The Black Keys: Meet ‘Lonely Boy’ Dance Star Derrick Tuggle

2011-11-02

Story by Cat Badra

The Black Keys’ dancing sensation says video was spur-of-the-moment

By now, hopefully you’ve seen the slide-splitting Black Keys video for their new single, “Lonely Boy.” The star of the video isn’t the Black Keys; instead, Derrick T. Tuggle, a 48-year-old actor, musician and part-time security guard, is the one grabbing all the Web attention with his suave steps in the clip.

The short film has Tuggle as a non-stop dance engine who moves and grooves to the Keys’ new single from outside a motel room. It is a peculiar concept, and it comes off so swimmingly well, that the video stacked up nearly 400,000 views in its first day. (If you haven’t seen it yet, find it on our news page.)

According to Tuggle, the idea was completely spontaneous, and the actual footage almost didn’t happen. Speaking with MTV News, he explained that he was cast as an extra, and there were several other people who were slated to also be in the video.

“I was the first one to perform in the video. It was a motel shot where the guys from the Black Keys come and give me the keys to their motel room,” he said. “The director just sort of noticed me dancing and asked me, ‘Can you perform?’ I said, ‘I can dance, anybody can dance,’ so I took some moves from everybody: John Travolta from ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Pulp Fiction,’ the Carlton Banks dance from ‘The Fresh Prince’ and a little bit of Michael Jackson, so it was a smorgasbord of everybody in there.”

Tuggle added it was a spur-of-the-moment idea: “My acting teacher Mark McPherson, he has us do this thing before we start class called ‘Song and Dance,’ where he’ll have us sing one of our favorite songs, and then while we’re singing it, he’ll have us do a crazy dance, or a sexy dance, and I guess it spawned from that.”

The now-viral video could be Tuggle’s big break. “I’ve been out [in Los Angeles] for 10 years,” he said, “pursuing acting and music, so hopefully this will lead to more work. Honestly, I just went down there to do my part and see what would happen. Who knew I would take over the whole thing?” Funny how fate works, isn’t it? (Photo via YouTube.)

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.

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