Jack White said he couldn’t comment on whether or not he wrote a song with his “mentor” Bob Dylan.

The Raconteurs member sat down for a new interview with Rolling Stone, where he discussed the friendship with Dylan that has built up over time.

“He’s been an incredible mentor to me, and a good friend, too,” White said. “I’m lucky to even have a conversation with him. Everything else has been icing on the cake.”

White explained that Dylan is "very complicated. A lot of people who go through fame, even a small taste of it, are going through experiences that probably no human being should ever go through. I’ve walked into a room and felt like I’m intimidating people. You don’t know what you’re supposed to do. I think people like Dylan end up trying to avoid that stuff.”

Asked if he had written a song with Dylan, White replied, “I cannot tell you that. I wish I could tell you, but I cannot.”

Elsewhere in the interview, he explained why he believed in the value of traditional record stores in the context of his friendship with the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, who lent White a microphone while the new Raconteurs album, Help Us Stranger, was being recorded. “We like similar records,” White said. "We’d probably sit there and talk about Captain Beefheart for a while. He’s a good guy.

“The musicians [I] hang out with, I usually see at festivals. I really miss going to shows four or five nights a week. I used to do that constantly, and I still would if it wasn’t for people patting me on the shoulder every five seconds. I don’t do it as often anymore, but I do love conversations. That’s why I put so much importance on a physical record stores, the mom-and-pop, brick-and-mortar record stores. That’s where all those conversations need to go down. That’s where all those friendships are made and that’s where all the bonding takes place. How many bands have been formed in a record store? You have a mutual respect for the same kind of music, you end up jamming together. What a shame that would be if those stores didn’t exist someday.”

 

 

Jack White Albums Ranked

More From Ultimate Classic Rock