The Black Keys Split With Management Team After Arena Tour Cancellation
The Black Keys have parted ways with their management team, Irving Azoff and Steve Moir of Full Stop Management, following the last-minute cancellation of their North American arena tour last month. A representative for Azoff confirmed the split to Billboard, saying it was an “amicable parting.”
The rock band initially signed with Azoff and Moir in 2021 after leaving their longtime manager John Peets at Q Prime South. The news of the split was initially reported by The New York Times in an article about recent high-profile tour cancellations that also focused on Jennifer Lopez.
In late May, the Black Keys abruptly canceled the upcoming North American leg of their International Players Tour, with dates for the jaunt abruptly erased without explanation from the band’s social media pages and official website. The trek was set to begin Sept. 17 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and run through Nov. 12 in Detroit.
Venues’ individual listings for the concerts — including a Sept. 18 gig at Austin’s Moody Center and an Oct. 30 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden — also updated the pages to acknowledge that the shows had been canceled and that fans would automatically receive refunds. “Unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel this event,” the Moody Center’s listing noted.
The Black Keys’ official website scrubbed all of the band’s upcoming tour dates except for a single one-off show, a July 6 gig at Chicago’s NASCAR Street Race. Band members Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney later confirmed they were “alive and well,” and that the North American tour was scrapped in order to make it more like those smaller European gigs.
“Following the recent run of shows in the UK & Europe, including stops at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and the Zenith in Paris, we have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly,” the band wrote on social media.
They added, “Thank you for your understanding and apologies for the surprise change… We’re pretty sure everyone is going to be excited when you see what we have in mind though, and look forward to seeing everyone soon.”
Billboard notes that while “no other reason was given for the cancellation of the arena dates, though it has been widely speculated that slow ticket sales were to blame.”
Lopez pulled the plug on her This Is Me…Live Tour only a month before it was set to kick off in Orlando, citing the decision to spend time with her family. “I am completely heartsick and devastated about letting you down,” Lopez said in a statement. “Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary. I promise I will make it up to you and we will all be together again. I love you all so much. Until next time…”
The tour had a series of setbacks and in early April Variety reported that Lopez and her team had rebranded the trek with a “Greatest Hits” tag, ostensibly an effort to entice fans with a career-spanning show rather than one focused on her latest album. All this occurred amidst reports of low ticket sales, though sources close to the tour said it was selling well in key cities, and the decision to cancel was not made around ticket sales.