Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we are devastated, heartbroken, terrified,
Speaker 1: and furious. We have very few words of hope or
Speaker 1: help today. We just want you to be kind to
Speaker 1: each other and take care of your little corner of
Speaker 1: the world the best you can. I'm going to mourn
Speaker 1: today and tomorrow and however many days I need until
Speaker 1: I find my strength again. And then I'm going to
Speaker 1: get back to fighting for women, for my black friends,
Speaker 1: for my gay and trans friends, for my immigrant friends,
Speaker 1: and for my friend who spent months generously documenting every
Speaker 1: step of her IVF publicly to help other women, only
Speaker 1: to find out this week that the baby is not
Speaker 1: viable and she will now wait to see if her
Speaker 1: body can miscarry safely on its own, whether it will
Speaker 1: be an ectopic pregnancy, or whether she'll need a medical
Speaker 1: abortion to safely survive her attempt to grow her family.
Speaker 1: Thank God she's in a state where that is still legal.
Speaker 1: When I find the strength, I'm going to get back
Speaker 1: to fighting for everyone who is scared and suffering and
Speaker 1: feeling betrayed by a country that has never yet live
Speaker 1: up to its promise of liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 1: To quote poet Adrian Rich. My heart is moved by
Speaker 1: all I cannot save. So much has been destroyed. I
Speaker 1: have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely,
Speaker 1: with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. Please take care
Speaker 1: of yourselves and take care of each other. Today, we're
Speaker 1: going to do something different. At the espnW summit last week,
Speaker 1: I had a chance to talk to Grammy Award winning
Speaker 1: musician Brittany Howard, formerly of Alabama Shiks. She's now out solo,
Speaker 1: and I thought our conversation would just be a nice,
Speaker 1: entertaining listen to take our minds off of all things
Speaker 1: real life.
Speaker 2: Brittany and I chatted about.
Speaker 1: Her growing up in a junk yard, haunted houses, treating
Speaker 1: her voice like an instrument for her storytelling, becoming a unicorn,
Speaker 1: and what animals we're going to have on our later
Speaker 1: in life farms. Those farms might become in sooner than
Speaker 1: I planned. Brittany was truly a delight. I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoy it. It's coming up right after the break. This
Speaker 1: woman is a Powerhouse was born in Athens, Alabama. Singer, songwriter, producer,
Speaker 1: multi instrumentalist. She started playing guitar in junior high She
Speaker 1: and a high school friend founded the band Alabama Sheiks
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, and she won four Grammy
Speaker 1: Awards with that band. In twenty fifteen, she received a
Speaker 1: Billboard's Women in Music Powerhouse Award and released a self
Speaker 1: titled album with her side project Thunderbitch, which has never
Speaker 1: been my nickname, but I want it to be. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna work toward that. In twenty eighteen, she toured with
Speaker 1: her trio Bermuda Triangle, and then in twenty nineteen, she
Speaker 1: released her first solo album, entitled Jamie, which was nominated
Speaker 1: for seven Grammy Awards. Last year, Rolling Stone named her
Speaker 1: to its two hundred and fifty Greatest Guitarists of All
Speaker 1: Time list. In February of this year, she released her
Speaker 1: second solo album, What Now, and it's been named one
Speaker 1: of the best albums of the year by outlets including
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone, NPR, The New York Times, and Pitchfork. She
Speaker 1: is a longtime champion for LGBTQIA plus writes, and she's
Speaker 1: made an impact fighting for social justice causes in her community.
Speaker 1: She is a bad ass. If you aren't loud enough,
Speaker 1: I will yell at you. It's Brittany Hard Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: after this mentioned, I'm gonna put it to bed, but truly.
Speaker 1: Andrea Carter at our New York summit was asked, if
Speaker 1: you could only listen to one musician for the rest
Speaker 1: of your life, who would it be, and she said,
Speaker 1: Brittany Howard. So when we keep saying how excited she
Speaker 1: is and why she was literally crying earlier, that is why.
Speaker 1: Also good taste, Andrea, right, good taste. Okay, Brittany, I
Speaker 1: want to get weird right off the top, cause I
Speaker 1: was reading about you living in a haunted house, and
Speaker 1: when I asked you about it, you said that an
Speaker 1: actual through line for making your music has been being
Speaker 1: deeply uncomfortable, including like ghosts. So take us all to
Speaker 1: the haunted house.
Speaker 2: Do you want to hear about the haunted house?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: I lived in this haunted house for seven years, y'all,
Speaker 3: and people always ask me why didn't you leave?
Speaker 2: And I says, because I ain't got no money.
Speaker 3: You know, the ghost was doing things like slamming cabinet doors,
Speaker 3: flinging open my bedroom door, flinging open my bathroom door.
Speaker 3: There's a there's an instance of growling, whispering in the air. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: seven years.
Speaker 1: But I also loved that you originally lived there with
Speaker 1: a bunch of family members, so everyone just assumed somebody
Speaker 1: in the house was doing it, and then everyone left
Speaker 1: except for you, and you were like, oh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no one else is here, exactly right. I started
Speaker 3: blaming it on the raccoons outside. I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: it must be a raccoon that is wiggling a nail
Speaker 3: loose that opened the cabinet. I was trying to be
Speaker 3: very logical about the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And then an invisible raccoon whispered in your band made's ear.
Speaker 1: He ran out of the house, and you were like,
Speaker 1: time to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: My bandmate, Zach, we were in this little rehearsal room
Speaker 3: I had in there and we were going over the song.
Speaker 2: He just stops playing and I was like, why'd you stop?
Speaker 2: We were doing good.
Speaker 3: He's like white like and he was like, something just
Speaker 3: whispering in my ear. I'm out of here, and.
Speaker 2: I was like me too, I'm leaving too.
Speaker 1: But you made beautiful music there, yes, And then Sound
Speaker 1: in Color. You were staying up all night and there
Speaker 1: was a bat in the studio. Yeah, okay, and then Jamie,
Speaker 1: you were in a greenhouse during a heat wave with
Speaker 1: no Ac.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred four degrees.
Speaker 1: And then the last album was very peaceful. So what
Speaker 1: does that mean?
Speaker 2: I don't know progress. I'm gonna try a pattern of peace. Okay,
Speaker 2: see what happens.
Speaker 1: I think we all should Yeah, starting next Tuesday. Okay.
Speaker 1: You had incredible success with Alabama Shakes, but you decided
Speaker 1: to go solo. And your first solo album, Jamie, was
Speaker 1: incredibly personal. You named it after and debtie it to
Speaker 1: your sister, who died at age thirteen. There are songs
Speaker 1: about her. There are songs about growing up poor on
Speaker 1: a junk yard, your home was hit by lightning in
Speaker 1: the middle of the junk yard, about your parents in
Speaker 1: a racial marriage and the judgment that they got, your
Speaker 1: struggles with religion, Like, there was so much personal stuff
Speaker 1: in there. Why did you want to make an album
Speaker 1: that was so specific?
Speaker 3: I feel like, you know, I grew up in a
Speaker 3: small town. I felt like I was seen, but not
Speaker 3: in a positive way. I didn't have like a lot
Speaker 3: of positive encouragement to be who I was. You know,
Speaker 3: I feel like it took me a long time to
Speaker 3: be like no, I have a story, of an interesting story,
Speaker 3: of a good story to tell.
Speaker 2: I think it took me.
Speaker 3: A long time to be proud of who I was,
Speaker 3: well proud enough to share it with the world, you know,
Speaker 3: because that's very vulnerable. But that was an inspiration behind it,
Speaker 3: just using my voice and authentic, just telling people who
Speaker 3: I am. And I think that's like a It's like
Speaker 3: a trail that I'd like to keep blazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah you're Yeah, thank you. And we often find that
Speaker 1: the more specific we are, the more relatable it is,
Speaker 1: which feels counterintuitive, but in fact, people need to hear
Speaker 1: our very specific, very personal stories to feel less alone,
Speaker 1: which is the most powerful way to speak to the
Speaker 1: larger masses. Your high school friend and bandmate, Zach Cockrell,
Speaker 1: actually played on both of your solo albums, So why
Speaker 1: couldn't you make them with the band? Did it feel
Speaker 1: like those albums only could have been solo albums?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I just needed time to do everything
Speaker 3: in my own way because I had never really done that.
Speaker 3: I'd always had kind of like a delegation of the
Speaker 3: guys like what do you think about this?
Speaker 2: What do you think about that?
Speaker 3: And not wanting to sing anything that gets under anybody's
Speaker 3: skin too much, you know. I was kind of It's
Speaker 3: not like anybody made me do that. That's just what
Speaker 3: the position at the I put myself in. And then
Speaker 3: I thought it was very freeing to walk away. Instead
Speaker 3: of it being like such a negative thing. It was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: now I'm on my own I can make my own
Speaker 3: mistakes or I can have my own victories. If the
Speaker 3: ship sells great. If the ship sinks, that's my fault.
Speaker 3: And taking this absolute authority over the whole project. I
Speaker 3: had never done that before. I'd never been able to
Speaker 3: just touch every single thing just how I wanted it to,
Speaker 3: you know, And I think life is short. Why not
Speaker 3: try it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? We love that, right. I think also, you're in
Speaker 1: such a different position after those Alabama Shakes albums than
Speaker 1: when you started. You told Terry Gross on Fresh Air
Speaker 1: about leaving the band and writing about your sister. You
Speaker 1: said quote, I think there was a lot of healing
Speaker 1: that happened after I took my time away from the Shakes,
Speaker 1: because I finally got to slow down and look at
Speaker 1: how much life had changed, and the change was remarkable.
Speaker 1: I needed to put my feet back on the ground
Speaker 1: and figure out who I am now and what matters
Speaker 1: to me. I know my sister would be so proud.
Speaker 1: I got out of the junkyard, I got out of Athens, Alabama,
Speaker 1: and I could see the world, hear different languages, see
Speaker 1: different cultures, experience the sun in different places of the world,
Speaker 1: and see the ocean. And you said you owed so
Speaker 1: much of that to your sister because she brought music
Speaker 1: to your life. That is remarkable to do in the
Speaker 1: midst of great success, to say, oh, I want to
Speaker 1: take a moment and actually just think about what things
Speaker 1: mean to me and how different I am now, instead
Speaker 1: of just let me ride this way for as long
Speaker 1: as people will let me. How do you decide to
Speaker 1: do that happiness?
Speaker 3: You know, you can have a lot going on it.
Speaker 3: It all looks right, like, everything looks great. You have
Speaker 3: this great opportunity. Everybody around you saying yeah, just keep going.
Speaker 3: But I wasn't very happy, which was confusing. Like you said,
Speaker 3: I came from a place where the fact that I
Speaker 3: started making music and the world heard it was just unfathomable.
Speaker 2: I never could have imagined that what happened for me.
Speaker 3: So then to be, like you said, at a height
Speaker 3: of success, like that and just feel overcome with it.
Speaker 3: Just felt like a lot of pressure in a way
Speaker 3: to not mess it up, and.
Speaker 1: So I just ran away.
Speaker 3: I didn't run away, I just kind of started over
Speaker 3: again in a way, and I was like, if I'm
Speaker 3: going to do this, I really really want to do
Speaker 3: this my way. I want to tell my story. I
Speaker 3: want to be who I authentically am, you know. And
Speaker 3: like the guys in my band, I love them so much.
Speaker 3: They're so supportive of that, and they heard me out.
Speaker 3: And it's a really difficult decision to make, but I
Speaker 3: knew it was the right one, even if it was
Speaker 3: really scary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your sister died from retino blastoma, which is a
Speaker 1: condition that you also suffered from. You survived, you have
Speaker 1: partial blindness in one eye as a result. How did
Speaker 1: that experience change you? And did you have any survivor's
Speaker 1: guilt recognizing that you both suffered it, but you were
Speaker 1: the one that made it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when I was younger, I did.
Speaker 3: When I was younger, I definitely had survivor's guilt because
Speaker 3: if you all could have met my sister, absolute genius,
Speaker 3: you know, like she was the clean one in the house,
Speaker 3: reading books and her sheets, were nice, and her bed
Speaker 3: was made, and her room was always vacuumed and organized.
Speaker 3: She had a little cassette tape organization system, and she
Speaker 3: had all kinds of glowing the dark purses and stuff,
Speaker 3: and I don't have any of that stuff going on.
Speaker 3: I had lego blocks in my floor at all times.
Speaker 3: You know, we were very different. I was outside, I
Speaker 3: had sticks in my hair, I was dirty, and so
Speaker 3: she was just this type of person that I really admired,
Speaker 3: you know how it is being a little sister.
Speaker 2: You look up to your big sister.
Speaker 3: And she also just showed me the world of show
Speaker 3: me the world of music and art, poetry, and that
Speaker 3: we had all these things at our fingertips, even though
Speaker 3: we didn't have a lot, you know, a lot of
Speaker 3: material goods. And I idolized her so like losing her
Speaker 3: and me going on. You know, the way I saw
Speaker 3: myself at the time was like the less able one.
Speaker 3: And I struggled with that for like many many years,
Speaker 3: struggled with a lot of anger because take it like
Speaker 3: a a.
Speaker 2: Disease like cancer, taking somebody so young.
Speaker 3: I thought that was very unforgivable of God, and I
Speaker 3: couldn't really wrap my head around it. So for a
Speaker 3: long time, I was just kind of like I felt
Speaker 3: like I was in the desert trying to figure life out.
Speaker 3: But as I got older, I realized, like, just because
Speaker 3: someone's not here we can't see them, that doesn't mean
Speaker 3: they're not still guiding you. And I very much feel
Speaker 3: like me and my sister are close in that way
Speaker 3: to this day. And now I feel like I got
Speaker 3: like an invisible angel with me at all times.
Speaker 2: You know, I feel much more powerful.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. Said it made you angry, and you
Speaker 1: said when you used to sing, your early performances were
Speaker 1: basically an opportunity to belt out anger in public. You
Speaker 1: were angry for yourself from growing up on the junk yard.
Speaker 1: You were angry about people who told you you didn't
Speaker 1: look like a lead singer. You were angry for the
Speaker 1: judgment your parents dealt with. You were angry for ancestors
Speaker 1: you never met because of the racism that they faced.
Speaker 1: Are you still singing from a place of anger?
Speaker 2: Yeah, in a way, for sure.
Speaker 3: I'm still angry about a lot of stuff, Like the
Speaker 3: world's not fixed, Like I see a lot of stuff
Speaker 3: going on that is crazy and heinous and absolutely immoral.
Speaker 3: There's still a lot of stuff I'm angry about, but
Speaker 3: at least I have outlet you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It doesn't like fester. I can say something or I
Speaker 2: can do something.
Speaker 3: I have a lot of opportunities now that I didn't
Speaker 3: have before to feel like I'm a powerful person that
Speaker 3: can actually create change.
Speaker 2: You know. Even just being at the summit like this
Speaker 2: right now, it's just like something. I think.
Speaker 3: It is so powerful, especially for all of these women
Speaker 3: to be together and to hear each other each other
Speaker 3: stories and support each other.
Speaker 2: It's very powerful thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does feel different to feel like you have
Speaker 1: a voice and an opportunity to change things, even in
Speaker 1: small levels compared to the largeness of the problems that exist.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sure, but the anger can still be there. It's motivating,
Speaker 1: it's useful. But there's a lot of meditative sound bowls
Speaker 1: on the new which would make me think a little
Speaker 1: less anger. It's hard to combine anger and meditative sound
Speaker 1: bowls exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was trying to get right, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay you were Maybe if it sounds peaceful, I'll feel
Speaker 1: that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, I see all these people
Speaker 3: getting into this kind of stuff. Let me go like
Speaker 3: on a little adventure and I liked it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I liked it. I found out that the sound bowls
Speaker 3: really can like help you just reset and put you
Speaker 3: on a different vibe. Like if you show up stressed
Speaker 3: out and you listen to the album, it's got all
Speaker 3: these beautiful, real sound bowls on it, and you'd just
Speaker 3: be sitting in traffic, just chill, cool, cucumber.
Speaker 1: It's a vibe.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't do gummies often, but I did gummies once
Speaker 1: and went to a sound bowl thing. I saw a
Speaker 1: different astral plane.
Speaker 2: Was it almost too much?
Speaker 1: It's almost too much? More? With Britney Howard right after this,
Speaker 1: you saying Jonny Ma chills both sides now with Herbie
Speaker 1: Hancock at the Kennedy Center Honers in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: If I can't convince her just pop out with that
Speaker 1: song tonight, then y'all need to look it up, because
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this is not bullshitting. Probably the most
Speaker 1: beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell I've ever heard, because your
Speaker 1: voice could not be more perfect to hit, especially later Joni,
Speaker 1: when her voice as more of a depth and a
Speaker 1: growling experience to it. You did such justice to it,
Speaker 1: and an interview you said that she reminded you that
Speaker 1: your work shouldn't have any confines and that your music
Speaker 1: should always be an exploration. Is that hard to do?
Speaker 1: Once you've won Grammys and you're a major label artist,
Speaker 1: do you labels or execs prefer that they can fit
Speaker 1: you into one specific, recognizable genre.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't go anywhere I don't belong. I
Speaker 3: don't belong in places that want to change who I
Speaker 3: am or what I'm trying to create.
Speaker 2: You know, I would never go.
Speaker 1: Wait pause on that. That is a word.
Speaker 2: Damn, I just come up with that.
Speaker 1: I know that was good. Somebody write that down real quick. Okay,
Speaker 1: Okay for real though, because that's easier said than done.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, like I said, I've had a unique
Speaker 3: opportunity and I just decided, you know, when I went
Speaker 3: out on my own. Like I said earlier, I'm going
Speaker 3: to do things the way that I want to do them.
Speaker 3: And if it doesn't work out, I guess it wasn't
Speaker 3: meant to be. You know, I just don't want to
Speaker 3: beg anybody to be something I probably don't even want.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, because.
Speaker 1: You know, you're worth. So it's like, if you don't
Speaker 1: want me for it, then that's on you, not me.
Speaker 2: Yeah. To me, it's like, I guess that's my sign
Speaker 2: to create my own label and do my own thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I can relate in ways I won't say
Speaker 1: out loud here. You have described your on stage style
Speaker 1: as inspired by jazz musicians son raw great, perfect, I've
Speaker 1: seen it. It's beautiful, and your everyday style as Australian
Speaker 1: Zoo tour guide. So I think I know the answer
Speaker 1: based on the last question. But as a labeler manager
Speaker 1: ever tried to dictate your on stage or or off
Speaker 1: stage brand and persona?
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean probably for the better. Honestly, It's true.
Speaker 3: I love looking like a Zoo guide. It's like it's
Speaker 3: like it's just that's my dream job. Like yeah, like
Speaker 3: Steve Irwin and yeah Autumn, Like that's I want to
Speaker 3: be with them.
Speaker 1: Okay, I love it.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Your voice is truly another of the instruments you play.
Speaker 1: It is incredibly versatile. You can belt, you can have
Speaker 1: a deep alto, you can sing in falsetto, you can
Speaker 1: sing quiet and introspective. Do you know a certainty when
Speaker 1: you're writing a song, which of your voices you will
Speaker 1: bring to each part? Or do you play around and
Speaker 1: see how the story changes when you change the voice
Speaker 1: you bring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it depends.
Speaker 3: It depends on if I create the music first, or
Speaker 3: if I already have lyrics. Like some sometimes lyrics just
Speaker 3: show up, especially like in opportune times, like a time
Speaker 3: where I can't possibly get to a pen and I'm
Speaker 3: like in a bathroom at a bar, and I got
Speaker 3: my little voice memo up and I'm like, okay, So
Speaker 3: like the drums be like this, and then the bass
Speaker 3: is gonna be like this.
Speaker 2: Boom boom boom, boom boom, and then the.
Speaker 1: Guitar is like the back of the bar is like
Speaker 1: don't stop, shut up.
Speaker 2: And then I'm like, tomorrow, that's gonna make sense. It's
Speaker 2: gonna make sense.
Speaker 3: But you know, the voice is an instrument, and that's
Speaker 3: the way I use my voice. I don't need to
Speaker 3: build all of the time. It's not always appropriate, especially
Speaker 3: like for the story I'm trying to tell. When the
Speaker 3: way I use instruments is to convey emotion, you know,
Speaker 3: it's not just a razzle dazzle or to be the
Speaker 3: best or anything like that. It's just like, Okay, I
Speaker 3: want to convey feeling small but hopeful, and that sounds
Speaker 3: like maybe like a falsetto, or I want to sound nostalgic.
Speaker 1: You want you right there?
Speaker 2: How'd you know I could tell.
Speaker 3: I'll sing later though, Okay, okay, I mean you're paid too,
Speaker 3: so yeah.
Speaker 1: That'd be weird if later you were like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do spoken words.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's usually how I decide.
Speaker 3: It's like do I want to sound more like stringy
Speaker 3: or do I want to sound more like Barrett's own
Speaker 3: sex kind of moment.
Speaker 2: It's just like instrumentation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's also really fun because if you wanted to,
Speaker 1: you could cover your own songs like just doing the
Speaker 1: opposite and completely change the way they're received in a way.
Speaker 1: That's really cool.
Speaker 2: Great idea.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, I'll take my cut whenever that sells big,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll get you one point perfect, I'll take it.
Speaker 1: I mentioned the Kennedy Center Honors. You also perform for
Speaker 1: Eddie Murphy's Mark Twain Prize. You performed at the White House.
Speaker 1: You played for Prince by Request at Paisley Park. You
Speaker 1: played per Sir Paul's request with him at Lollapalooza doing
Speaker 1: a duet. What does it feel like to get a
Speaker 1: call from the greats and people you were inspired by it,
Speaker 1: and not just to play with, but at their lifetime
Speaker 1: Achievement awards at the moment that is the peak of
Speaker 1: their achievement. They want you to be there and they
Speaker 1: want you to market.
Speaker 2: I mean, it feels surreal. You know.
Speaker 3: These are people that I always looked up to and
Speaker 3: was inspired by and hope I could get this close
Speaker 3: to them, you know, as far as like creatively speaking,
Speaker 3: and to be celebrated by them is nuts.
Speaker 2: I can almost barely speak on it.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like so massive for me that I
Speaker 3: can barely consciously hold it so like, I just I
Speaker 3: don't know. It's one of those things like every once
Speaker 3: in a while on a beautiful vista, I'll look out
Speaker 3: and I'll think about my whole life, you know, every
Speaker 3: once in.
Speaker 1: A while sound bowls in the background.
Speaker 3: And just think like, wow, it's been incredible so far.
Speaker 3: I wonder what's gonna have and next.
Speaker 1: You get nervous in those moments with those with those artists.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I never know when I'm won't be nervous, Like
Speaker 3: I thought I would be nervous to do this, but
Speaker 3: I'm not very nervous.
Speaker 2: I think I'm coming off pretty natural.
Speaker 1: Yeah. See, you seem good. Yeah, you seem good. Do
Speaker 1: you have a good Paisley Park story. There's a great
Speaker 1: story of he invited a w NBA team to his
Speaker 1: house after they won the title, and they showed up
Speaker 1: and he was already on the keys, and then he
Speaker 1: just performed for a while and then started riding his
Speaker 1: motorcycle around and disappeared.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is a basketball goal in Paisley Park game blouses.
Speaker 1: Yeah I know about that. Yeah, okay, so but he
Speaker 1: didn't say it while you were there.
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. No, we didn't talk much, but I get there.
Speaker 3: I guess. The craziest story is, like I only heard
Speaker 3: about this after he passed away, and of course, like
Speaker 3: after my own experience with him. But apparently he has
Speaker 3: disability to disappear into thin air. And I was telling
Speaker 3: someone about it. I was like, yeah, Prince called us
Speaker 3: back and he was like, can I play this song
Speaker 3: we had called give Me All Your Love?
Speaker 2: Can I play that with you? I really like that song?
Speaker 2: What key is it in? Like? Sure? Yeah, So we're
Speaker 2: playing Paisley Park.
Speaker 3: Comes the time where the song's going on and Prince
Speaker 3: is nowhere to be seeing, and we get to like
Speaker 3: the middle of the song and I'm like, I guess
Speaker 3: just loop it.
Speaker 2: I don't want to miss the opportunity to play with Prince.
Speaker 3: So we're looping the section of the song, and finally
Speaker 3: he just pops on the stage. It's wearing a green
Speaker 3: velvet jacket, playing a green guitar, and he just starts
Speaker 3: shredding like it was awesome, you know, And then I
Speaker 3: started we double solo a little bit and I was.
Speaker 2: Like, this is amazing.
Speaker 3: And then the song's done after like a while, and
Speaker 3: he kisses me on the cheek and I was like wow,
Speaker 3: and then he jumps off the stage and disappears in
Speaker 3: thin air. Yeah, Like I was like I had a
Speaker 3: next song to do, but I kept being like, where
Speaker 3: did he go? There's nowhere to disappear to over there,
Speaker 3: like how did he do it? And so I heard
Speaker 3: later like, yeah, Prince does that, He'll disappear.
Speaker 1: I've ever seen that clip that's like, have you guys
Speaker 1: seen this? I think it's at the Rock and Roll
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. He throws as a guitar up in
Speaker 1: the air and then never lands. Watch the clip. I'll
Speaker 1: send it to y'all later, each one of you individually.
Speaker 2: I believe it.
Speaker 1: I literally almost said I'll put it in the show notes,
Speaker 1: because that's what we do on my show. We'll put
Speaker 1: it in the show notes. We'll send you the link.
Speaker 1: It's insane. You have to watch it. I'll find it later. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's I love that that.
Speaker 3: He just disappeared, just vanished. And you know, he's a
Speaker 3: really funny guy too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if everybody.
Speaker 3: Knows that, but he's a great comedic tim and great
Speaker 3: sense of humor, very low voice.
Speaker 2: He called me on the phone, He's like, did you
Speaker 2: like that?
Speaker 1: And you know that was either Prince or Shack. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure.
Speaker 2: I did it best I could.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was like, all of a sudden, I
Speaker 3: turned into like a little girl and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that was so fine.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We got to take another break more with Brittany coming
Speaker 1: up next. Speaking of voices, you made your voice acting
Speaker 1: debut in Thelma, the Unicorn Netflix movie about a mini
Speaker 1: pony who longs to be a star and her dream
Speaker 1: comes true when she disguises herself as a unicorn. The
Speaker 1: character was written with you in mind and designed based
Speaker 1: on you, right down to the hair. Did you learn
Speaker 1: anything about yourself by watching yourself as a cartoon unicorn?
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I actually learned that I'm just like the unicorn,
Speaker 3: except the little unicorn has like a little more energy
Speaker 3: than I do.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's all I did to do the voice. I
Speaker 2: just like more excited. You know.
Speaker 3: I did see myself in Thelma, and I learned something
Speaker 3: through the process, which was, like, I don't feel very
Speaker 3: comfortable being vulnerable because there's times in a movie where
Speaker 3: I gotta be like scared or like unsure or like
Speaker 3: please don't do this, Like I'm I'm just not like
Speaker 3: that in my daily life. So I really struggle with
Speaker 3: doing that. So like I feel like I learned something
Speaker 3: about that, you know. And also when it was when
Speaker 3: the opportunity was presented to me, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I can't do that. I've never done that before. I
Speaker 3: don't know how to do that. That's too much, too
Speaker 3: much writing on it. I don't want these people to
Speaker 3: pay me to do that, and then I mess it up.
Speaker 3: But like y'all, if y'all got an opportunity that comes
Speaker 3: to you and you say I don't think I.
Speaker 2: Can do it, Just like, do it? Do it, Just
Speaker 2: do it, because I'm so glad I did it.
Speaker 3: I didn't know I could do it, and I found
Speaker 3: out that I could, And now it kind of changed
Speaker 3: my perception on who I am, Like, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 3: can do things that are scary. You know.
Speaker 1: That's a lesson I learned a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and I had to tell myself, like, with certainty, whatever
Speaker 1: comes your way, if someone else thinks you can do
Speaker 1: it and they offer it to you, or the opportunity comes.
Speaker 2: Just do it.
Speaker 1: And like particularly because men do that.
Speaker 2: All the time, right, Just do it.
Speaker 1: Just do it, Nike, Thanks sponsor. Okay, so the future.
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, you said about stepping away from Alabama Shakes,
Speaker 1: it's important to go where your heart tells you. Never
Speaker 1: feel like you're trapped into something, especially as a creative person.
Speaker 1: I had to follow. I guess you would call it
Speaker 1: the muse. I had to follow where it was coming from,
Speaker 1: and it was just away from that. I had to
Speaker 1: do it. And then earlier this year, you said, the
Speaker 1: door is not closed on a reunion. Is that Are
Speaker 1: you waiting on the Mews to tell you? Is that
Speaker 1: about the relationship with the band? What will help us
Speaker 1: find out if you're ever gonna get back together?
Speaker 2: You probably find out via internet?
Speaker 1: Okay, the internet. Yeah, that's usually how I find most things, though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it'll probably pop up on Instagram or something, yeah,
Speaker 3: like the Mews. Like I said, like, it's just a conversation.
Speaker 3: Like lots of people ask me about that. Obviously it's
Speaker 3: been like ten years, you know, and I'm cool with that.
Speaker 3: My response is and will remain to be, like, when
Speaker 3: that itch comes back up, that's a conversation I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have with the guys. You know, they're both really cool
Speaker 3: about it. And if we feel like creating together, we'll
Speaker 3: create it.
Speaker 2: You know. Doors not closed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know you just released a new album,
Speaker 1: so it's so mean of me to even ask you
Speaker 1: a sorry, But do you have a timeline in your
Speaker 1: head of when the next one comes? Or is it
Speaker 1: enjoying touring reacting to this one and waiting until the
Speaker 1: music comes and tells you it's time for another.
Speaker 3: You know, usually for me, I've noticed the pattern is
Speaker 3: like every three years doesn't have to be that, but
Speaker 3: I just don't know that. For me to make music,
Speaker 3: I have to have actual life experience. I have to
Speaker 3: have things going on. I have to have feelings about things.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: To me, yeah, music comes out of thin air, but
Speaker 3: it's also like in response to emotion. So I just
Speaker 3: kind of live my life. And the more life I
Speaker 3: can live, I think, the better album I can make.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, this most recent album, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of breakup songs and when I have a breakup, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was clear. But there was one song that one
Speaker 1: of your one of your friends said, you walked into
Speaker 1: the studio and you just you didn't have much down yet,
Speaker 1: and you just said kind of turn on the mic
Speaker 1: and see what happens and went for it. And that
Speaker 1: that's ended up being so much of the recording. This
Speaker 1: real come from the soul, growling sadness. How do you
Speaker 1: distinguish when you want to make sure you have things
Speaker 1: down to a note and ready to go, and when
Speaker 1: you are willing and ready to go in and just
Speaker 1: feel and see what comes out.
Speaker 2: This is something I've actually learned recently.
Speaker 3: Going in unprepared is so much more fun than I
Speaker 3: thought it would be to me. That's terrifying, like going
Speaker 3: in with like four songs into studio you paid like
Speaker 3: thirty thousand dollars for and you're just like, hope, I
Speaker 3: get it. You know, it's scary, But I have learned
Speaker 3: to go in there and just let whatever comes to
Speaker 3: you happen.
Speaker 2: Those are always my favorite songs, the.
Speaker 3: Ones that I didn't go down like to the finest detail,
Speaker 3: every single part.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us which ones on the new album
Speaker 1: stand out to you in that way so we can
Speaker 1: listen for it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Sure, Like I have a song called Samson that really
Speaker 3: happens like that, red Flags happened like that.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of songs on this album that just.
Speaker 1: Red flags coming either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep. I thought it was the time to address it.
Speaker 2: And I got a.
Speaker 3: Song tonight that I'll perform too. It's called to Be Still,
Speaker 3: And it was one of those things. The guitar player
Speaker 3: Brad Allen Williams, he was just playing this beautiful chord
Speaker 3: pattern and I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm
Speaker 3: feeling something, you know, And I go outside and I
Speaker 3: come back and have the lyrics, and then I opened
Speaker 3: my mouth and was saying the melody and it just
Speaker 3: happened within a matter of minutes, and I really loved
Speaker 3: that song.
Speaker 2: I'll do that for you all tonight.
Speaker 1: Yes, And that's the beauty of being solo too. You
Speaker 1: don't have to say what do y'all think of this?
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, I like it, so we're good kind
Speaker 1: of Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I admire other people's opinions if i'm
Speaker 3: if I'm looking for it, but yeah, I wasn't looking
Speaker 3: for it all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fair, fair, Okay, I want to do a speed
Speaker 1: round as we're wrapping up here. You just finish the
Speaker 1: tour with Michael Q Andoka. What's your favorite part of touring?
Speaker 3: Favorite part of touring is watching movies on the bus
Speaker 3: with the bands.
Speaker 1: Do we have a genre that we usually go to?
Speaker 2: Usually really bad movies? Okay, I don't want to say
Speaker 2: nothing because y'all might know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we might be in them.
Speaker 2: Because I don't know who y'all know. Y'all might know
Speaker 2: the actors.
Speaker 1: But Steven, oh god, we watch all of his Catalo
Speaker 1: bad movie, Offensive Human. That's a tough combo. Okay. What's
Speaker 1: your least favorite part oftoring? The travel, the journey, the travel,
Speaker 1: the actual Yeah.
Speaker 3: The travel yeah, well, listen, like, sometimes you ride on
Speaker 3: a bus, you sleep in a bunk, right, and sometimes
Speaker 3: it's bumpy and you don't sleep, and sometimes it's too
Speaker 3: cold you're freezing on that, like you're kind of like
Speaker 3: at you have to surrender a little bit to the
Speaker 3: bus and the road and where you are. And some
Speaker 3: places are really really dry and you wake up and
Speaker 3: your eyes are dried, you know, like just it's just
Speaker 3: the travel of it is an adventure, for sure. And
Speaker 3: when I was younger, I loved it. Getting a little
Speaker 3: bit older, a little bit more particular, just tiny like tiny,
Speaker 3: tiny bit older, though not much older.
Speaker 1: Just tiny bit. You're aging slower than the rest of
Speaker 1: us can almost backwards. Yeah, congrats. What's your favorite city
Speaker 1: to play in?
Speaker 2: Ooh gosh, that's hard. I really like Idaho? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: I know y'all didn't say that comment. Look Boise, Idaho
Speaker 2: is lit. Okay, Yeah, trust me.
Speaker 1: Good to know adding it to my list? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Is there a dream venue that you haven't played yet
Speaker 1: that you want to play?
Speaker 2: Mmmm? It's a good question too. Not maybe not really
Speaker 2: like them all off? No, maybe not.
Speaker 3: But I never a vinuon and be like, oh I
Speaker 3: can't wait to play that. You know, maybe like the Sydney.
Speaker 2: Opera Houses is very impressive.
Speaker 3: I think it would be cool to do like an
Speaker 3: acoustic thing there and just let the acoustics do what
Speaker 3: they do.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: Favorite snack after a show, ooh, pickles it's fried, or
Speaker 1: just straight up the jar, the kosher deal okay, spears okay,
Speaker 1: dream song collaborator. Oh, there would be some sound bowls
Speaker 1: in that for sure.
Speaker 2: That'd be cool.
Speaker 1: That would be dope.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Final question for you, I read that your plan for
Speaker 1: later in life if you continue aging at all and
Speaker 1: not backwards, because it'll be tough for a child to do.
Speaker 2: Benjamin Brittany.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Benjamin Brittany. Good album title, Benjamin Brittany. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: assuming you age enough to take responsibility for these animals,
Speaker 1: you want to live on a farm with a bunch
Speaker 1: of animals. This is also my dream really Okay, but
Speaker 1: I want to see if we have the same animal plan, okay,
Speaker 1: because like maybe we could visit each other's farms. All right,
Speaker 1: you want to go first, Let me know which animals
Speaker 1: you're planning on. Now you go first, okay, So eleventy dogs,
Speaker 1: two horses, a donkey, three pigs, maybe a lama or
Speaker 1: I'll packa because it'll be good for tourism, dollars and
Speaker 1: the shearing of their You can sell that stuff, so
Speaker 1: that will just help keep the dollars coming in to
Speaker 1: care for the animals. Did I say a couple of pigs?
Speaker 2: Three?
Speaker 1: Three pigs? Thank you? I'm missing at least one important thing.
Speaker 1: I'll remember it later, but that chickens, ducks, Oh, chickens
Speaker 1: of course, chicken chickens. Yeah, all sorts of chickens, chickens, ducks.
Speaker 1: I'm cool.
Speaker 3: I'm cool with chickens. I'm gonna have two donkeys, no
Speaker 3: horses for me. The lama, I packa thing like maybe.
Speaker 1: I'll sell you on the economic Yeah, ducks.
Speaker 2: I want ducks, just laying hens. No roosters.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have some guinea fowl and I'm gonna have
Speaker 3: turn You want to raise turkey and sell it?
Speaker 1: So lots of birds? Are you going to sell your
Speaker 1: turkey for me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, I mean that's your that's your pet.
Speaker 3: Uh you got me there, you got me there, We'll
Speaker 3: keep one for pet.
Speaker 1: That's really mean, because they're all going to be like,
Speaker 1: am I the favorite I misspoke.
Speaker 2: The Turkey. The Turkey is just gonna just gonna time
Speaker 2: to tell you I'm a vegetarian. Tourism Turkey, tourism Turkey.
Speaker 1: Every year you end up partning all of them, and
Speaker 1: that's the bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's okay, perfect.
Speaker 1: You have a couple of dogs, right, you didn't name dogs?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I had dogs yet, Okay, So they'll be
Speaker 2: on the farm too. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get like a Golden Retriever and like I
Speaker 3: like those little piples that are like twenty pounds, okay,
Speaker 3: little mini pisnit are cute, okay, and and probably like
Speaker 3: a couple of winnie dogs.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay. Let's talk about the land where we're gonna buy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: where we're going, Yeah, I think there's enough crawl.
Speaker 2: How you feel about the South? Would you live in
Speaker 2: the South.
Speaker 1: That's going to be a problem.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't blame you. I don't blame you.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll come visit your farm, okay, and then you
Speaker 1: can come to Chicago right outside Chicago.
Speaker 2: I love it. It's a deal, okay, deal, let's sing
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: You not me, okay, Okay, everybody, Brittany Howard, thank you.
Speaker 2: Guys, Thanks again.
Speaker 1: To Brittany for being such a great interview guest. I
Speaker 1: hope you guys enjoyed the combo as much as I did.
Speaker 1: That's it for today, See you tomorrow. Good Game with
Speaker 1: Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership
Speaker 1: with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are
Speaker 1: Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett,
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Speaker 1: Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Crawdawell. Production
Speaker 1: assistant from Lucy Oones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain