Jock White in Nashville, 2010.

The musician, songwriter, and actor who—with Meg White—founded the White Stripes moonlights with his bands the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather. In addition, he's a sideman on many of the albums he's produced—including his wife Karen Elson's debut {The Ghost Who Walks) and the forthcoming The Party Ain't Over, from the 73-year-old rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson. Here, he talks to Lisa Robinson about his multiple musical personalities. 

LISA ROBINSON: You play in so many different kinds of bands—how do you choose what to pursue?

JACK WHITE: I can only go with my gut, which is sometimes in direct opposition to good business, or good show business. The smart thing [to do] would just be in the White Stripes and count my blessings. But when something like the Dead Weather feels so inspiring, I have to let it happen. I try to attack the job like a carpenter who's expected to deliver or the client won't pay for the job. It lends itself to higher levels of creativity.

L.R. How does it differ when you produce someone else? j.w. I really get inside the song, as if I were the co-writer or coperformer. I can play drums and be a part of the structure of the actual song. I'm not just turning knobs.

L.R. What was it like producing an album for your wife? j.w. She's terribly natural at music— she should've been performing 10 years ago. She picks things up in three seconds; it's in her blood. She makes it easy to produce. Now dinner's a different story.

L.R. You play guitar and drums—which do you prefer?

j.w. The guitar is a strange bird to me. I never really had a desire to be a guitar player—it just fell on me. The drums would be an actual passion of my life. L.R. Is it weird to have your independent label. Third Man Records, in Nashville—which is such a traditional country-music town?

j.w. I don't feel musical divisions as much as when I was in the thick of the garage-rock scene. Everyone is a performer; I understand their point of view better than when I was younger. It's all music—we're all in a family together. L.R. How did the collaboration with Wanda Jackson come about? j.w. She wanted me to sing with her on a record where every song is another collaboration. I don't really care for those [kinds of] records, so I asked if we could change it up and would she come do a single with Third Man. It turned into a whole album very quickly—I can't wait for it to be released.

L.R. You're releasing the first three White Stripes albums on vinyl, and the boxed set [out this month] includes a record player, headphones, and other items. Why did you want to do this?

j.w. We thought we'd do a lot of things that we'd never done: a full tour of Canada, a documentary, coffee-table book, live album, a boxed set. It was one long project that took almost three years. Now that we've gotten a lot of that out of our system, Meg and I can get back into the studio and start fresh.