Reclusive Jack White Pops Up At Neighborhood Potluck — And No One Knows Who He Is

Jack White seems to be more famous for his bizarre off-stage antics than his music these days.

There was that run-in with the drummer from The Black Keys over an ongoing accusation from White that that other two-person blues band stole his sound. Then the hoopla over a very specific guacamole recipe that turned out to be a joke. And the series of pictures of Jack at a baseball game looking less than enthusiastic.

So when White, whose black locks, pale skin, and intensely scowling expression tend to make him look rather menacing pops up somewhere, he tends to look out of place. And angry.

Jack White is at the Cubs game, and looks like he’s at a Cubs game: http://t.co/HTWIxck2JI (Pic: @AndrewCieslak) pic.twitter.com/KjeTyTybWf

— SB Nation (@SBNation) July 23, 2014

Take a neighborhood potluck — that’s not a place you’d expect to see the former White Stripes front man. And apparently, his neighbors didn’t expect to see him there, either. And the story about how they finally met the internationally famous blues musician sounds like something of a horror story.

But a horror story with a happy ending.

According to Time, Jack has lived in Nashville for quite a while. His street is populated, according to Instagram user and neighbor Jedediah Jenkins, by “elderly and quiet people.”

On the end of the dead-end street is a stately, historic home obscured from the rest of the houses — described as “modest and suburban” — by a gate and trees. No one knew who lived there, and no one seemed in a hurry to find out. The occasional guitar riff drifting from the garage stood as the only clue to hint at the grand house’s occupant, SPIN added.

But whoever it was, he never came to the annual potluck.

The potluck is organized every year by Jenkins’ mother, and it takes place in front of his childhood home. It all sounds very quaint and ideal. Once again this fall, everyone gathered for the potluck and the usual faces, one can presume, appeared.

And then a face no one recognized showed up. It was pale, scowling, and framed with black hair.

http://instagram.com/p/8cPGZ8JYZH

One can imagine the neighbors trying to figure out who the strange man was. They may have asked each other if anyone recognized him, or where they thought he may have come from.

Only one person recognized that face — Jedidiah’s sister, who is apparently a fan of one of Jack White’s many bands or has seen one of those infamous baseball game pictures online.

Finally, Jack revealed himself to his neighbors, people he’d lived among for years but never spoken to. He said “Jack White, nice to meet you,” and apologized for missing so many potlucks over the years. The reason: he’d been traveling a lot.

Jack then mingled with his neighbors — no word on whether he brought any food (maybe guacamole?) to the gathering — and someone snapped a picture of him hanging out with the normal folks. In the photo, there is something on Jack’s face that resembles a smile.

White hasn’t always been depicted as a good neighbor. Last month, he got into a bit of a scuffle with Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney in a bar in the latest spat in the ongoing feud between the bands — the back and forth has been going on for some time. In the September dust-up, Carney accused White of trying to pick a fight and called him a bully.

Jack denied that he was a “40-year-old bully (trying) to fight the 35-year-old nerd,” as Carney put it. White’s side of the story: he asked a question and the drummer walked away, then started whining on the Internet.

The feud ended when the pair talked for an hour and patched up their disagreement.

[Photo Courtesy Rick Diamond / Getty Images]