Jack White has released a video for Archbishop Harold Holmes, one of the highlights of last year's No Name album.
The video stars Hollywood legend John C. Reilly, the Oscar-nominated actor who's appeared in films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Gangs Of New York, Chicago and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
In the video, which Reilly convinced White to make, he stars as an evangelical preacher reciting Archbishop Harold Holmes' lyrics, which were originally taken from a religious chain letter White spotted on someone's wall.
"I kept saying, ‘Jack, we should do a video. You should direct it,’", Reilly tells Vulture. "Jack had been interested in directing in the past. So I said, ‘I’ll be the preacher, or you be the preacher and I’ll direct it.’
"We kept passing the idea around and Jack told me, ‘When I’m on tour, it takes up all my time. Then when I’m off tour, it’s a big drain to have to micromanage a video shoot.’ He was feeling demoralized that not many people are into making videos anymore."
When Archbishop Harold Holmes picked up momentum on US radio in May, Reilly talked to White again, and the pair finally put plans into motion, with Gilbert Trejo – son of actor Danny Trejo – directing the shoot.
"I was like, ‘Jack, I have to say, this radio thing is very satisfying to me,'" Reilly says. "Because at this point I’ve been talking to him for months about the song and trying to encourage him to make a video of it. I said, ‘Look, whatever you want to do, I’m available and it would be a pleasure for me.'"
Reilly and White first met at a White Stipes gig, and in 2011 the actor released two singles via White's Third Man Records. Earlier this month, Reilly released a debut solo album by his vaudeville alter-ego Mister Romantic, What's Not To Love.
