Jamie Cherry is the man Jack White sings Blondie with (we tracked him down)

Today’s surprise release of Jack White covering Blondie was pretty mysterious. Third Man Records put out the song via YouTube and Discogs, claming it was from a 1998 cassette release by a band named 400 Pounds of Punk who had employed Jack White as a session engineer to record the album. They found it in a box. Very little was said about the other members of this band, but the YouTube did point out that vocal duties were shared by one Jamie Cherry. Not only did we confirm Mr. Cherry exists, but we found him and reached out to him to ask about all this. Like Jack, he is still an active musician. Here’s our email chat:

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BrooklynVegan: Hey Jamie, Can you confirm this is your band Jack White was singing with?

Jamie Cherry: YES..I AM JAMIE CHERRY..THIS IS MY BAND…400 POUNDS OF PUNK SINGING WITH JACK WHITE!!!!!!!!!

How did you meet Jack White?

Well.. My band’s drummer (Mike Audia) had an uncle named ..”Jeff Meier” that played in a killer Detroit band at the time called…” Rocket 455″. Jeff was kind enough to help offer recording time for the band!!.. so.. We were supposed to originally record at Jeff’s house!!.. but, He said he had a friend named…”Jack” who would help us do the recording at his place!…it was in Southwest Detroit.. We came in…he said his name was “Jack White”..during conversation he told us..he was starting a band called…. “The white stripes”. Also, He had some Doritos he offered us..I don’t know if he remembers..but I ate them all..hahaha..

Did you know they had this recording? Do you have a copy?

I knew that a couple speculative copies were around. I have a copy somewhere I think.

Did Jack sing or play on anything else with you?

Jack sang a lot of the main parts.. and I did the rest.. he was more a veteran fan of the song…. so he knew it by heart more…. I just had fun singing it with him!!

Did anybody from Third Man Records ever reach out to you about this? Did you know it was being released?

Thirdman just reached out to me on the subject…like 2 days ago… I didn’t realize it was going to be a lighting quick release!!

What ever happened to 400 Pounds of Punk?

400 pounds punk changed names here and there…but always the same people… the band is no more..but were all still playing… I play drums actually in a Heavy Sci-Fi Fantasy Punk band called….. Sros Lords … We are a force to be reckoned with… For Fans Of…The Screamers,The Coachwhips, Jay Reatard/Lost sounds and DEVO

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Sros Lords (who you can check out on Facebook) have some hometown area shows coming up, including one with Street Sects, and you can check out their recent single “The End,” live video from a show they played at NYC’s Shea Stadium (RIP), and the Blondie cover Jamie did with Jack, below….