What's the best thing about Switzerland?

The flags are big plus.

So far this season, a lot of entirely unexpected and pretty wild stuff has happened to the White Stripes.

Through all of it, Jack and Meg are getting a taste of what it's like to be an indie rock band that eeks out a living on the road.

And like Ben Swank said, when we open the season, that's the dream.

I mean, what more could a nobody band from a forgotten music scene hope for?

As it turns out, a lot more.

And they're about to get a sense of exactly what that means.

I'll be it on a much smaller scale.

I'm Sean Cannon from Third Man Records and Nevermind Media.

This is Striped, the story of the White Stripes.

Now, Jimmy,

whether you want an explosion now?

Yeah, Jimmy.

They don't want to explain now.

Remember when I left you hanging at the end of episode two, right as the white stripes are winding down their first West Coast tour in Denver. You know, with that movie scene where somebody calls the bar looking for Jack, we're going to pick things up right there with Ben Blackwell. We're sitting there playing pinball. And the guy from behind the bar says, hey, Jack, Jack White, that's a phone call for you. Goes and grabs a guy. He goes and grabs a little, like, who knows, I'm here? I didn't give anyone this number. I say to Jack, I'll send you the plane tickets. And he was kind of like, you're serious? I said, yeah, I am. I have been from the beginning. All right, from the beginning. You might be a little confused, so maybe we should back up even further.

This time to December the 10th, 1999 in Melbourne, Australia,

where the garage punk band The Donnas are doing a two-night stand at a place called the Corner Hotel.

And trust me, this will all make sense in a minute.

The gentleman you just heard is John Baker. He's a concert promoter from New Zealand and a big-time garage rock

aficionado. He and a friend flew down to see the Donnas in Melbourne. They had tickets to both

shows, so they go to the first one. And then... We'd actually met this guy that night who befriended us, and his name was Craig Bailey.

...