Jack White has paid tribute to Dexter Romweber of Flat Duo Jets, describing him as a man who was “rock n’ roll inside and out”.
Romweber’s death at 57 years old was announced by his family on Facebook yesterday, who stated that he passed away at his home on February 16. They said they “believed he died of natural causes”, although a medical examination is still pending. “We will have more to say soon, but ask for privacy at this time,” the family continued.
In an extensive Instagram post, White wrote eloquently about the time he spent with Romweber, and shared a track he recorded with his group the Dex Romweber Duo in 2009, ‘Last Kind Word Blues’.
“A brick crashed through my window last night,” White wrote. “Cat Power had wrote to me; John Michael Dexter Romweber had passed away, passed on, bill past due. He wasn’t a Rock N’ Roll musician, he WAS Rock N’ Roll inside and out, without even having to try, he couldn’t help himself.”
“People toss that around a lot, but in Dex’s case it was actually true. To call him Punk would be like calling the Great Pyramid a sand castle. He was the type that don’t get 3 course dinners, awards, gold records and statues made of them because they are too real, too much, too strange, too good. Dex was a true tortured romantic, unfairly treated and broken hearted at all times but still hopeful. He was an electrical outlet, an old soul, a vampire, a cave man in a modern age, a WWI trench soldier, a different kind of American, out of luck living on the outskirts of town, lonely even when in a room of thousands.”
Later in the post, White shared: “He was one of my favorite people I’ve ever known and one of my most cherished influences. He once finished the last chord of a song during a concert, threw his guitar down, jumped off the stage at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, and ran straight up to me in a theater of ten people at the back of the room and immediately started talking to me. I had never met him before that. I was 18.”
“Over time he passed on secrets I’ll never tell, and brought tears to my eyes when he told me how proud of me he was,” White continued. “But I was proud of him first, and always will be. He was an uncle that I would ride my bike across town to see. They don’t make them like Dex anymore, not till we get our act together as humans. I know your pain is over now Dex and you are living in true romantic bliss. You deserve it more than any of us.”
Dexter played in a number of bands, but come to notoriety with the Flat Duo Jets. He established the guitar/drums band in 1983 with Chris “Crow” Smith and their eccentric performances earned them acclaim; the band would eventually feature in the 1986 documentary Athens, GA: Inside/Out alongside R.E.M. and the B-52’s.
Flat Duo Jets went on to inspire musicians such as Cat Power, The Black Keys and Neko Case. The Jets eventually broke up in the late 1990s.
Afterwards, Dexter formed a number of other acts, including The New Romans and the Dex Romweber Duo with his sister Sara. He also released a number of solo albums, including his most recent 2023 record ‘Good Thing Goin”.