The band split with Azoff and his management company Full Stop following the abrupt cancellation of their North American tour
Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney took a not-so-subtle shot at former manager and music industry heavyweight Irving Azoff on X amidst the fallout from the band’s canceled 2024 tour.
At around 1:44 a.m. ET, Carney dug up and retweeted an old Azoff tweet from January 2018, in which the music industry vet shared a Bloomberg article about YouTube asking artists to sign non-disparagement clauses. “Free legal advice to artists from Irving. It’s not disparagement if it’s true,” Azoff tweeted at the time.
Carney, for his part, quipped, “Thank you! This advice is very important for all musicians. So great you provided this for us all. It’s hard to speak up to the industry at times. So great to know you are always looking out for the artist. :)”
Reps for the Black Keys and Azoff did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
The tweet came a few days after Carney hinted at simmering discontent over the tour cancellation and suggested the band had been misled by its team. “We got fucked,” he wrote. “I’ll let you all know how so it doesn’t happen to you. Stay tuned.”
The Black Keys were set to spend the fall touring arenas and amphitheaters in support of their latest album, Ohio Players. But at the end of May, the tour was abruptly canceled and the Black Keys released a statement saying they’d “decided to make some changes” to the North American leg to make it more like the European run they’d just wrapped where they played slightly smaller venues. The band said the change would “enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band,” and promised revised dates would be announced “shortly.”
About a week later, the Black Keys announced that they’d split with their management team of Azoff and Steve Moir at Full Stop Management. A rep for Azoff confirmed the decision, describing it as an “amicable parting.” The Black Keys spent just three years with Azoff, joining Full Stop in 2021 after splitting with longtime manager John Peets at Q Prime South.