Your stay in Paris in 2015 might not be something you remember fondly, it was the night of the terrorist attacks in the French capital.
It's a crazy story: We had the same promoter as the Eagles of Death Metal and were originally supposed to play at the Bataclan. But at the last minute he rebooked us - and the Eagles played at the Bataclan. He couldn't even explain exactly what made him do it, but it was a momentous decision. We only realised what had happened after the last encore. It was the last time I was in Europe.
Would you call it a trauma?
The Arcs didn't perform again after that - and with the Black Keys we've become a bit more selective and cautious about where we perform. It just happened that way.
Now the album was only made five years after Richard Swift's death.
Not to mention the fact that we were all far too busy with our own things, we put the music on hold and never talked much about Richard's death. In other words, we didn't deal with it any further. When we listened to these tapes of the old recordings and of course Richard's voice - what he plays and how often he laughs - it was quite helpful. It was like we were finishing something. And we were quite nervous at first. But when Leon and I got going, it was very therapeutic. It was a good way to say goodbye to our friend.
How close were you?
I would say we were like brothers. I knew that I could rely on him one hundred per cent and that he would always be there to help and advise me. At the same time, he was the funniest person I've ever met, a real comedian. In that respect, it's a tragedy that things ended like this with him.
What was he like as a musician and producer?
For me, he was a scholar and a musical genius: he could sing like a bird, play the drums like Al Jackson and on the piano he was like Harry Nilsson. I mean, he was terribly talented and I really enjoyed being around him.
