camp out for two hours at the laundry. So, they might request clean undergarments at each stop so that they can make it further between laundry stops. Most of the things are VERY negotiable too. They usually just want you to make your best effort, and if substituting something are usually amenable. The whole thing was overblown.

**BDP** · 02-07-2015, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by Urbanized

I've seen a number of concert riders in the past couple of years, and I've seen more "odd" stuff for much less successful acts. And even then it's usually not that odd. Mike_M is right in that a lot of it has to do with routine. Also, a lot of requests sound silly on the surface but make total sense when you think about them. For instance some have very specific instructions regarding a certain number of white T-shirts of a certain brand and size, or socks of a very specific type. But that is because a lot of these bands are literally living in vans for much of their lives, have limited time and mobility - with multiple people having different priorities with off time - making it difficult to say, camp out for two hours at the laundry. So, they might request clean undergarments at each stop so that they can make it further between laundry stops. Most of the things are VERY negotiable too. They usually just want you to make your best effort, and if substituting something are usually amenable. The whole thing was overblown.

Yeah, I'm sure even the OU Daily reporters don't really understand the grueling nature of touring or the expense involved. It isn't like $80k went straight into Jack White's Wallet. He's got to pay the touring crew, his manager, his booking agent, all the travel expenses, feed these people, and all the other little stuff that comes with moving a live production around the world. Many people would be surprised how little is netted to the artists on tour. There's a decent chance that OU made more money from the show than Jack White personally did.

As for the rider, I agree, it was actually a pretty reasonable one from what I can tell. IMO, being specific about food makes a lot of sense. I mean, you tour on a bus for hours, then have to do sound checks, and have to account for potential pre-production issues and technical problems where you may not be able to give everyone an hour to hunt down food they like in a town they've probably never been in. The food and beverage items just ensure that everyone will be able to eat before or after a 2+ hour performance that can be very exhausting for everyone. Being specific just helps ensure that the promoter(s) aren't just gonna pick up a bag of frozen burritos (or frozen guac) on the way to the venue. And like you said, it's all negotiable and these things are really written up for a whole tour and try and consider the worst case scenario of a stop. This way they don't have to sit down and rewrite the rider for every show.

In the end, the Daily just came off as ignorant in its allusions about the agreement, but then again, it's such standard stuff that I'm surprised the JW crew even reacted to it.

**TheTravellers** · 02-07-2015, 12:20 PM

Yep, it's fairly routine, and if OU would've published *just* the rider and did a better job of writing about/making fun of it, it would've blown over, but when they publish how much money it was for, etc., it's not cool...

Jack is known to be kind of a douchebag and control freak, that's why it turned into such a big deal. Great guitarist, songwriter, businessman, but not so good of a person (restraining order against him from his most recent ex-wife, his ex-wife not wanting their kids around him, wanted a child of an artist he had problems with taken out of his child's class at school (I believe that was the situation), beating up a Von Bondy, accusing the Black Keys of ripping him off (well, Black Keys/White Stripes, drum and guitar/drum and guitar