Recommendations of the Editorial team
The influence of Dan Auerbach’s father runs like a common thread through the new Black Keys album “Peaches!” – a collection of obscure blues and soul covers that the band recorded while Auerbach’s father was in the final stages of his cancer. Chuck Auerbach died on March 29th, just a month before his son and Keys drummer Pat Carney released the album on May 1st. Speaking to the ROLLING STONE podcast “Nashville Now,” Auerbach admits that “Peaches!” Despite his exuberant energy, it was sometimes difficult for him to hear – especially the track “It’s a Dream”, originally recorded by Charles Fisher Jr.
“I think he would have loved this song. It would have been exactly his thing. This whole life was somehow a dream, and he got me there. That makes the song hard to bear – but above all it is full of joy,” says Auerbach, who can hardly hold back the tears. “He gave me so much. It was like a final gift.”
Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studios in Nashville, where the Black Keys’ “Peaches!” recordings, are decorated with folk art, antiques and all sorts of vintage signs. A sign from a Masonic lodge hangs above the studio floor. All of this, says Auerbach, goes back to his father.
Everything from the father
“Everything I do is related to my dad – musically and aesthetically. He was an antiques dealer, a picker. I knew how to load a van for a tour because I packed the van for his antique shows. This shabby old rusty van with a wooden frame on top,” he says, remembering how his father would always crank up the music in the van – especially “Ramblin’ Man” by the Allman Brothers. “My dad heard music louder than anyone else.”
In this episode of “Nashville Now” Auerbach talks in detail about Gregg Allman – who died nine years ago today – and his lasting influence, not just on the Black Keys, but on the music world as a whole. Auerbach produced a new live version of the Allman Brothers song “Come and Go Blues,” performed by Marcus King, for the upcoming documentary “Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul.”
The film opens Wednesday, June 17, including week-long seasons in Los Angeles and New York, as well as exclusive one-time screenings on more than 200 screens across the country. Tickets are available now.
The full conversation with Auerbach can be seen below.
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ROLLING STONE’s weekly country music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by Deputy Editor and Head of Country Joseph Hudak, is available to download and subscribe to on Apple Podcasts or Spotify – or wherever you listen to your podcasts. New episodes appear every Wednesday with interviews from artists and personalities such as Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, the Black Crowes, Carly Pearce, Luke Grimes, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Adam Mac, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Ne-Yo, Rival Sons singer Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show member Ketch Secor, Clever, “Love on the Spectrum” protagonist Tyler White, Willie Nelson expert John Spong and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray and Jonathan Bernstein.
