After their album, Ohio Players, hit No. 26 on Billboard in 2024, the Black Keys cut ties with manager Irving Azoff and canceled their large-venue tour. This was their weakest showing since 2006. They blamed Azoff for poor planning and criticized his practices.
“This is an opportunity for us to get out of the pressure cooker of a way of touring that we realized was unsustainable and was not ideal for the fans or enjoyable for us,” said Patrick Carney. “We’ve made it a little bit harder for ourselves,” he added. “If we had just made El Camino over and over again or alternated between Brothers and El Camino, we’d probably be playing baseball stadiums now.”
The band prefers to explore new sounds instead. This year, they’ll debut No Rain, No Flowers, a new album about growth and resilience after hardships. They’re also switching to smaller shows to keep tickets affordable and improve fan experiences. The Black Keys are running their own tours as well.
Starting in a basement in 2001 in Akron, Ohio, Dan Auerbach and Carney built their sound from scratch. Success came fast, and albums like Turn Blue earned them 11 GRAMMY nominations.
At their highest point, they stepped away. Auerbach made music with the Arcs and worked solo. Both spent time in studios helping other musicians craft their sound. When they came back together in 2019, they struck gold three times. “Let’s Rock,” “Delta Kream,” and “Dropout Boogie” all cracked the top 10.
“Our friendship is stronger than it ever has been,” Carney shared. “We’ve been through every possible thing that you can go through, so we can kinda get through anything now. And there’s still a lot of joy in making music together.”
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