Sturgill Simpson made a surprise appearance with the Black Keys on Thursday night at Nashville’s the Pinnacle, where he helped turn “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” into a long blues jam, according to Rolling Stone.
Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney were playing the first of two hometown shows as they closed out the North American leg of their Peaches n’ Kream tour. Simpson reportedly walked onstage without an introduction and played his cherry Gibson guitar as the performance stretched to nearly seven minutes.
The Black Keys also brought out Marcus King during the show for a version of Willie Griffin’s “When There’s Smoke, There’s Fire.”
Rolling Stone notes that despite rumors, Simpson and Auerbach had not collaborated before. Simpson’s Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds project recorded its album Mutiny After Midnight at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studios in Nashville, and both artists shared a close connection with the late John Prine.
Simpson recently made Mutiny After Midnight available on streaming services after first releasing it only on physical formats. He also has a fall tour planned with Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds, with dates set to begin Sept. 4 in Austin and end Oct. 30 in Kentucky.
