Jack White says Bond theme is "one of the most divisive things" he's ever done

17 July 2022, 12:00

Jack White with Alicia Keys in the Another Way To Die video inset — Jack White says people either love or hate his Bond them, Another Way To Die. Picture: 1. Ki Price/Getty Images 2. YouTube/Alicia Keys

By Radio X

The White Stripes frontman released Another Way To Die alongside Alicia Keys and it still provokes very dramatic reactions today.

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Jack White thinks Another Way To Die is "one of the most divisive things" he's ever done.

The former White Stripes frontman wrote and produced the James Bond theme song - which also features Alicia Keys - for the 2008 film, Quantum of Solace, and he admitted people still either love or hate the track.

Appearing on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, he said: "It’s one of the most divisive things I’ve been a part of.

“To this day, it’s straight across the board. People always say you either love or you hate it.

"That song is… there are people who hate it so much, and there are people who love it so much. Nowhere in the middle; it’s so strange.”

Remind yourself of Another Way To Die here:

Alicia Keys & Jack White - Another Way To Die [Official Video]

The rocker, who played a secret set at Glastonbury Festival last weekend, added: "Bond themes – in Britain, for example… that’s consistent coffee/breakfast conversation.

"Like, ‘What’s your favourite bond theme?’ It’s almost who you are as a person.”

Jack White also revealed he only landed the job after Amy Winehouse, who was originally set to record the theme, didn't meet the bosses' criteria, so he pushed the boundaries of what he was allowed to create knowing there wasn't much time.

He recalled: "So it was, 'We were running out of time, we need somebody else…' And I thought, ‘Oh, this was great, because now I’m gonna get away with murder; I’m gonna put things in this song, they would never approve of this…

“And that happened… The music director was not down with anything. He was trying to convince me to turn it into a ballad or something like that...

“It got interesting, I was like, ‘We’re going on tour, I can’t get in there’ – knowing full well I totally have time to fix it if I wanted to.”