The Black Keys on the Idea of Selling Out

I mean making bad decisions based on what other people think, you think what other people think you should do, I think it's pretty common. Supercut. I mean when we started the band there was definitely decisions that we were making based on what we thought other people thought we should do. Right. At one point we got offered, you know, to put a song in a Bannies commercial in the UK. We were, keep in mind, like we might have had a couple hundred dollars in our bank account. We were destitute and we didn't like have, you know, there was no other like lifeline. It was like this is our livelihood. And we were convinced fully by someone who was working with us as a manager that if we took that money and we had a song in our, in that commercial that we would be branded as sellouts and that we would never, no longer have a career. Jesus Christ. So we didn't. And then we eventually learned to like. It was like we were brainwashed. We were brainwashed. You know, because we were making records by ourselves in our basement, like on absolutely no budget. Well, this guy lived in like a multimillion dollar house in like a big major city. And he was one telling us what, you know, I was just like, yeah, yeah. But yeah, you know. Is that a real dilemma? Like when an artist gets an offer to sell a song for something like Hot Dogs, but it's a shitload of money. What is the thought process that happens? It seems like it was a thing when we started. It doesn't matter at all anymore. It doesn't seem like it. So no one cares anymore. They shouldn't care when it happens. It's not. It doesn't ruin the original song. In this you have, I think certain songs were ruined by commercials. Like of the main parody of it. I heard it through the grapevine. I think was. Oh, that's that's a rough one. There's a problem there. Although I still, I love the song still. But yeah, but I think it's true though. You do now have to think about the grapes dancing around. Yeah. You have to think about the grapes, man. Good for you. Thank you. I'm glad you're there. Well, I don't really either. I think as long as you're comfortable with it, but yeah, we were definitely convinced multiple times. One thing we were told not to do was it was a Kate Moss jewelry commercial. We were told not, it was like Kate Moss, like dancing around scantily clad. And we were told once again, like we'd be a sellout for doing that. And we didn't, or he, our manager had passed on it without asking us. And it was like, what the fuck? Dude, I've done a total 180 after you brought up the grapes. No, I agree. Yeah. I can fuck up a song. I guess I didn't think it could. I didn't think like selling it to a commercial could. And then I thought about the grapes. I'm like, it's just, I think it's not so much the commercial as much as that. That commercial was omnipresent. It was overexposure. You know, hearing a song, hearing a song enough, we'll make it a hit song. I think like you could, I'm convinced you could put any song, pipe it through every Walgreens and it's going to become a hit. How about that really big cock song? Absolutely. You can see people dancing to the aisle. Yeah. Definitely in France or somewhere where they don't speak English. That, you know, like a big, oh, do I hear that cock song? Well, what makes a hit today because of the fact that radio is not the big driver anymore? What is the biggest driver of record sales or of streams? Like how do people find out about stuff now most? I mean, there's this kind of punk garage rock musician who goes by the name King Kong and the barbecue show. He actually has the second most tick tocked song right now, which is amazing. Wow. So I don't know if that, but I don't know. I don't think any of those like analytics work anymore to determine what's happening. I don't think anybody really knows what's going on. I do someone, but how does like, say if you're an artist, you're talented. How did, how the fuck does it get out there? That's what we've, we've wondered. I don't know. But you know, it's interesting to me is how many musicians are selling like they're publishing. It's like, if we're, we're always told like, oh yeah, record sales are, no one's buying records, but then you see like these people selling their publishing for like 150 million, 500 million. Bruce Springsteen just sold everything for half a billion dollars. Yeah. He wants a submarine. He wants that submarine. Well, it's that submarine. There's a lot of inflation. He's like in shit now. He's going to be up there dressed like Toneta just dancing on his fucking giant yacht. Half a billion dollars is a crazy amount of money. But I guess, you know, what is Bruce Springsteen like in his sixties somewhere? Right? I don't know. My friend said he's the only working class hero who wants to be known as the boss. That's a good point. That's a good point.