{"id":809980,"date":"2026-07-19T10:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/809980\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:18:11","slug":"we-were-in-danger-of-running-it-into-the-ground-brittany-howard-on-fleeing-fame-fighting-trump-and-the-epic-return-of-alabama-shakes-alabama-shakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/809980\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We were in danger of running it into the ground\u2019: Brittany Howard on fleeing fame, fighting Trump and the epic return of Alabama Shakes | Alabama Shakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the autumn of 2024, Alabama Shakes<\/a> showed no sign of ending their indefinite hiatus \u2013 and nobody was asking them to. Seven years had passed since the blues-soul-rock band, who exploded out of Athens, Alabama in 2009, had last shared a stage. Their transatlantic Top 10 2012 debut Boys & Girls announced them; the million-selling 2015 follow-up Sound & Color went to No 1 in the US and won them four Grammys. Their fanbase included Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant and Barack Obama. But by 2017 they were physically and creatively spent, and they stopped. Then, in December 2024, with almost no warning, they played their first show in more than seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a friend in Tuscaloosa who had a brewery, but it wasn\u2019t doing so well after Covid,\u201d explains singer Brittany Howard. \u201cHe called me and said he was going to do a fundraiser and asked if I\u2019d like to perform. I said, \u2018For sure.\u2019\u201d But then she started reminiscing, remembering how that particular friend had been a huge help to the band, not just her personally. She felt the band owed him something, collectively. \u201cSo I called the fellas,\u201d she smiles. \u201c\u2018Do y\u2019all wanna perform at this thing \u2013 like, all of us, together?\u2019 And they instantly said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon afterwards, they found themselves rehearsing songs they hadn\u2019t played in years. Then, on 18 December 2024, they performed at the 1,000-capacity Bama Theatre, to a rapturous reception. Guitarist Heath Fogg remembers that show well. \u201cIt felt like an out-of-body experience, to me,\u201d he says. \u201cJust really happy, really thankful \u2026 a feeling of euphoria in the\u00a0purest form. I hadn\u2019t played those songs since our last gig. I hadn\u2019t even listened to them unless one came on in a restaurant or something. Then at the show we knew so many people in the crowd but we hadn\u2019t told anyone we were playing. So it was a total surprise \u2013 and so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It feels good and honest\u2019 \u2026 Howard on stage in Leeds earlier this month. Photograph: Alexander Cropper\/Redferns<\/p>\n

Howard knew that it couldn\u2019t stop there. \u201cIt felt very natural to think: \u2018Let\u2019s get together again. Let\u2019s rehearse. Let\u2019s write songs. Let\u2019s go on tour,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI naively thought we\u2019d do some shows in clubs and theatres, but we\u2019ve been playing some of the biggest shows we\u2019ve ever played, which is just baffling to me, but wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the answer is a song. Released in April this year, American Dream \u2013 a gospel-tinged snapshot of a country coming apart and refusing to despair about it \u2013 went viral on TikTok and Instagram. Over the next fortnight, Howard found herself back at the centre of the cultural conversation after a decade of highly acclaimed but less impactful solo work. Describing lyrics \u2013 which address gun violence, the climate crisis, abortion rights, low wages and even Trump\u2019s White House renovations \u2013 as \u201ca snapshot of 2026\u201d, the singer spoke of her desire that future generations would hear it and think: \u201c\u2018Yeah, shit was crazy back then, but we made it through.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s success is all the more remarkable given the dire state of protest music in 2026. With honourable exceptions such as Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Streets of Minneapolis, a powerful response to the Ice killings of Ren\u00e9e Good and Alex Pretti, or Lucinda Williams\u2019s gently raging The World\u2019s Gone Wrong, most attempts to tackle the ruinous state of Trump\u2019s US fall short, either because they are banal or too divisive, failing to identify the rot in a way that resonates on both sides of the divide. Overnight, though, Alabama Shakes rediscovered their cultural lane \u2013 a band almost uniquely capable of being furious and hopeful in the same breath, articulating the feelings of millions of people. As Howard puts it, \u201cWe\u2019ve probably touched on these subjects before, but not to the extent that we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markWe hit the ground running, then were in danger of running the thing into the ground<\/p>\n

We meet in Leeds, the day before they play the city\u2019s cavernous Millennium Square \u2013 their first gig in Europe for a decade. Howard, who the following night will take the stage in a striking glittering furry ballgown, is dressed down and very jetlagged. Fogg is too, but has been out exploring the city, where they have never played before, and is endearingly excited about having visited Leeds\u2019s oldest ale house, Whitelock\u2019s. \u201cBuilt in 1715!\u201d he exclaims, in a lovely soft Alabama drawl. Bassist Zac Cockrell doesn\u2019t join us, and is possibly still sleeping.<\/p>\n

Alongside old favourites such as Hold On \u2013 225m Spotify streams and counting \u2013 the gig will unveil songs from their fabulous forthcoming third album, I Must Be Dreaming, a radical departure from their previous big-lunged retro soul. It\u2019s more ethereal, even psychedelic in places, with songs about relationships, the current state of their home country and the pace and dissonance of modern life.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel there\u2019s quite a difference between the first album and the second,\u201d Howard says, \u201cbut there\u2019s a thread between them and I feel the same about this album. We\u2019re 10 years older and more experienced, but going to unpredictable places has always been the fun part of this group.\u201d Dreamlike opener Tea Time is built round, of all things, flutes. The similarly titled Time has a full-on psychedelic jam. The album\u2019s first single, Another Life, morphs from R&B into hazy, frazzled rock and packs a huge, euphoric chorus: \u201cCan we try again? Can we try in another life?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way of saying: \u2018This relationship has run ashore,\u2019\u201d Howard says, \u201c\u2018but maybe in the next life it will all work out. I bid you adieu, but just for now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the song, on some level, even subconsciously, partly about the band? \u201cMaybe, when I think about it, because it is unusual to come back like this,\u201d she considers. \u201cCos it feels good and honest. I\u2019m not being forced to do this. When we started the group it felt like it was cool to make music with your friends: \u2018What kind of music do you like? How are we going to fit together?\u2019 Coming back together was the same: \u2018What are you into now? What have you been listening to?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The trio went to the same high school, but didn\u2019t really know each other. Then Howard noticed Cockrell\u2019s At the Drive-In T-shirt and thought he might like the music she\u2019d been making and want to play together. \u201cI approached him in class and played him a CD in his Honda Civic, which was a very vulnerable thing to do,\u201d she remembers. \u201cHe was smashing through the tracks and I was thinking, \u2018Uh oh, he\u2019s not liking this.\u2019 But then he went, \u2018This is cool. Let\u2019s do it.\u2019\u201d Fogg, three years above them, had left college when he came onboard, and the three bonded over rock, punk, R&B and old music they\u2019d picked up from their parents: Dionne Warwick, Elvis, Motown.<\/p>\n

Shake it off \u2026 The band at Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Photograph: Savannah Lauren Shealy<\/p>\n

Howard can pour her heart out like a classic, old-school soul singer, but she started as a drummer, gravitating to other instruments through necessity and only realising she had a voice when her mother heard her tape and said: \u201cI didn\u2019t know you could sing.\u201d She describes her childhood in Limestone County as \u201cslow-paced\u201d, among \u201cpastures, little birds and wildfires. Everybody knew each other. You had some kids who rode horses or drove tractors to school, and people grew soya beans, so we played in fields of yellow.\u201d Not that she lacked harder life experience for songs. Howard is gay, mixed-race \u2013 her white mother and Black father separated when she was eight after her 13-year-old sister Jaime died from retinoblastoma. The singer has previously said that the incident triggered \u201ca raincloud over our family\u201d, but named her 2019 solo album Jaime to honour the sister who taught her piano. Howard herself survived the disease, although it left her partly blind in one eye.<\/p>\n

With the band giving her an outlet, they played local bars, old folk\u2019s homes, shows a 90-mile drive away in Birmingham or Nashville, anywhere that would have them, eventually taking off after the likes of Drive-By Truckers and Jack White asked the band to support them. \u201cWe\u2019d play to anyone who would listen even if we lost money,\u201d says Howard. \u201cAll we wanted was to be in a band and make an album. We never thought people would fall in love with it like they did.\u201d She admits to some guilt about the multitudes of \u201csuper-talented\u201d people who never get a break. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to think I was plucked from millions. So many people don\u2019t get to have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Today, the Shakes still pinch themselves at experiences such as performing for President Obama at the White House. \u201c[When] I shook his hand, it felt like it reached the middle of my arm,\u201d smiles Fogg. \u201cMichelle gave us a great, sincere hug. Each of us have a photo of that moment.\u201d In 2015, Howard performed Get Back with Paul McCartney during his headline set at Lollapalooza, trading vocals with the revered Liverpudlian. \u201cYou forget you\u2019re talking to a Beatle. I don\u2019t know where he gets his energy from. The last time I saw him was at an after-party at 4am. I was like: \u2018What are you doing here?!\u2019 He just doesn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a heady rise, and a product of its moment: the early 2010s were perhaps the last period in which a major label and the young streaming platforms worked in concert to mint new stars, and the Shakes \u2013 a retro-soul band with a colossal playlist-friendly single \u2013 were obvious beneficiaries. But by 2017, with babies due in two of the band\u2019s households, Howard felt that after \u201chitting the ground running and running very hard, we were in danger of running the thing into the ground. Stopping must have looked crazy from the outside, but this group\u2019s always been about protecting and caring about each other.\u201d So they took a break.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Howard didn\u2019t exactly go quietly, making the twice Grammy-nominated Jaime and the acclaimed What Now (2024), but also relishing being able to \u201ccut the grass, do the garden, scoop the litter box and just do normal tasks\u201d. In 2019, she married musician Jesse Lafser; the marriage lasted barely a year. \u201cIt was very quick,\u201d Howard grins. \u201cCan we go to the next topic?\u201d We can, but it\u2019s even thornier. In 2020, the band\u2019s original drummer, Steve Johnson, received a suspended sentence and probation for violating a domestic violence protection order and was later arrested over wilful abuse of a child. Those charges were dropped.<\/p>\n

The band re-formed without him. \u201cI guess you can\u2019t take a long journey like we have without expecting some things to happen,\u201d Howard says. Her reluctance to fully address the subject is as obvious as it is understandable. \u201cI put myself in his shoes, I wouldn\u2019t want someone out there talking about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Howard says that her experiences have made her a gentler, more patient person. \u201cI\u2019ve always had that fight in me, but I\u2019m a bit more contemplative than I was,\u201d she says. \u201cI know I can\u2019t change everything in the world.\u201d Not that she doesn\u2019t want to try. Another new song, the jazzily soulful I Feel Hope Coming, works\u00a0the same seam as American Dream, but with even more positivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy perspective is that I see a lot of people outraged, people in the streets protecting those who don\u2019t have very much from those who have everything,\u201d she says. \u201cBut outrage leads to protest which leads to people talking to each other. To me, that\u2019s hopeful. The American people don\u2019t want war. We want to be able to feed ourselves, clothe our kids and dream dreams for them and have freedom of movement like anybody else. That\u2019s what those songs are about.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a few hours\u2019 time, she\u2019ll express such sentiments on stage. Her hope is that songs such as American Dream and I Feel Hope Coming can soundtrack a moment: the turning of the tide she sees happening now as Americans start to reject hate and division and turn towards freedoms, social justice and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look around and see all these people who were dissatisfied finally pointing the finger at people who are making it that way,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople finally coming together and saying: \u2018I was wrong. Let\u2019s do something about it.\u2019\u201d Fogg concurs: \u201cHope can be a catalyst. First we hope, then we make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Must Be Dreaming is released on 28 August on Island Records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the autumn of 2024, Alabama Shakes showed no sign of ending their indefinite hiatus \u2013 and nobody…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-809980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}