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

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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