At the heart of our special rock issue is a look into the Black Keys’ evolution from neighborhood Akron kids to the elite class of rock bands that can sell out arenas in mere minutes.
The Keys’ scraggly-voiced vocalist/guitarist Dan Auerbach gets a few things straight about his genre, and any pointed accusations of “selling out”: “There’s this weird thing that happened with being a successful band, and it has to do with rich, private-college kids who rule the indie rock world - kids who never really have to worry about anything because they always have some sort of backup plan that they can safely fall into. We come from middle-class families. We’re both college dropouts. Driving around the country, paying for everything ourselves - this is the backup plan. The only plan, really.”
