Adele on Working With Jack White: "Even If He Slapped Me, It Would Have Been Cool"

Never let it be said that Jack White has no soul — the White Stripe famously recorded the theme to Bond film Quantum of Solace with Alicia Keys, but before he did that he made plans to record with British soulster Adele. Rolling Stone's Nicole Frehsée recently sat down with the four-time Grammy nominee, who opened up about her "amazing" experience in the studio with White. The worst part? Though the press kept talking about Amy Winehouse collaborating with White on the Bond theme, Adele knew the truth but couldn't spill it. The best part? That would be working with Jack White in the studio:

"The Raconteurs watched us on XL in England, and Jack was like 'I'm going to love you, let's do a song together.' Someone gave my album to him, and he asked me to do a cover of a Brendan Benson song 'Many Shades of Black' as the B-side to their version. We went to do it in Nashville after I did Bonnaroo, and then he had to fly to New York to do the Bond thing. And so I thought, okay, never mind, I have to go do it with my band in England because we couldn't do it here. And I was putting down the vocal, and they walk in — the whole band.

"I'm such a huge fan of Jack White. And Brendan Benson, I love his writing as well. So that was insane. I was kind of nervous the whole time. We all went for dinner and he kept trying to call his wife, like can I speak to the kids, can I speak to the kids? And he kept coming back and going, oh, my kids are playing with sprinklers in the garden. He's really intense, he loves to really look into your eye. I went home and was beeping all my friends. He was lovely. Even if he slapped me, it would have been cool."

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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