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The Black Keys Went from Playing for an Audience of Eight to Filling Stadiums
The Black Keys: just two white guys from Ohio playing the blues.
Yeah, it seems strange to me, too, but it’s the truth.
The Black Keys, if you don’t know, are a two-piece act from Akron. They have a raw, lo-fi, bluesy sound, like modern-day delta blues. They’ve won six Grammys, sold out arenas, and had a number-one album.
You might think that they found fame easily, but the story of how they achieved such success hearkens back to the bluesmen of old. Like the OG delta blues musicians, The Black Keys knew hardship up close and personal before achieving any measure of fame.
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney grew up on the same street in Akron, just a few houses apart from each other. They became unlikely friends in high school; Dan was a star soccer player, while Patrick was an outcast. Nevertheless, they got along and were even persuaded to start making music together around 1996. Dan was learning to play the guitar and Patrick had a drum set and a basic recording setup.
After high school, Auerbach decided to make music his full-time job. He had enough connections to play in the bars around Akron, but not enough to play in any other city. He needed a demo to be able to send out to get more gigs outside of his hometown.
He called his old friend Patrick Carney, who still had a basic recording studio set up in his basement. Carney agreed to let Dan use the recording equipment if he brought in his own backing band. Dan agreed, but on the day they were to record, his entire band failed to show up for the session.
Not ones to quit, Dan and Patrick decided to jam together again, like they had done in high school. Except this time, the jam session led to the duo forming a band that they would name The Black Keys, based on a phrase coined by their schizophrenic friend.
The two men recorded a spartan demo, with Dan on guitar and vocals, and Patrick on drums, in Patrick’s basement, and floated it around to various record labels. A small indie company, named Alive, took a flyer on the band.
The Black Keys officially played their first show on March 20, 2002, in Cleveland, just after they signed with Alive…
