The Joe Rogan ExperienceJoe Rogan Experience #1354 - The Black Keys
Joe Rogan and Dan Auerbach on black Keys reveal touring chaos, music industry scams, and anxiety battles.
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Joe Rogan and Dan Auerbach, Joe Rogan Experience #1354 - The Black Keys explores black Keys reveal touring chaos, music industry scams, and anxiety battles Joe Rogan sits down with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney for a sprawling, funny, and surprisingly candid conversation about fame, touring, anxiety, and the modern music industry.
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Black Keys reveal touring chaos, music industry scams, and anxiety battles
- Joe Rogan sits down with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney for a sprawling, funny, and surprisingly candid conversation about fame, touring, anxiety, and the modern music industry.
- They trade stories about disastrous festival sets, panic attacks on stage, quitting smoking, and how hypnotism helped Carney deal with crippling performance anxiety.
- A major thread is their frustration with record-label economics, streaming payouts, manipulation of charts through ticket bundling, and the near-total reliance on social media metrics to sign and break artists.
- They also dig into cultural shifts—kids glued to phones, broken radio and curation systems, and why they now prioritize fun, autonomy, and helping other artists over chasing mainstream validation.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
7 ideasProlonged touring can quietly destroy mental health and enjoyment of music.
Carney describes full-blown panic attacks at major festivals and how exhaustion, over-scheduling, and stimulant use (Red Bull, no sleep) created a feedback loop of anxiety that nearly derailed shows.
Hypnosis can be a practical tool for performance anxiety when drugs aren’t an option.
Working with a hypnotist, Carney reframed perfectionism, accepted mistakes as part of rock music, and even had his Grammy performance "pre-programmed" so nerves triggered a smile instead of panic.
Quitting cigarettes improves health but can radically change appetite, weight, and identity.
Carney quit a two-pack-a-day habit cold turkey before his child was born, noting how food tasted better, his metabolism changed, and he gained weight—illustrating how addiction recovery often brings secondary lifestyle shifts.
Current label and streaming models often punish artists while chasing vanity metrics.
They explain how ticket/album bundling can literally cost a band more than their advance just to buy a #1 debut, and how labels fixate on streams and social numbers while shelving strong records and under-supporting artists.
True curation is disappearing, replaced by metrics and risk-averse programming.
From SiriusXM to Spotify algorithms, they argue that playlists and stations recycle safe, familiar tracks (U2 on AAA, pop on “alternative”), while great new music is buried—contrasting this with French station Radio Nova, which plays fresh, deep cuts daily.
Awards and industry validation can distort priorities and fan relationships.
Winning Grammys before legends like Neil Young, and contemplating a possible pop-radio push, made them question whether chasing mainstream awards could alienate core fans and warp their own sense of what matters.
Growing up outside industry hubs can build resilience and originality—but support is scarce.
They credit Akron and DIY beginnings—cheap rent, self-recording, endless van tours—for their sound and work ethic, but worry that today’s young bands don’t get even modest label investment or development time.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotes“The worst band of all time has probably played to more people… this isn’t that many people.”
— Patrick Carney
“Perfection isn’t something that anybody even wants… that’s the whole point of being in a rock band.”
— Patrick Carney (via his hypnotist’s framing)
“We’d be paying ten dollars per album sale just to get a number on SoundScan. Fuck that.”
— Patrick Carney, on ticket/album bundling
“There’s so much good music, and to have to go to France to hear American music on the radio is insane.”
— Patrick Carney
“The older I get, the more I realize how special this is… I thought all bands felt like this.”
— Dan Auerbach, on his creative connection with Carney
QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS EPISODE
5 questionsHow could an ethical, artist-led label or platform realistically be structured to support touring bands without recreating the same exploitative incentives?
Joe Rogan sits down with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney for a sprawling, funny, and surprisingly candid conversation about fame, touring, anxiety, and the modern music industry.
What would a modern, truly curated music discovery experience look like if it ignored social metrics and streaming volume?
They trade stories about disastrous festival sets, panic attacks on stage, quitting smoking, and how hypnotism helped Carney deal with crippling performance anxiety.
How do you balance the need for exposure (festivals, TV, awards) with the mental and creative cost of saying yes to everything?
A major thread is their frustration with record-label economics, streaming payouts, manipulation of charts through ticket bundling, and the near-total reliance on social media metrics to sign and break artists.
If you launched a Black Keys-style podcast/radio show to spotlight new artists, what criteria and processes would you use to decide who gets featured?
They also dig into cultural shifts—kids glued to phones, broken radio and curation systems, and why they now prioritize fun, autonomy, and helping other artists over chasing mainstream validation.
Looking back, which specific boundaries around touring, relationships, and business do you wish you’d set earlier to protect your mental health and your music?
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
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