Jack White died: He went from being a beggar to becoming a world star

Mourning for Jack White: Many can sing along to his songs. Whether “Beautiful Maid”, “A new love is like a new life” or “Looking for Freedom”. If anyone in Germany could call themselves Schlager King, and that’s quite a title, then it was Jack White.

Stars from Roberto Blanco to Tony Marshall, from Hansi Hinterseer to David Hasselhoff owed their rise to him. White was also behind global hits like “Gloria,” “Self Control” and “When the Rain Begins to Fall.” Now the music producer has died in Berlin at the age of 85.

Police rushed to his house in Berlin after a call from his environment. The police opened a death investigation, a spokesman said. According to initial findings, investigators assume it was a suicide.

No one has combined the charts and Hollywood in his life like Jack White. His actual name was Horst Nußbaum. But because his producer also had Roy Black under contract, he became Jack White. Under this name he had an unparalleled career.

White often found himself in the headlines not only because of his music, but also because of his private life. At 83, he became a father for the seventh time in 2023. “Rafaella and I cried with happiness,” White told the “Bild” newspaper at the time after the birth of Angelina Melody. White and his wife Rafaella, who is 44 years his junior, had been married since 2015.

It was White’s fourth marriage. Recently there were reports that the couple had separated. Rafaella Nussbaum told the magazine “Bunte”: “It is a separation full of respect and deep friendship.” They had been living separately under the same roof for several months, she said.

White has sold more than a billion records and written over a thousand songs. “From begging boy to world star” – that’s how he liked to describe his life. He was born in Cologne in 1940 as the son of a butcher.

As a boy, he delivered bread rolls and newspapers to support his mother. He trained as a foreign trade clerk, acquired several interpreting diplomas and finally made his first career as a professional footballer with the Dutch first division club PSV Eindhoven.

But his real passion was music. A first single (“A Few Tears”) in 1967 was followed by 14 further attempts – without success. His breakthrough only came when he switched sides and won the German Schlager Festival in 1969 with Roberto Blanco and the song “Heute so, Morgen so”.

“The rest is history” – that was his favorite expression. Countless evergreens follow, for example for Jürgen Marcus, Roland Kaiser, Lena Valaitis and Vicky Leandros. He was also successful internationally. The previously unknown Laura Branigan scored two number 1 hits with his songs “Gloria” and “Self Control”.

David Hasselhoff owes millions of sales to the global hit “Looking For Freedom,” written by White. Other world stars such as Paul Anka, Jermaine Jackson, Tony Christie and Engelbert Humperdinck also entrusted their productions to Berliner White.

Musically, he had become quieter in recent years. “Thank God I lived in a time when you could actually sell a million records, or even five million, but today people only download,” White said in 2015.

“All this stealing is no longer my thing. Plus, it’s become very difficult to appear on TV with artists.” He had no desire to bow down in front of “these alleged television gods”. Jack White’s songs that last.