Not bad for a couple of weirdbeard, goggle-eyed ne’er-do-wells who cut their rock teeth banging out rude blooze in their parents’ basements back in Akron, Ohio. Though he refuses to disclose an exact figure, Carney says the band will earn much more than $2 million by the close of fiscal year 2012. This year, they should triple, or even quadruple, that figure.
Two years ago, they were grossing $2 million annually. Sure, it took 10 albums (including side projects and solo outings), a dozen videos, one marriage and more than 700 concert dates to get there, but the Black Keys have finally arrived.
And the Black Keys have been working very hard, indeed.
As much a brand as a band at this point, the Black Keys-Dan Auerbach on vocals and guitars, Patrick Carney on drums and attitude-have spent the last 13 years abiding by the same cardinal rule that has governed the rock and the roll since the day in 1951 that Ike Turner cut “Rocket 88” and got the party started: If thou doth rock hard and, more importantly, work hard, thou shall be rewarded. If rock is well and truly dead-not just as a sound or a sensibility, but as an escape hatch from the downward spiral of the middle class for a pair of white college dropouts from the Midwest-the Black Keys never got the memo. With the new El Camino having gone gold and a global arena tour on the verge of selling out, the Black Keys have achieved what surely seemed like the stuff of pipe dreams when they were still banging it out in their parents’ basements a dozen years ago: upward mobility. To celebrate our return to publishing the print version of MAGNET three years ago, we will be posting classic cover stories from that time all week.
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