Alabama Shakes turned down the overtures of scouts looking to recruit talent for the latest series of the X Factor, according to the band’s singer Brittany Howard.
During an interview with The Independent, Howard reveals a succession of emails were followed up by a call from the show which hoped to secure them as one of the contestants on Simon Cowell’s reality programme.
“They heard of us through the Internet and started sending me emails which kept going into my spam folder,” she explains. “One day she 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.”
Alabama Shakes released their debut LP ‘Boys & Girls‘ in April 2012, a Top 10 hit in both the UK and US.