Jack White’s ‘Boarding House Reach’ Features A Song That Was Almost Used For A Jay-Z Collaboration

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In anticipation of his new solo album Boarding House Reach, Jack White recently sat down with Rolling Stone for a discussion about the record’s production, touring, and his young children. Interestingly, the interview revealed that the record will feature a song called “Over And Over And Over” that White had initially written 13 years ago, and that was even proposed — and ultimately scrapped — for use on a long-rumored collaborative project with Jay-Z. Check out the section below.

Once he was playing with groups he had assembled, White decided to revive a favorite of his: the manic stomper “Over and Over and Over,” which he had written 13 years earlier and attempted to record with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and even for a scrapped Jay-Z collaborative project. “I was just gonna hand it off to my grandchildren,” White jokes. “It was sort of my white whale. I chased it and chased it, and finally, all of a sudden, it worked.”

As it would turn out, White would eventually work with the other member of the Carter power duo, as he was featured on Beyoncé’s searing Lemonade track “Don’t Hurt Yourself.”

As for White’s upcoming phone-free touring — his first in over two years, the feature also allowed White to discuss his undying love for festivals: “‘Every musician out there has to play festivals now, whether you like it or not,’ he grumbles.”

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