Songfacts®:

• This song is about the innocent playful friendships made in the early days of school. Written by Jack White, he takes the perspective of a young boy who befriends a schoolgirl, Suzy Lee. They walk to school every day and have lots of adventures along the way, often stopping to chase bugs. He knows they're going to be great friends.
  
  "Suzy Lee" is the name of a song from the 1999 self-titled debut album by The White Stripes where they introduce that character.
• Knowing how churlish the music industry could be, Jack White was worried that the song would be misinterpreted as ironic, like he was making some cynical statement. He was pleased when the song was accepted for what it is: a heartfelt ode to childhood friendship.
• Jack White's time in grade school wasn't nearly as idyllic as what he sings about here. He had a hard time making friends, but as a songwriter he was more into telling stories than revealing his childhood traumas. This song paints a picture of how he hoped it would be. "Kids are just so cruel sometimes," he said. "It's nice to fantasize that they're not." (Quote from the White Stripes FAQ.)
• This song plays at the beginning of the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite, where it's used under a clever opening sequence where the credits appear on various everyday objects (lip balm, bag lunch). The film was a surprise hit and earned a great deal of exposure for the song. The main character, Napoleon, is a strong-willed, talented, quirky type with big ideas. Kinda like the White Stripes frontman.
• When "We're Going To Be Friends" was released on the band's third album, White Blood Cells, they were little known outside of their Detroit stomping grounds and in the UK, where they got a lot of love from the music press. Another song from the album, "Fell In Love With A Girl," was their first to chart in the US, climbing all the way to #121!
  
  There weren't a lot of duos out there comprised of a guitarist (Jack) and drummer (Meg White), but they were nimble, with songs that could be loud and barely intelligible balanced out by heart-tuggers like this one. Their following grew, and in 2003 word got out when their stadium stomper "Seven Nation Army" became a hit. Their sound got more refined, but they remained musically unpredictable. By the time they officially split up in 2011, Jack had formed two other bands: the Dead Weather and the Raconteurs.
• The video is a single, locked-down shot of Jack White playing the song on a curbside couch while Meg sleeps on it (he wakes her up at the end). It was shot the same day they did their video for "Hotel Yorba," using the leftover film stock.
• The White Stripes played this song when they made their first Saturday Night Live appearance on October 19, 2002. It ended up being their only SNL appearance, although Jack showed up more times as a solo artist.
• On February 20, 2009, The White Stripes played a slower version of the song on the final episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Instead of playing the drums, Meg White played guitar and sang next to Jack White. This ended up being the last public performance by the duo.
  
  As a going-away present, Jack and Meg gave Conan a Gretsch Penguin guitar they knew he coveted.
• "We're Going To Be Friends" wasn't released as a single, but thanks to its use in Napoleon Dynamite, it became one of the most popular songs in the White Stripes canon. They played it at most of their concerts.
• Jack Johnson covered this song for the soundtrack of the 2006 film Curious George.
• In 2017, Jack White adapted "We're Going To Be Friends" into a picture book for kids. As part of the project, White released a new version of the song sung by students at Woodstation Elementary School in Rock Spring, Georgia, when they came to White's Third Man Records studios in Nashville on a field trip. At first, the song was pressed to vinyl and distributed to the kids, but when White published the book, he included the Woodstation version of the song as a download. The kids returned to Nashville to perform the song as part of the book launch.
• When The White Stripes were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2025, Meg didn't show - she hadn't made a public appearance since the final White Stripes performance in 2009. Jack appeared and read some words on her behalf, but he didn't want to perform because she wasn't there. So in tribute, Twenty One Pilots took the stage to play "Seven Nation Army," and Olivia Rodrigo and Feist teamed up for "We Are Going to Be Friends."