1. Benjamin Jesse Blackwell was born on June 12,1982 and is an American musician, writer, and record company executive.
18 Facts About Ben Blackwell
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Ben Blackwell is the creator and director of Cass Records, one of two drummers in the Detroit-based rock band The Dirtbombs, a co-founder and minority owner at Third Man Records, and the official archivist of The White Stripes.
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Ben Blackwell was born in Detroit, Michigan, on June 12,1982, to Maureen Gillis and Morris Blackwell.
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Ben Blackwell is the nephew of Jack White, whose birth name is John Gillis.
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Ben Blackwell attended Wayne State University for three years, with a concentration in journalism, before withdrawing.
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Ben Blackwell debuted live with The Dirtbombs on December 18,1999, when he was only 17 years old.
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Ben Blackwell has since become one of the longest-serving members of the band, having played on four studio albums and having toured extensively all over the world.
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In 2007, Ben Blackwell was selected by Crain's Detroit Business magazine as one of their "Twenty in Their 20s", a yearly designation given to twenty emerging entrepreneurs in southeastern Michigan.
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Ben Blackwell was selected because of his work with his Cass Records label and was recognized for his commitment to the 7-inch vinyl format.
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In November 2010, Ben Blackwell self-released his debut solo album "I Remember When All This Was Trees" on his Cass Records imprint.
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Ben Blackwell wrote, recorded and performed all the music on the album.
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In March 2011 Blackwell participated in Esquire magazine's annual songwriting challenge along with Dierks Bentley, Dhani Harrison, Raphael Saadiq and Brendan Benson.
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Ben Blackwell has written content for many magazines including Creem Magazine Online, Careless Talk Costs Lives, the Metro Times, Chunklet Magazine, Ugly Things, Arthur, Plan B and others.
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Ben Blackwell won Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 College Journalism Award in the field of entertainment for two tour diaries he wrote for Wayne State University's The South End paper in March 2003.
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In November 2006 Ben Blackwell started his own blog titled Tremble Under Boom Lights named after an EP by the band Jonathan Fire*Eater.
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On March 1,2014, Ben Blackwell gave a lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston titled "A Contemporary Record of Rock 'n' Roll" covering topics ranging from vinyl records, archiving, musical archeology and his personal experiences relating to them.
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Ben Blackwell wrote the liner notes to Under Blackpool Lights.
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Ben Blackwell appears in The White Stripes' feature-length documentary Under Great White Northern Lights, conducting the interview that is interlaced throughout the film.