The Dead Weather is a group that came about almost by accident, started as a side project organized by Jack White of the White Stripes and The Kills' vocalist Alison Mosshart. Because of White's and Mosshart's specialized versions of stripped-down blues and garage-rock, it's no surprise that The Dead Weather also conforms to those genres, while alternatively maybe allowing White and Mosshart to be more cutting edge than when playing with their own groups. Though people think of The Dead Weather as primarily Jack White's band, Mosshart provides the bulk of the lyrics while fronting for the group.

The Dead Weather journey started when The Raconteurs, Jack White's other side project, were touring with The Kills near the end of 2008. White was not feeling well and asked Alison Mosshart if she would help out on vocals at some of the shows. This onstage collaboration led to White and Mosshart getting together with Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) for an informal jam session at White's new Third Man studio in January, 2009. Unexpectedly, the session was followed by more than two straight weeks of song writing and recording, during which The Dead Weather formed. According to White, things just started to happen without any particular direction, "Just doing a song a day, two songs a day, whatever we could do, while recording everything on the fly. There was no time to think about what it was. It just was."

The Dead Weather's debut album Horehound was released on July 13, 2009 in Europe and one day later in North America; entering the U.S. Billboard 200 Album Charts at #6, and the UK Album Charts at #14. Three tracks from Horehound – No Hassle Night, Hang You From the Heavens, and Treat Me Like Your Mother – were also made available as downloadable content for the video game series Rock Band on the same day as its North American release.