'What a sweet gesture': Jack White reacts to Beyoncé sending him flowers for inspiring her on Cowboy Carter

Singer-songwriter Jack White took to Instagram on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, to thank Beyoncé for the flower bouquet she sent him as a token of gratitude before the release of her new album, Cowboy Carter.

"What a sweet gesture to receive here in Nashville this morning from the talented and gracious @beyonce celebrating her new Cowboy Carter album."

Beyoncé's new album, Cowboy Carter, was released on March 29 and has since sent shockwaves throughout the industry. In an Instagram post, Spotify declared that the album has become the platform's most-streamed album in a single day in 2024.

According to the 32-time Grammy winner, the album is inspired by films like Killers of the Flower Moon and The Hateful Eight and dives deep into the rich archives of Country music.

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Jack White responds to Beyoncé's gift: The Beyoncé-Jack White connection explained

Following the release of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé sent a bouquet to singer-songwriter Jack White as a token of thanks for being her inspiration. The bouquet also featured a note that read,

"Jack, I hope you are well. I just wanted you to know how much you inspired me on this record. Sending you my love, Beyoncé."

White took to Instagram to share the gesture and thanked Beyoncé for her kindness.

"Much love and respect to you Madam, and thank you kindly. Keep making beautiful and powerful music, nobody sings like you."

The Beyoncé-White connection started with Queen Bey's album Lemonade (2016), where the duo worked together on the song, Don't Hurt Yourself.

In an earlier interview with NPR, White complimented the Grammy winner and said she has a "kind of soul singing voice of the days of Betty Davis or Aretha Franklin."

White also commented on how that collaboration came to be a part of reality.

"You know, I just talked to her and she said, 'I wanna be in a band with you.' I said, 'Really? Well, I'd love to do something.'"

Jack White described how Beyoncé turned a rough lyrical outline of Don't Hurt Yourself into "the most bodacious, vicious, incredible song."

He said that he didn't know which genre to classify the song. He further explained that Don't Hurt Yourself is incredibly intense, and he was amazed at what she did with it.

In 2018, Jack White revealed that he'd also written an alternate composition for the Lemonade song, Daddy Lessons. However, it never saw the light of the day.

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What is Cowboy Carter all about?

Cowboy Carter is inspired by Black cowboys of the American West. The word 'cowboy' has historically had a derogatory connotation, used to describe former slaves who would work on farms.

In her new album, Beyoncé destroys the negative implications of the word and uses it to celebrate these people's strength and resilience.

In an official press release, the singer also said the album took over five years. Moreover, she recorded nearly 100 songs, but only 27 made the final list. She was supposed to release Cowboy Carter before Renaissance but refrained from doing so because of the pandemic.

"I was initially going to put Cowboy Carter out first [before Renaissance], but with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world. We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God's timing."

The singer-songwriter further revealed that Cowboy Carter uses 'real instruments,' not ones generated through artificial intelligence, programming, and digital filters. Many songs feature everyday items like sounds of birds, winds, and other natural sounds to make them as "organic and human" as possible.

2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards Show (Image via Getty/Amy Sussman)

Since its release, Cowboy Carter has been breaking records left and right. The album has become Spotify's most streamed album in a single day in 2024 and is the first country music title to hold that position this year.

Amazon Music declared Cowboy Carter Beyoncé's biggest album debut on the platform. The album also broke other records, such as most first-day streams for a country album by a female artist and most first-day streams among all her albums.

On Apple Music, the album sat at the #1 spot on the Top Albums, with 5 of the 27 songs dominating the first five Top Songs spots as of Monday morning.