Brittany Howard “stopped believing in a higher power” during her first experience of grief.
The rock star, who is best known for fronting the band Alabama Shakes, was just a young child when both she and her older sister Jaime developed retinoblastoma, a rare cancer. While Howard was left partially blind in one eye, her sister passed away.
Immediately after the loss, she and her family stopped attending church, and Howard realized suddenly that she no longer believed in God.
“Because my mom and dad were grieving, and they didn’t want to grieve in a group,” she told The Independent. “I was pretty happy about not going to church, honestly. I didn’t believe in any higher power anymore, just human beings.”
The “Stay High” hitmaker grew up in Athens, Alabama, and explained how being raised in the state when she felt so “different” to everyone else gave her the impetus to learn her craft and end up teaching her classmates various instruments before ultimately pursuing a music career herself.
“I just came out of the womb different! I was a late bloomer; I was tall; I had kinky, curly hair, and no one else I knew did. It all just made me really resilient,” she said. “I taught myself instruments so I could then teach guitar or bass to any kid who had any interest in maybe playing with me.”
“I did it for so long that by the time I actually had people around me that were interested in the craft of songwriting and learning to get better at their instruments, I was just waiting for them to stop showing up to practice,” the Grammy winner added.
