Nashville Now
Peaches! was recorded while Auerbach's father was in the final stages of a cancer battle. "Everything about what I do is related to my dad," he tells the RS Nashville Now podcast
The influence and memory of Dan Auerbach’s father looms large over the Black Keys’ latest album Peaches!, a collection of obscure blues and soul covers that the band recorded while Auerbach’s father was in the final stages of a cancer battle. Chuck Auerbach died March 29, just a month before his son and Keys drummer Pat Carney dropped their LP on May 1. In a new interview with Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, Auerbach admits that Peaches!, despite its ebullient nature, can be hard for him to listen to, especially the track “It’s a Dream,” originally cut by Charles Fisher Jr.
“I feel like he would have loved that song. It was right up his alley. This whole life has been a bit of a dream and he helped put me here. So, that’s kind of hard to listen to, but it’s mostly joyous,” Auerbach says, holding back tears. “He gave me so much. It was like one last gift.”
Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studios in Nashville, where the Black Keys recorded Peaches!, is decorated with folk art, antiquities, and assorted vintage signs. One from a Freemasons lodge hangs above the studio floor. Auerbach says it’s all connected to his father.
