“My brother's wife owned a thrift store. I moved a refrigerator for them and they said, ‘Here, take this guitar for gas money or whatever’”: How Jack White came upon the castaway guitar he'd use to play Seven Nation Army at the Grammys

Unless you've lived in a cave for the last 22 years, odds are pretty damn good that you've heard the call-to-arms riff that opens the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army at least once.

A study last year revealed that it's the single most Googled guitar riff on the planet, and it ranks 30th on our own list of the greatest guitar riffs of all time.

Written at a soundcheck in Australia by riffmaster Jack White, one-half of the now-defunct band (who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last weekend, November 8), it's a sporting event standard – an earworm so ubiquitous it's almost become a (distorted 'n' loud) folk standard of sorts.

Though not a massive hit at the time of its release in 2003, per se, Seven Nation Army still cracked Billboard's Hot 100, and helped take the duo – Jack, with his ex-wife, Meg, on drums – up a step, from garage-rock critical darlings to true-blue rock A-listers.

It also earned them a Grammy nomination, for Best Rock Song.

The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (Live at Bonnaroo 2007) - YouTube

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What's interesting about that early 2000s era of rock is that, for all of their unique visual styles – the Strokes with their leather jackets, the Hives in their cocktail waiter get-ups, Interpol's suits, and, of course, the White Stripes' distinct red-and-white color scheme – the chic groups of the era were, usually, rock classicists when it came to gear.

White was a proud exception, though – wrestling with an obscure (color-matched, of course) Airline guitar for the overwhelming majority of the band's catalog. One notable exception was Seven Nation Army, for which he employed a Kay hollowbody, tuned to open A, which was then run through the low-octave setting on his DigiTech Whammy pedal.

Of course, the story of how White got the vintage Kay tracks with someone who has appeared not once, but twice, on a popular reality TV show about sifting through yard sales and antique shops.

“My brother's wife owned a St. Vincent de Paul thrift store,” White told Guitar World in a 2004 interview. “I moved a refrigerator for them and they said, ‘Here, take this guitar for gas money or whatever.’”

When the White Stripes took the stage for the biggest performance of their lives up to that point at the 2004 Grammys, it was that very guitar – not some made-for-the-occasion, two-months-of-pay custom job – that sat in White's hands.

Seven Nation Army would go on to win that Best Rock Song award at the ceremony, with the seminal album it led off, Elephant, also receiving a nod for Best Alternative Music Album.

Though the White Stripes officially disbanded in 2011, Elephant helped set White on a path to guitar-hero-for-life status, with all the reverence and magazine covers that come with it.

Neither time, status, nor partnerships with legacy brands have tamed the man's taste for the weird and wild, though – his Fender TripleCaster Telecaster is one of the most admirably wild signature guitars on the market.

Commenting earlier this year on a Thinline version of the Triplecaster that he made specifically for Metallica's Kirk Hammett, White neatly summarized his tastes in guitars. “I hope this pisses off some more Tele purists! We have enough ‘regular’ boring guitars out there, right folks?”