“It was very simple: We had lost all of our income for the year”: The Black Keys come clean on cancelled tour and justify controversial cryptocurrency show
Last year, The Black Keys cancelled their entire North American tour. While the reasoning was never revealed, many have suspected that poor ticket sales played part in the decision. In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, the duo have finally spoken out about the tour – and why it made them fire their management.
Despite drummer Patrick Carney claiming that “the whole tour that was actually doing really well” on the YMH Podcast last July, the Rolling Stone interview confirms that wasn’t the case. According to Carney, their management booked an unrealistic tour. “There’s certain cities where we know we can [sell]… but you want to look to your management to make these decisions,” he says.
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The split from management seemed quite heated at the time, with Carney taking to X to vent his frustration. “We got fucked,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you.”
“We spend so much time making the music [and] figuring out promotional shit,” he tells Rolling Stone. “This is what you lean into for management, and you hope that there’s decisions that are made on the up-and-up so that they help everybody. That’s just harder and harder to come by.”
“Our tour, we had about 10 [arena] shows that were not doing great,” he admits. “They were just in rooms that they shouldn’t have been in… When you’re called into a manager’s office and he suggests something to you, I was naive enough to think that that was on the up-and-up… we got a little bamboozled here.”
He notes that the European leg of their 2024 tour was the first sign that management was “poorly organised”. “We ended up getting nine shows sent to us [on] a three-week tour,” Carney says. “There’s absolutely no way to make money [from] that.”
The tour also stopped by Manchester’s infamous Co-Op Live. While the venue has since been running smoothly, its earlier shows were subject to many problems and cancellations. “We kept having to move shit around for a Manchester show… our management company co-owned [the venue, but] it wasn’t ready,” he explains.
“After going to Europe 30 times in our career for tours, this was the most poorly orchestrated tour we had been on,” he adds.
Poor ticket sale rumours were also attributed to the high prices of tickets. But, according to Carney, the duo “weren’t even asked about the ticket prices” on the tour. “We didn’t set them,” he insists. “On this [next] tour, we realised 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.”
The tour left the duo strapped for cash – which might be why they cashed in on a controversial pro-crypto show. The America Loves Crypto show’s goal was to “rally the 5 million crypto owners that might just decide the 2024 election.” GQ even shared a rather scathing take at the time, pondering “what the band [were] thinking.”
However, the band don’t regret it. “It was very simple: We had lost all of our income for the year,” he admits. “We had retainers for people that we were working with. We got offered a lot of money to play a show… It’s that simple, bro.”
“We saw all the shit coming in, but it was like, “What are you going to do?’” he adds. “We were told it was a bipartisan thing. It was what it is… I’ve definitely seen my name in bad light in the press before, so it wasn’t anything fucking new.”
“But, if us playing a concert for 300 people is going to sway the whole state’s vote, then we have bigger fucking problems,” he concludes.
The duo’s next tour will be taking place this year. While they have been off the grid for a while, they’ve used the time wisely; new record, No Rain, No Flowers, is set to drop later this year, with the supporting tour kicking off in May. The first single, The Night Before, hints at some Black Keys gold, with a truly bright, pop-rock groove.
Of course, the duo are being more realistic than their management had been with dates. They’ve opted for smaller venues rather than arenas this time around. “The whole music industry obviously has changed over the last 15 years,” he admits. “We’re still trying to figure out how it works and feels authentic.”
Tickets for the No Rain, No Flowers tour are on sale now.
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