Patrick Carney of The Black Keys has voiced his frustration following the unexpected cancellation of the North American leg of their international tour.
As per Rolling Stone, in a Twitter/X post, Carney simply stated, “We got f*cked. I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you. Stay tuned.”
Last month, the garage-rock band’s entire North American arena tour was cancelled without explanation. The duo then said that the shows would be rescheduled in smaller venues.
Fans began to speculate that the arena tour’s failure was the result of terrible ticket sales, with some fans even sharing screenshots of hugely unsold ticket inventory. Many noted that the unexpectedly high prices likely contributed to the poor ticket sales too.
They then announced an “amicable parting” with their management team, Irving Azoff and Steve Moir of Full Stop Management, a relationship that started in 2021 after they split from their longtime manager at Q Prime South.
The Black Keys were always unlikely to sell out arenas in their current form. It’s a decade now since their career peak at the turn of the 2010s, when they scored three top 3 albums on the US Billboard 200: 2010’s Brothers, 2011’s El Camino, and 2014’s Turn Blue.
Their most recent album, Ohio Players, only made it to #26 in the US earlier this year, making it their lowest-charting album in their home country since 2006 (Magic Potion). Ohio Players fared little better in Australia, reaching #68 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
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The duo of Carney and Dan Auerbach reassured their fans through a recent Instagram post that they were “alive and well” amidst their tour cancellation, and also mentioned plans to revise the tour dates to provide a more intimate and exciting experience similar to their recent shows in the UK and Europe. However, as of now, only one date remains from their original tour – the performance on July 6th at the NASCAR Chicago Street Race.
The situation with the Black Keys is not isolated. It reflects a broader trend of tour cancellations and management shakeups affecting major artists, including major names like Jennifer Lopez.
