The White Stripes released this statement via www.thewhitestripes.com in regards to US Air Force commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.  The Stripes obviously claim that they believe their song “Fell In Love With A Girl“  had been “re-recorded and used without permission”.

The songs are just about identical.  Check it out…

The musician who composed the song featured on the US Air Force’s recent Super Bowl half-time advert, has apologised to the duo.   Kem Kraft has said that similarities between his instrumental advert song, aired on February 7 during the televised sporting event and Jack and Meg White’s 2002 hit were coincidental.  “I’m sorry it sounds the same,” Kraft told The New York Times. “It wasn’t my intention, truly, truly, truly.”  He also he hadn’t heard ‘Fell In Love With A Girl’ and “I had no idea there was similarity until after the fact.”

raul The White Stripes Jack White, Meg White, The White Stripes

“Some people come up to us and say, “God, you guys really look like you’re brother and sister.” And we say, “That’s because we are!”

Officially, the pair are the youngest two of 10 children but in reality, John “Jack” Anthony Gillis and local bartender Megan “Meg” Martha White were married on September 21, 1996, and in unorthodox fashion, he took White’s surname.

While the newly-christened Jack White continued to play in multiple bands, Meg White first began to learn to play the drums in 1997. In Jack White’s words, “When she started to play drums with me, just on a lark, it felt liberating and refreshing. There was something in it that opened me up”. The duo then became a band, calling themselves The White Stripes. They first performed publicly on July 14, 1997 at the Gold Dollar in Detroit. The couple divorced on March 24, 1999 and it’s unclear precisely when they began to call themselves brother and sister.

Holly Golightly, British singer-songwriter (who sang with them on “It’s True That We Love One Another“) said “They’re brother and sister as far as I’m concerned ~ and husband and wife.”

Jack White - “We will be brother and sister till the day we die,”

Jack White - “Everything apart from the music is a trick.”

Neither addresses the truth officially and over time, they have become less verbal about the origins of their relationship. Jack White has said, though, that siblings are “mated for life”, and thus such relationships distract less from the music. Both have since remarried Jack White married British model Karen Elson in 2005 and Meg White married musician Jackson Smith in 2009.

raul The White Stripes Jack White, Meg White, The White Stripes