Complete List Of The Black Keys Band Members

Feature Photo: Kenny Sun, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Known for their gritty blues-rock sound, The Black Keys began as a lo-fi garage-rock duo and grew into one of the most successful American rock acts of the twenty-first century. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney formed the band in Akron, Ohio, in 2001 and have remained its only permanent members. Early albums such as The Big Come Up (2002), Thickfreakness (2003), and Rubber Factory (2004) established the duo’s raw approach before Brothers (2010) and El Camino (2011) pushed them into arenas and major awards. Later albums expanded the palette through psychedelia, soul, hill-country blues, and collaborations without changing the central Auerbach-Carney partnership.

The Black Keys continued their studio run with Ohio Players in 2024, No Rain, No Flowers in 2025, and the blues-covers album Peaches! in 2026, their fourteenth studio album. Although the band itself remains a two-man partnership, Auerbach and Carney have regularly expanded the live lineup with bassists, guitarists, keyboardists, percussionists, and backing vocalists. Those touring musicians have changed from tour to tour and sometimes even between legs of the same tour. The sections below separate the two permanent members from the musicians who have helped bring The Black Keys’ records to the stage.

CORE MEMBERS

Dan Auerbach

Dan Auerbach is the lead vocalist, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, songwriter, and co-founder of The Black Keys. He formed the band with Patrick Carney in Akron in 2001, and his blues-influenced guitar work and soulful voice became the center of the group’s sound. Auerbach’s playing on albums such as Rubber Factory, Brothers, El Camino, Turn Blue, and Let’s Rock helped move the band from basement recordings to international arenas without completely losing the rough edges of the early years. He has also become an important producer through his Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, working with artists including Dr. John, Lana Del Rey, Shannon and the Clams, Yola, and many others.

Outside The Black Keys, Auerbach released the solo albums Keep It Hid in 2009 and Waiting on a Song in 2017 and formed The Arcs with musicians including Leon Michels and Richard Swift. His work with The Black Keys continued through Ohio Players, No Rain, No Flowers, and Peaches!, the latter returning the duo to the kind of loose blues performances that shaped them in the first place. Auerbach remains one of the two permanent members of The Black Keys.

Patrick Carney

Patrick Carney is the drummer, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and co-founder of The Black Keys. His stripped-down drumming was a defining part of the duo’s early records, where the lack of a permanent bass player or second guitarist forced his drums to carry an enormous amount of weight. As the band’s arrangements grew more elaborate, Carney expanded into keyboards, guitar, bass, percussion, and production while maintaining the blunt rhythmic feel that made albums such as Thickfreakness, Brothers, and El Camino immediately recognizable.

Carney has also produced and collaborated outside The Black Keys, including work connected with artists such as Tennis, The Sheepdogs, Michelle Branch, and others. Through every lineup expansion and touring change, Carney and Auerbach have remained the actual band. Their partnership continued through the 2026 album Peaches!, which they produced together at Easy Eye Sound.

RECENT TOURING MUSICIANS

The Black Keys’ live personnel has never functioned like a fixed second set of permanent band members. The lineup changed again during the 2025 and 2026 touring cycles, and different legs featured different combinations of guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, and backing vocals. The musicians below are among the players documented with the band during the most recent touring and recording period.

Chris St. Hilaire

Chris St. Hilaire joined The Black Keys’ touring operation in 2022, contributing percussion and backing vocals. His role helps broaden the rhythm section beyond Patrick Carney’s drum kit, particularly on songs whose studio arrangements use tambourine, hand percussion, and layered backing vocals. St. Hilaire remained part of the live presentation during the 2025 and 2026 period and also contributed percussion to the 2026 album Peaches!. His presence gives the band extra rhythmic movement without overwhelming the loose feel at the center of the music.

Ray Jacildo

Ray Jacildo joined The Black Keys’ touring lineup in 2021 as a keyboardist, percussionist, and backing vocalist. His organ, piano, and percussion parts allowed the band to reproduce the increasingly layered arrangements heard on the later studio records while keeping Auerbach free to concentrate on guitar and lead vocals. Jacildo also contributed keyboards to Ohio Players in 2024 and continued appearing with the live band into the 2026 touring period. His role has included organ, piano, additional percussion, harmonica, and backing vocals depending on the material.

Barrie Cadogan

Barrie Cadogan joined The Black Keys’ touring lineup during the 2025 period as a guitarist and backing vocalist. Best known for his work with Little Barrie, Cadogan brought a raw, blues-heavy guitar style that fits naturally beside Auerbach’s playing. He remained part of the 2026 Peaches ‘n Kream tour, where the two guitarists frequently traded lines and expanded songs such as “Weight of Love,” “Next Girl,” and the band’s growing collection of blues covers. His playing helped give the recent live shows a rougher, more improvisational character.

Joe Harrison

Joe Harrison joined the touring band as a bassist and backing vocalist during the 2025 period and appeared with The Black Keys on the early 2026 Peaches ‘n Kream dates. His bass work gave the live band a dedicated low-end foundation as Auerbach and Cadogan handled the guitar parts. Because The Black Keys have continued to adjust their touring personnel from leg to leg, Harrison has been one of several bassists used during the 2026 period rather than a permanent member of the duo.

Andy Gabbard

Andy Gabbard first joined The Black Keys’ touring lineup in 2019 as a guitarist and backing vocalist after years of work with Buffalo Killers and his own solo projects. He became an important part of the expanded live sound during the Let’s Rock, Dropout Boogie, and Ohio Players periods and also contributed guitar and backing vocals in the studio. Although some listings place the end of his main touring run in 2025, Gabbard continued contributing to Black Keys recordings and appeared on selected 2026 dates, sometimes handling bass rather than guitar. His ability to move between instruments and harmony vocals has made him one of the most flexible musicians associated with the band’s recent era.

Jimbo Mathus

Jimbo Mathus became closely involved with The Black Keys during the sessions that produced Peaches!. Known for his work with Squirrel Nut Zippers and a long career rooted in blues, country, and Southern music, Mathus contributed keyboards, organ, Wurlitzer, harmonica, guitar, percussion, bells, and backing vocals to the album. He also joined the band for 2026 live performances, adding keyboards, harmonica, percussion, and vocals. His musical background fits the loose blues direction of the Peaches! period particularly well.

Eric Deaton

Eric Deaton is a Mississippi bassist and guitarist deeply connected to the hill-country blues tradition. He played bass on Peaches! alongside Auerbach, Carney, Kenny Brown, Jimbo Mathus, and other collaborators, helping give the album its heavy, repetitive groove. Deaton also appeared with The Black Keys during selected 2026 live performances. Like several recent touring players, his involvement has been tied to particular sessions and tour dates rather than permanent membership in the duo.

FORMER TOURING MUSICIANS

Zach Gabbard

Zach Gabbard, Andy Gabbard’s brother and fellow Buffalo Killers member, joined The Black Keys’ touring lineup in 2019 on bass and backing vocals. His playing helped fill out the live arrangements during the Let’s Rock, Dropout Boogie, and Ohio Players years. Zach’s steady bass work gave Patrick Carney a stronger live rhythm-section partner while leaving Auerbach and the additional guitarist room to expand the arrangements. His main touring run with The Black Keys ended during the lineup changes around 2025.

Leon Michels

Leon Michels joined The Black Keys on tour in 2010, contributing keyboards and percussion as the band expanded beyond its original two-man stage setup during the Brothers era. Michels is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of El Michels Affair whose soul and funk background fit naturally with the band’s increasingly groove-oriented music. His association with Dan Auerbach continued well beyond that tour through The Arcs and other Easy Eye Sound projects. Michels later returned as a studio collaborator on Ohio Players, even though his original Black Keys touring role was brief.

Nick Movshon

Nick Movshon played bass with The Black Keys during the 2010 touring expansion around Brothers. His presence helped the duo reproduce studio arrangements that had become too layered to perform convincingly with only guitar and drums. Movshon later became part of The Arcs with Dan Auerbach, Leon Michels, Richard Swift, and Homer Steinweiss, extending his musical connection with Auerbach beyond The Black Keys.

Gus Seyffert

Gus Seyffert joined The Black Keys as a touring bassist and backing vocalist during the Brothers period and remained through the El Camino era. He has explained that Patrick Carney contacted him when the band needed additional bass and keyboard support for the increasingly elaborate live arrangements. Seyffert became an important part of the arena-era touring band before moving on to other studio and touring work. His career outside The Black Keys includes collaborations with Beck, Norah Jones, Roger Waters, and numerous other artists.

John Clement Wood

John Clement Wood joined the touring band in 2010 and contributed keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, and percussion. His versatility became particularly valuable as The Black Keys moved from the relatively stripped-down Brothers material into the larger live arrangements required by El Camino and Turn Blue. Wood remained part of the touring setup through the middle of the 2010s, helping the band move smoothly between organ-driven songs, guitar-heavy material, and arrangements requiring additional percussion.

Richard Swift

Richard Swift joined The Black Keys’ touring lineup in 2014 as bassist and backing vocalist during the Turn Blue period. Swift was already a respected solo artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and member of The Shins, and his musical relationship with Dan Auerbach continued through The Arcs. His warm, melodic approach fit the more atmospheric direction of the band’s 2014 material. Swift died in 2018 at the age of forty-one, leaving behind an influential body of work that reached far beyond his time with The Black Keys.

Steve Marion

Steve Marion, best known as Delicate Steve, joined The Black Keys’ touring operation in 2019 as an additional guitarist. His inventive guitar style helped recreate the layered parts from Let’s Rock while adding another distinct guitar voice beside Auerbach. Marion appeared with the band during the early phase of the Let’s Rock touring period before the live guitar role increasingly centered on Andy Gabbard. Outside The Black Keys, Marion has built a distinctive instrumental career through Delicate Steve.