Dan Auerbach shares the 'magic trick we learned at 16' that keeps The Black Keys going

Ed Masley, Arizona Republic

October 8, 2022 at 8:01 AM·8 min read

The Black Keys have released two albums since the last time they played Phoenix in 2019.

And to hear Dan Auerbach describe the thrill he gets just being in the studio with drummer Patrick Carney after 20 years, you get the sense that he'd be every bit as happy to have just kept making records while the amps were warm.

"We're both just totally addicted to recording even now," he says. "I don't know what it is. But we get such a high off getting in there and creating something out of nothing, pulling songs out of thin air. It's like this magic trick we learned to do when we were 16 and we never stopped. We never got tired of the trick."

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The first of those two albums, last year's "Delta Kream," is the sound of The Black Keys reclaiming their roots in the hill country blues they cut their teeth on in Akron, Ohio, covering R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Mississippi Fred McDowell and more.

They didn't have much time to overthink the song selection, having tracked it in a single day on what Auerbach says was a whim.

He'd just finished producing an album in his Nashville studio, Easy Eye Sound, for Louisiana bluesman Robert Finley with bassist Kenny Brown and lead guitarist Eric Deaton.

"It was the first time I had ever worked with Kenny," Auerbach says. "And just hearing his playing reminded me of those records I loved so much like 'Too Bad Jim' by R.L. Burnside and 'Sad Days and Lonely Nights' by Junior Kimbrough."

Those are records he and Carney listened to "over and over again" while crisscrossing the country in a minivan. So he got Carney on the phone and asked if he was free the next day to record with Brown and Deaton.

"I knew that he would get a kick out of it," Auerbach recalls.

"So he came over and we cut the record in a day. Then we just sat on it for a few months, didn't even listen to it."

A year and a half later, they released the songs in all their ragged, unkempt glory.

"We didn't touch it at all," the guitarist producer recalls.

"It's just a completely raw improvisation. We'd never played with a bassist before. We'd never played with Kenny Brown. We've never played with a percussionist. So it was all these new things."

They'd played those old familiar songs before, but not since they were starting out.

"It's music we'd obsessed over when we were younger," Auerbach says. "And it was very good for us. Reset our mainframes. And I think we were a little bit more comfortable to record extra raw and leave that gnarly first take on the record, which is what we did on 'Dropout Boogie.' Three or four songs are complete first takes."

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Other songs on their latest release required more finesse.

"Some of the songs are a little more pop-minded, thinking about it in terms of, 'How do we make something catchy?'" he says. "We wanted to have some of those on the record. We also wanted to have some very raw improvisations. And I think we got a healthy mixture."

They also got a hit. "Wild Child," the first single released from "Dropout Boogie," topped Billboard's Rock and Alternative Airplay charts in May.

"As soon as we cut the instrumental, we knew it was special," Auerbach recalls.

"We had the chorus really quickly. And the instrumental was just jumping out of the speakers. So we took a little extra time. And we called in a couple friends to help us write. That was really the difference maker."

Being open to outside perspectives is something they picked up from working with Danger Mouse on a string of hit albums, from their 2008 mainstream breakthrough, "Attack & Release" through "Brothers," "El Camino" and 2014's "Turn Blue."

It also doesn't hurt that Carney nails the groove while also allowing the record to breathe.

"Pat's just a crazy good drummer," Auerbach says. "He's able to play real loose. He's also able to play super rock 'n' roll. And he's also able to play very dancey. I think the older he gets, the more confident he gets in his drumming. He's one of the best drummers I've ever played with."

"Pat's just a crazy good drummer," Dan Auerbach says of fellow Black Key Patrick Carney. "He's able to play real loose. He's also able to play super rock 'n' roll. And he's also able to play very dancey."

Then, Billy Gibbons showed up with a bottle of wine ... and no guitar

"Dropout Boogie" also features ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons on a track called "Good Love."

Surprisingly, given his age, 46, and his love of the blues, Auerbach came late to ZZ Top.

"I don't think either Pat or I really knew too much about ZZ Top, to be honest," Auerbach says. "I think we grew up knowing them as the guys from the music videos, 'Cheap Sunglasses' and stuff like that. My dad did not listen to ZZ Top. And so I wasn't really aware of their first couple albums or first records. I had never heard them."

The Black Keys were already touring by the time they got turned on to early ZZ Top.

"And it just really blew my mind," he says. "I didn't realize what an amazing drummer Frank Beard was, how great they were singing together, how catchy their songs were but how raw everything was. So it was really cool to hear."

He came away from that exposure feeling he'd discovered kindred spirits.

"I could hear what records Billy was copping on guitar and stuff like that, because I'd been obsessing over those blues records when I was young, and hearing their spin on that was really cool," Auerbach says. "I felt like we were definitely drinking from the same well."

Over the years, they became friends.

"I heard Billy was in town," Auerbach says. "He comes to Nashville often. So I texted him. I said, 'Me and Pat are in the studio jamming. Why don't you stop by if you get a free minute?' I didn't hear from him for hours, and then all of a sudden, I got a text. He said, 'I'm coming over, hombre.'"

Gibbons showed up with a bottle of wine and no guitar.

"I handed him a guitar and plugged it straight into an amp, no pedals, nothing," Auerbach recalls.

"Just turned the amp all the way up, poured him a glass of wine and we commenced to jamming for about an hour and a half. I think we came up with three or four song ideas. And one of those was 'Good Love.' That was just all improvising."

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It's been 12 years since "Tighten Up" became their first No. 1 on the Rock and Alternative charts. The fact that they can still be counted on to rock those charts all these years later is an impressive feat not lost on Auerbach.

"I mean, it's definitely a testament to how much we toured, building our fan base, and how amazing our fans are," he says.

"But we also put in the work. I think there's something to that. We were always willing to just do crazy (expletive) to try to succeed in this business, like driving 9,10,11,12 hours every single day for months for years. And every year, life got a little bit better.

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"Dropout Boogie" hit the streets in May, one day shy of the 20th anniversary of The Black Keys' debut, "The Big Come Up," an album he loves as much as ever.

"We learned how to play music together, how to record together, how to write songs together," he says. "Every time I hear our records, I hear us learning and growing. I know where our heads were and stuff like that. It's pretty interesting. I hear a record like that and I can hear the basement. The cinderblock walls."

He says it feels good to still be out there making music and touring arenas with The Black Keys after all these years. "It's just been a true blessing."

"I get to play music with my best friend from high school. And The Black Keys has allowed me to live a dream, to afford to have a studio and make records and run a record label. And I don't have to just think about hits. I can just work with people I really love and respect no matter what I think they're gonna be selling. I don't take it for granted, that's for sure."