Black Keys' Dan Auerbach: Touring gave us a form of 'PTSD'

5 July 2019

The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach believes their relentless touring schedule gave them a form of "post-traumatic stress disorder".

Dan Auerbach

The duo - also made up of Pat Carney - went on a hiatus in August 2015, and Dan admits he has loved being able to spend more time with his family during the pair's break rather than staying in hotel rooms.

Dan said: "We were still touring constantly up until four years ago. We'd never really left the road.

"But recently, it's been amazing to get home to see my kids every day instead of the inside of a hotel room. That's a new experience for me.

"We're not going to play as many shows as we used to.

"I love playing shows but I want to make it so that I love them all the time, that they never get tedious. I don't want to do that to people.

"We both absolutely needed that break but it has made us appreciate this magic thing we have."

The Black Keys dropped their ninth studio album, 'Let's Rock' last week, and Dan has revealed the record's title was inspired by the final words of a double killer, Edmund Zagorski, who was executed by the electric chair in November 2018 after 34 years on death row.

Dan added to The Sun newspaper: "In the first week of recording, I read a local front page story about a prisoner being executed by electric chair, which is really rare.

"His last words, 'Let's rock,' stuck in my mind. Fast forward a few months and we were trying to think of an album title concept ... always so annoying and tedious.

"But those words kept coming back to me, how absurd they were and how right on the money they were.

"We'd just made this rock 'n' roll record and it felt right, like it was given to us, like we were supposed to use it."

In April, the 'Gold on the Ceiling' hitmakers confirmed they had pulled out of Woodstock 50 due to a "scheduling conflict".

They wrote on Twitter: "Due to a scheduling conflict, The Black Keys will unfortunately need to cancel their set at @woodstockfest. The band wants to let fans know as soon as possible and before tickets go on sale. (sic)"