A Grammy-winning powerhouse with a Southern gothic back story, she put A labama Shakes on ice to blaze her own genre-bending trail, jamming with Macca, Prince and, um, Thunderbitch. What’s she learned? “Soul bands party hardest,” says Brittany Howard.

Interview by BILL DEMAIN

Portrait by ALYSSE GAFKJEN

THE VINTAGE SEEBURG JUKEBOX IN THE lounge of Nashville’s Sound Emporium is stocked with records that have been made at the studio since producer Jack Clement opened the doors in 1969. G5 is We Gotta Get You A Woman by Todd Rundgren. H1 is The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. J9 is Caleb Meyer by Gillian Welch. But the jukebox’s ‘Artist Of The Week’ – head shot tucked behind the front panel’s glowing blue glass – is Brittany Howard.

“That’s just something they do for whoever ’s working in Studio A,” Howard tells MOJO, as we settle in for our inter view. She’s being modest. Her relationship with the studio is deep and symbiotic, stretching back to Alabama Shakes’ second album Sound & Color, through a limited-edition EP, Live At The Sound Emporium, in 2020, and her latest solo release, What Now, a stir ring divine-soul meditation on love in uncertain times.

Post-pandemic, Howard has split her time between Nashville and Taos, New Mexico. She calls the South her “happy place – with barbecue and a train always nearby ”. She also likes being close to her parents, who live in Athens, Alabama, an hour-and-a-half down Route I-65. Howard was born there in 1988 and started singing at the preternatural age of three. At eight, she lost her older sister Jaime to a rare form of eye cancer. That tragedy was a defining life moment – she calls Jaime “my greatest teacher” – one that’s had a huge bearing on her art.

By the time Howard was 19, she was a fully-for med musical polymath, jamming with locals Zac Cockrell (bass), Heath Fogg (guitar) and Steve Johnson (dr ums). Alabama Shakes’ 2012 debut Boys & Girls was an earth-moving wonder. Millions sold, Grammys, famous fans from Prince to McCartney. Its follow-up, Sound & Color, seemed to assure a long, bright future. But when the songs wouldn’t come for a third album, Howard pivoted away to record her solo debut, Jaime.

Still sensitive to her bandmates, she frames her solo path by saying, “I want to make sure I do it the right way and be respectful of my brothers, because I love them ver y much. There’s not really any bad blood between us. What drove me was following the muse.”

In contrast to her dynamo stage persona, Howard is laid-back and polite in conversation, frequent laughs rippling through a voice with just the hint of a twang. Dressed casual, with curls spilling out from a ‘Fishing Rodeo’ ball cap (she’s passionate about angling), and her dachshund pup Wilma snoozing on her lap, Howard softly holds forth, reminding us at ever y turn how single-minded she’s always been. “I’m a creative person. It’s something I never could deny. And it’s something I can’t squander.”

What was the first music that really moved you?

When I was a little kid, I would sit in this blue chair my grandma had and I’d spin around while my sister played piano. I remember being so moved by that. I got really lost in it. Then, my grandma really liked Elvis Presley, so we listened to his records a lot. Also, The Supremes, and a lot of doo wop groups.

Didn’t you make your singing debut at the age of three?

Yeah, my mom and dad both worked, so I’d stay with my Great Aunt Linda and Uncle Don, and he had a bluegrass band. They’d rehearse in his woodworking shop. I’d go out there to listen, and they passed the microphone to me. I just sang Hound Dog and Wild Thing ’til my little throat was sore! Then my Great Aunt came and got me and I had to go to bed (laughs).