Jack White is mourning the death of his older brother, Edward “Eddie” Gillis, who managed Third Man Records’ Detroit vinyl pressing plant.
White shared the news in an Instagram post on Saturday (Oct. 24), writing that Gillis had died that morning “after having fought a tough battle against cancer.” “The world lost a beautiful soul today,” White wrote. “Ed was such a caring, funny and generous person that everybody loved.”
Gillis ran Third Man Pressing for 10 years, overseeing the production of “hundreds of thousands” of records for other artists, White wrote, adding that his brother liked to make small sculptures and flowers from the plant’s vinyl scraps. The facility opened in 2017 in Detroit’s Cass Corridor as part of White’s Third Man Records operation, making White one of the few artists to own his own pressing plant. Before that, Gillis worked as a pastry chef, running kitchens and bake shops for the Ritz-Carlton and Beaumont Hospital.
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White, the youngest of 10 siblings, also credited Gillis with shaping his musical start. “In his youth Eddie was the guitar player in the family when we were all growing up back when I was on drums only, and he was just great at the instrument,” he wrote, recalling that the two played together over the years, once for the Detroit Tigers during spring training in Florida. “He taught me so many wonderful and simple things over the years that I’ll never forget; how to string a guitar, how to fish on the Detroit river, how to drive a stick shift,” White added. “He was an amazing big brother to me and I just hate to see him leave, but I’m glad he is at peace.”
Gillis is survived by his wife, Angie, and their two children, Amelia and Garrett.
White rose to fame as one half of the White Stripes, whose “Seven Nation Army” topped Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. As a solo artist, he has sent three albums to No. 1 on the Billboard 200: Blunderbuss (2012), Lazaretto (2014) and Boarding House Reach (2018). Lazaretto also set the record for the biggest vinyl sales week since 1991, a mark it held until 2021.