The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney says band “got fucked” ahead of sacking management for North American tour cancellation

10 June, 2024

The Black Keys

The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney has said that the band “got fucked” after their North American tour was cancelled and they split from their management.

The Akron, Ohio band announced their ‘International Players Tour’ back in April, which was to include 31 dates across the US and Canada from September to November this year.

However, it was reported late last month that the entire run of gigs had been abruptly scrapped, with no explanation provided. Shortly afterwards, following speculation that the move was done in light of low ticket sales, the members opened up about the cancellation, saying it was axed and re-planned in favour of smaller theatre venues as featured on their recent European dates.

And now, the band’s drummer Carney has spoken out on social media for the first time. “We got fucked,” he wrote in his first post on X in nearly a year.

“I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you. Stay tuned,” he added.

In recent days, it was further reported by Billboard that the band had split from their management team, Irving Azoff and Steve Moir of Full Stop Management, in what was described as an “amicable parting”.

In other Black Keys news, the duo appeared on Later… With Jools Holland earlier this month to perform two songs from their latest album. One of which, ‘On The Game’, saw them bring out co-writer Noel Gallagher.

This came just weeks after he joined them on stage at their shows in London. The band invited the former Oasis musician to perform with them during the encore at the O2 Academy Brixton.

Before then, The Black Keys spoke to NME last year and recalled their time working with the “incredible” songwriter in the studio.

“He’s hilarious and super talented,” said Carney. “We were referring to him as ‘The Chord Lord’ because he’s just a perfectionist with it.”

The band’s 12th studio album ‘Ohio Players’, which includes ‘On The Game’, was released on April 5. In a three-star review, NME wrote: “It feels like it’s about impact over depth, tamping down flyaway elements into a homogenised whole that more closely resembles last year’s ‘Dropout Boogie’ than any of the seven inch singles that got an airing during the writing process. The Black Keys might have a killer record collection but ‘Ohio Players’ is the work of a band who are perhaps too good at being themselves.”

The band’s Dan Auerbach also appeared on the new Johnny Cash song ‘Spotlight’, released last week. The track features vocals from the country icon that were first recorded in 1993, with Auerbach one of a number of musicians that added new parts to the recording to bring it up to date. The song will feature on ‘Songwriter’, an entire album of unreleased songs by Cash, set to be released later this year.

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