Dan Auerbach

Coming from a smaller place always made things feel more personal, which is really what it's all about.

A Grammy is really nice, but having lots of fans is really nice, too. I think just getting a record out is a success on its own.

I never listen to Led Zeppelin. But, I mean, I don't think Robert Plant or Jimmy Page listen to Led Zeppelin, either. We all probably obsessed over the same old blues records growing up.

I'm definitely a guitar player, but it's the last thing I listen to in a song, after the singer and the drums.

You know, there's always someone in mind when I'm writing. You know, it's all comes from somewhere inside.

I used to be really nervous when I sang. Like, when I was a kid starting young, 18 and 19, and my dad really had to sort of push me to start singing in front of people. Ever since I got out there and really started doing it, the only thing I've ever tried to do is just sort of is be myself, you know, never put on a voice. Sing naturally.

Being 16 years old and getting an electric guitar is never going to get old. There's always going to be kids making music. There's always going to be kids in bands.

Well, when The Black Keys make a record, I never really feel limited. To me, it seems the possibilities are always endless. The big difference has been playing live and being able to recreate every little part of the record.

I tend to name albums after one of the songs.

Bands from Akron have a sense of humor and don't tend to take themselves too seriously.

It's not about success. Whatever happens, it doesn't matter. I would like to not go bankrupt or get some incurable disease, but other than that, I'm just happy to keep going.

Some people love being onstage and really open up, and I'm sort of the opposite of that. I don't crave the spotlight. I'm still not comfortable even talking onstage.

I'm not afraid of the Canadian tuxedo.

I am nice to everybody. But people really take advantage of it.

People will say, 'Just one picture please.' That is how it starts. There is just one picture and then somebody else wants another. And when I say 'No' I feel guilty.

When I learned to play music, I was listening to blues music. And all the blues music I liked was super simple and stripped down. And then all the hip hop I liked was super simple and stripped down and we always heard that connection.

Hip hop is the new rock n' roll, you know what I mean? And anybody who doesn't think that is just sort of living in the past. It's all just American music, really, when you get right down to it.

The modern video games kind of - they're too three dimensional.

Dude, everybody wants to be Andre 3000. He's got abs for days. How does that guy get so ripped?

You know who we hear about all the rappers from? The bus drivers.

Everybody always wants to rebel against their parents' music, but nobody listened to music louder than my dad.

My mum's family would all get together, with guitars, harmonica, mandolins and upright bass and play old blues and folk songs. That was normal to me.

When I recorded my solo album, 'Keep It Hid,' in 2008, I'd gotten more interested in songwriting, inspired by reading Charles Bukowski and connecting with unfancy, interesting language.

My mom bought me a white Strat, but that wasn't what I wanted, so I went to a guitar store in Cleveland and - the guy told me it was a really good deal - made an even swap for a blue Teisco Del Ray. I loved that guitar and used it a bunch.

I started playing bluegrass with my family, so there were the G, C and D chords. I was playing a Martin acoustic because that's what Carter Stanley of the Stanley Brothers played. Then I got into the really raw blues of Hound Dog Taylor and started on electric guitar.