They're anything but an overnight sensation. It took ten years for success to slowly boil for the Black Keys. But suddenly they just may be the hottest rock band in the country.
After their latest album, "El Camino," debuted at #2 on the charts, they sold out Madison Square Garden in 15 minutes.
Photographer Noah Abrams has captured the group while it toured the U.S. and U.K. At left is their sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden earlier this year.
Credit: Noah Abrams
The Blacks Keys are Dan Auerbach on guitar, and Patrick Carney (in "Buddy Holly" glasses) on drums - two otherwise quiet guys who just like to make a mountain of noise.
"We don't have a real act; We're not based on some character or something," Auerbach told CBS News' Anthony Mason. "Our fans know that we're normal people."
"Did you contemplate coming up with a shtick?" asked Mason.
"No," replied Auerbach. "We're not that smart."
Credit: Noah Abrams
Growing up in Akron, Ohio, Auerbach and Carney connected in high school. A grade apart, they weren't really friends at first, but they loved the same music, like Isaac Hayes. And so they just started playing together in Carney's basement.
"Coming out of Akron," said Carney, "early on we felt like underdogs. It motivated us to work harder."
"We always felt like outsiders, which is fine with us," said Auerbach.
Left: Dan Auerbach backstage in Manchester, England, 2012.
Slowly over the past decade, the band built a following the old-fashioned way, by touring the country in a minivan. Carney still remembers their first big payday at a Seattle club, where they made $539 ("In cash!" Carney recalls) when 150 people showed up. It was enough money to pay for gas for their whole trip.
Left: Dan Auerbach in Boston, Mass., 2012.
Soon after, in 2003 the Keys were offered 200,000 pounds by an English mayonnaise company to use their music. Worried about selling out, they turned it down, and regretted it. "We could have paid our rent for 20 years each," Carney said. They accepted the next offer, and as the band's music started appearing in commercials, the Black Keys began to get noticed.
Left: Patrick Carney, backstage in Manchester, England, 2012.
In 2010, on the back of their breakthrough album "Brothers," they won three Grammy Awards.
Left: Patrick Carney, Boston, Mass., 2012.
The Black Keys at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., 2012.
Fans at New York City's Madison Square Garden, 2012, where the Black Keys played two sold-out shows
Sound check in Chicago, 2012.
The Black Keys in Boston, 2012.
Nobody on tour is better or more competitive at ping pong than Patrick Carney.
The Black Keys perform at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival in Indio, Calif.
The Black Keys at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival, Indio, Calif.
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