Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard Turned Down ‘X Factor’

Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard was once invited to join the cast of The X-Factor, the singer revealed in an interview with The Independent.

“They heard of us through the internet and started sending me emails which kept going into my spam folder,” Howard explained. “One day [the talent searcher] called me to ask and I told her, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ She was like, ‘Are you sure about that?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m sure. I have something going on now that I believe in and want to stick to.’ She was shocked.”

Howard said she had never considered auditioning for the show, even in the days before the band got a record deal and its various members were working day jobs for the postal service, nuclear power plants, house painters and vets. 

“It’s not fair,” she said. “You go out there, people gawk at you, they love you or hate you and it doesn’t mean anything to them but it means the world to you. So it’s kind of a fucked-up show. I would never do it.”