By their own admission, 2024 was a rough year for theBlack Keys.
Two weeks later, in a since-deleted tweet aimed at Azoff, drummerPatrick Carneywrote, We got fucked.
Ill let you all know how so it doesnt happen to you.
The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach (left) and Patrick CarneyLarry Niehues*
How would you sum up the past year for you guys?Carney:Pretty enlightening and eye-opening.
And theres just a lot of shared interests across the business side of this.
I feel really excited about the music weve been making.
Lets get into some details.
I mean, we fired their ass.
We ended up getting nine shows sent to us [on] a three-week tour.
Theres absolutely no way to make money [from] that.
I dont even want to mention that guys name.
I want to look at this from a bigger perspective.
This whole industry is so intertwined from ticketing to promotion to the management company.
Youre at the [whims] of these people who have other interests.
And more and more, its just not.
But we got a little bamboozled here.
Patrick, last year you tweeted: We got fucked.
Ill let you all know how so it doesnt happen to you.
Theres a concentration of connectivity that eliminates competition.
[For] a capitalist society to function, there has to be competition.
And if everythings connected and all the interests are shared on one side, theres no way to compete.
Our tour, we had about 10 [arena] shows that were not doing great.
They were just in rooms that they shouldnt have been in.
But that wasnt accurate.
How did you feel when you saw it?Auerbach: I understood the intensity of it.
Anything else?Auerbach:No.
So we could cancel this tour and we would re-announce dates in a couple days in these better rooms.
But the plan wasnt there because there were no holds on rooms.
We spend so much time making the music [and] figuring out promotional shit.
Thats just harder and harder to come by.
(Live Nation vehemently denied the claim when the lawsuit was filed.
you should probably watch this.
The artists can always just opt to go to someone else …
This isnt something thats unique to the music business.
We just had to take one on the fucking face.
We didnt set them.
On this [next] tour, we realized that we have to be more involved in this.
The last thing Dan and I want to do is gouge a fan on a ticket.
But in retrospect, would you have tried to lower the ticket price?Carney:Yeah.
Which I think is disheartening because the fans are paying it and its not getting to the band….
The cost of going on tour now versus 2012 is 3.5 [times higher].
Our ticket prices havent gone upthatmuch.
Why is that?Carney:[Pauses.]
Because I think a lot of these deals are done between management and another bigger company.
Hopefully, people show up.
We had retainers for people that we were working with.
Its that simple, bro.
I was going to ask if you guys consider yourselves crypto enthusiasts.Carney:Were Crisco enthusiasts.
You did get a fair share of criticism, though.
The top comment on your own fan Reddit is, LMAO.
Its a PAC that has endorsed all the worst candidates from both parties.
What the hell are they even doing?
We were told it was a bipartisan thing.
It was what it is.
It was very small.
It was in our hometown, so we got to go home and see our folks.
Ive definitely seen my name in bad light in the press before, so it wasnt anything fucking new … Weve been on this creative streak where weve released four albums in five years.
Were both in our mid-forties.
Weve been doing this for 20 years.
We have a greater appreciation now for what we have together than ever before.
And over the last year, weve seen people we care about get sick.
Life isnt a guaranteed thing.
So if you have this thing thats working, why not just fucking move on it?
Back then, we were literally printing money, and we were miserable.
Now were just making tons of songs, and were in a much better place.
Hopefully, people show up.
Patrick was always the more business-minded end of the group.
So yeah, it was traumatic.
Were competitive, and we like to work.
Weve been looking to people who play a different game.
They dont get caught up in that bullshit.
Their version of winning is more about how they connect with their fans.
We caught the tail end of that.
Im hoping that everything that weve been doing resonates.
But if it doesnt, were just going to make another album.
We had been a band for eight or nine years.
I look at all this stuff happening for a reason.
