Patrick Carney

Patrick Carney
Background information
Birth name	Patrick J. Carney
Also known as	The Salesman
Born	(1980-04-15) April 15, 1980 Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Genres	Blues rock, garage rock
Instruments	Drums, guitar, bass guitar, keyboard
Years active	2000–present
Associated acts	The Black Keys, Blakroc, Drummer, The Sheepdogs, Dan Auerbach
Website	www.theblackkeys.com
Notable instruments
Ludwig Drums Paiste Cymbals.[1]

Patrick J. Carney (born April 15, 1980) is an American musician best known as the drummer for The Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. He also has a side-project rock band called Drummer.

Early life

Carney's father, Jim, and stepmother, Katie Byard, are reporters for the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio. His mother, Mary Stormer, is an Akron Municipal Court deputy clerk and is a former member of the Akron Board of Education. His stepfather, Barry Stormer, owns B. A. Stormer Construction Services. His uncle, Ralph Carney, is a professional sax player, and has played with Tom Waits, among others. After Carney's parents divorced when he was 8, he lived part of the time with his mother, Mary Stormer, and part of the time with his father, Jim Carney, who had moved to a different neighborhood on the west side of Akron, Ohio. Dan Auerbach also lived in this neighborhood, and the two met and played tag football with Auerbach's friends, although they did not become friends until high school. As a teenager, Carney was musically influenced by bands such as Pavement, Captain Beefheart and fellow Akron band Devo.^[2]

Music career

Carney playing with The Black Keys in 2010

In 2001 Carney and Auerbach, lead singer and guitarist, formed The Black Keys, releasing their debut album The Big Come Up less than a year later. This was followed by Thickfreakness in 2003 and Rubber Factory in 2004. The band's fourth album Magic Potion was released in 2006. Attack & Release, their critically acclaimed fifth album was released in 2008, with a follow up in 2010 titled Brothers. In 2011, the band released the album El Camino.

Both Carney and Auerbach record with Nonesuch Records. In 2009, Carney joined the 9th annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to support independent musicians' careers.^[3][4][5] Carney has produced records for Beaten Awake, Houseguest, Churchbuilder and The Black Keys and is the founder of Audio Eagle Records.

Drummer

In 2009, while fellow Black Keys member Dan Auerbach was on his solo tour, Carney formed a new band called Drummer in which he played bass. Each of the band's members had played drums in another band. They released Feel Good Together, their debut album in the same year.

Other ventures

In 2012, he produced the self-titled album for Canadian rockers The Sheepdogs. Atlantic Records released it on September 4 of that year. In 2011, he produced the second studio album by Tennis, titled Young & Old, which was released on Fat Possum Records on February 14, 2012.

Audio Eagle Records

In 2005, Carney created Audio Eagle Records; an independent record label. It signed acts such as Houseguest, Royal Bangs and Carney's own side-project Drummer. Carney shut the label down in 2010.

Personal life

Carney married his first wife, writer Denise Grollmus, in 2007.^[6] The couple acrimoniously divorced in 2009. The following was written in the Rolling Stone's May 27, 2010, issue regarding his relationship with Grollmus:

[Patrick] says she slept with his best friend, lied to him for years, bilked him for money. By the end, Carney was depressed, drinking a lot, and had gained 25 pounds. 'Homeboy was miserable,' Auerbach says. 'He was being manipulated mentally and emotionally. It was so draining.' Carney finally broke it off last July, with a phone call while his wife was in Europe. ('The ultimate p---- move,' he says.) He says it cost him a quarter of a million dollars, plus health insurance and a monthly alimony check: 'Totally worth it.'^[7]

After Carney's interview, Grollmus wrote her side of the story concerning the couple's infidelities, alcoholism, and eventual split in a Salon essay published on March 3, 2011.^[8] In her essay, entitled Snapshots From a Rock 'N' Roll Marriage, Grollmus wrote:

I think about the day he asked me for a divorce. Aug. 4, 2009. Just two days earlier, I had left for Warsaw, Poland, on a two-month research trip for a book I was writing. It was one of the few times in our relationship that I had done the leaving. I always feared that if we were both bouncing around the world for the sake of our careers, we’d never last.^[9]

Patrick Carney, playing at the House of Blues in New Orleans, LA, on September 21, 2010.

In 2010, Carney and his bandmate, Dan Auerbach, moved from Akron, OH, and purchased homes in Nashville, TN.^[10] They recorded their El Camino album at Auerbach's newly completed Nashville studio, Easy Eye Sound Studio.

On February 13, 2011, hours before the Grammys in Los Angeles, CA, Carney proposed to his girlfriend, Emily Ward. They married on September 15, 2012, in the backyard of their Nashville home.^[11] The wedding ceremony was officiated by actor Will Forte.^[12] The wedding party included Ward's siblings Danielle Shuster & Henry Ward, Carney's brothers Will Carney, Michael Carney, & Barry Stormer, and the couple's Irish wolfhound, Charlotte. Wearing Carolina Herrera, Ward walked down the aisle to Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells. Carney and Ward invited 350 guests, including bandmate Dan Auerbach and professional snowboarder Shaun White, who was later arrested and charged with vandalism and public intoxication at a hotel in Nashville, TN after the wedding reception.^[13][14]

Discography

The Black Keys

• The Big Come Up (2002)
• Thickfreakness (2003)
• The Moan (2004)
• Rubber Factory (2004)
• Magic Potion (2006)
• Attack & Release (2008)
• Brothers (2010)
• El Camino (2011)

Drummer

• Feel Good Together (2009)

Producer

• The Sheepdogs (2012)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Patrick Carney.

• The Black Keys official website
• The Black Keys official Myspace page
• The Black Keys Fan Lounge