The Black Keys Split With Managers Following Arena Tour Cancellation

The Black Keys has parted ways with its managers, Irving Azoff and Steve Moir, following the abrupt cancellation of the band’s arena tour in North America late last month.

First reported by the New York Times, a representative for Azoff has confirmed the split, telling Billboard it was an “amicable parting.” A representative for The Black Keys declined to comment. Moir did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

On May 24, information on the Keys’ 31-date International Players Tour trek, which was slated to kick off Sept. 17 in Tulsa, Okla., and wrap Nov. 12 in Detroit, quietly disappeared from Ticketmaster’s website.

Two days later, the band — which consists of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney — posted an update on X (formerly Twitter) writing that they had “decided,” following a run of shows in the United Kingdom and Europe, “to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly.” No other reason was given for the cancellation of the arena dates, though it has been widely speculated that slow ticket sales were to blame.

The Black Keys signed with Azoff and Moir in 2021 after parting with their longtime manager, John Peets at Q Prime South.

As Black Keys fans await the promised rescheduled dates and/or refunds for the arena shows, a single North American date remains on the band’s official website: a July 6 performance at NASCAR Chicago Street Race.

The cancellation of the Keys’ arena dates is the second-profile tour cancellation to go down in recent weeks. On Friday (May 31), Live Nation announced that Jennifer Lopez had canceled her This Is Me…Live Tour just a month before it was set to kick off in Orlando, Fla. The touring giant stated that the superstar was “taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends.” Lopez later released her own statement saying that she was “completely heartsick” over the cancellation and that she “wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.”