Brittany Howard Artistfacts

October 2, 1988
Brittany Howard is the frontwoman for the Alabama Shakes, which she formed with her high school friend Zac Cockrell in 2009 in Athens, Alabama, a city of about 25,000. After releasing two highly acclaimed albums, the band took a break in 2018 and Howard launched a successful solo career. The Shakes returned to action in 2024 and in 2025 embarked on their first tour since 2017.
Howard has been part of some high-profile performances of The Band's "The Weight," where she sings the "Crazy Chester" verse - the one Mavis Staples sang in The Last Waltz. She first performed it at the Americana Music Association Awards in 2012 as part of an assemblage that included Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris, then again at the Grammy Awards in 2013 with Elton John, Mumford & Sons and Zac Brown. These were both tributes to Levon Helm of The Band, who died in 2012.

In 2023, she dropped a verse at the Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in tribute to another member of The Band, Robbie Robertson, who died earlier that year. Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow and Elton John were all part of that tribute along with Howard.
She was a mail carrier (or as Bart Simpson would say, a "fe-mail man") for the U.S. Postal Service while the Alabama Shakes were on the rise. She was highly motivated to make it in music so she could quit the job.
Her older sister Jaime died of retinal cancer in 1998 when she was just 13. This was a profound loss for Brittany, and it informed a lot of her songwriting as she tried to come to terms with hit. Brittany named her first solo album Jamie in tribute.
After Alabama Shakes released their debut album in 2012, Howard was on the road so much she didn't bother getting a place to live. Instead, she listed her dad's trailer as her address and stayed there when she needed somewhere to crash.
In 2018 she inducted Sister Rosetta Tharpe, another blues-steeped singer-guitarist with a resounding voice - into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She performed Tharpe's song "That's All" with The Roots at the ceremony.
On February 24, 2016 she performed at the White House as part of a Ray Charles tribute hosted by President Barack Obama. Along with Andra Day, Demi Lovato and Yolanda Adams, she sang Charles' "Heaven Help Us All."

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