White Stripes Are Back with New Material

Jack White is starting up The White Stripes with his former wife Meg again, insisting the anxiety issues that hit his partner in 2007 and forced him to scrap a planned tour have been sorted.

The Seven Nation Army rocker holds himself partly responsible for his ex's near-breakdown, because he should have known she wasn't ready to return to the stage so quickly after a hiatus.

He tells Music Radar, "We had to take a break (and) Meg had come from a dead-halt for a year and went right back into that madness.

"Meg is a very shy girl, a very quiet and shy person. To go full-speed from a dead-halt is overwhelming.

"People don't really understand. They think you go up onstage and you're having a blast, like you're partying or some s**t. That's not the case. It's hard work to go on tour."

White, who also fronts The Raconteurs and plays drums for new band The Dead Weather, reveals he and Meg have recorded "a couple of songs" at his new studio in Tennessee, and he hopes to release a new White Stripes album in 2010.