Songfacts®:

• "Every Time You Leave" is a bluesy, garage rock track recorded by The Black Keys for their 12th studio album, Ohio Players. The song throws us into the heart of a toxic love affair. Whenever his partner leaves, Dan Auerbach feels like he's freefalling, utterly lost and adrift. Despair sets in, driving him to unhealthy escapes. But beneath the anger and self-destruction, there's a deep, undeniable love. He craves his partner's presence, even though it fuels a cycle of pain.
• "Every Time You Leave" was a collaborative effort between The Black Keys' core duo, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney, along with singer-songwriter Beck and super producer Greg Kurstin (the guy behind hits for Adele, Sia, and Liam Gallagher).
• The connection between The Black Keys and Beck goes back to 2003, when they were introduced at a Saturday Night Live after-party. A young, hungry Black Keys handed a copy of their sophomore album Thickfreakness to Beck. To their surprise, he became a fan, inviting them to open for him on a US tour.
  
  "Beck gave us a really good shot early on," Auerbach reminisced to UK newspaper The Sun. "It was huge for us. We'd never played big beautiful outdoor places like Red Rocks before.
  
  He was right in the middle of the Sea Change record, which I absolutely loved, so I got to hear those songs every night in these echoey amphitheatres - it was amazing. He also introduced us to all these people in the music world who we're still in contact with to this day."
  
  One of those connections was Greg Kurstin, who was playing in Beck's band at the time.
• Since touring together, The Black Keys and Beck always talked about working together, and two decades later, they finally made it happen.
  
  From the moment they plugged in at Auerbach's Nashville studio, Easy Eye Sounds, they knew they were onto something special. Together, they co-wrote seven of the 14 tracks on Ohio Players.
• Kurstin co-produced the song with The Black Keys, laying it down in Kurstin's Los Angeles studio. "We had never written with a keyboard player before, but Greg is able to get the nastiest synth sounds ever," Auerbach told Mojo magazine. "His whole studio in LA is a leviathan of cables, so he can make all kinds of crazy-ass sounds."