Brittany Howard

“By the time I'm 35, I'll probably want to have a family. I'd be happy doing that, teaching my kids to do the right things, to do good things.”

“Onstage is the one time in my day that I can let it all out.”

“You play with the audience, and they play back with you. They get into it, and then everybody gets into it. I don't want to be like a monkey on stage and just go through the motions because then it wouldn't be fun anymore. I just pay attention to the audience and appreciate the fact that somebody wants to see us. That gets me psyched.”

“I'm not that flashy in private; I'm usually pretty reserved. But on stage, it's about not being afraid of anything - of anyone judging you. It's one place you can be free. So why not sing as loud as you can, hoop and holler and jump around? A show is a moment. When it's done, it's over. I find that extremely liberating.”

“To me, if you're a musician, then you're interested in music, and if you're interested in music, then you should listen to a lot of different types.”

“Once, right before a show, I realized I'd forgotten shoes. I didn't want to wear my flip-flops onstage because I could trip. I ended up going barefoot, which actually worked out because it became my 'thing.'”

“When I picture England, I picture little gardens and beautiful yards. I don't really like cities; I like to go and see things like that.”

“I'm just really impressed by oil paintings - I don't see how people do it! That's the style I like: classic oil paintings. Abstract art just isn't my thing.”

“We're from Athens, Alabama. That's my town. People think it's Muscle Shoals, but they have no idea. It's a quiet, sleepy little town, about 45 minutes from Muscle Shoals. It's really hard to be a band in Athens; there are no venues.”

“I think what's wrong with too many people is they're too reserved. They're miserable, but they don't want to talk about it.”

“Even if nobody cared, I'm still gonna make music.”

“I've had some terrible jobs, but working in a kitchen at Cracker Barrel is probably the worst I've ever had. I was a grill cook - awful! It wasn't the smell, it was the people. The music, too. We had to be 'country fresh,' so they played this terrible country music eight hours during the shift. It was a bleak existence - a very dark time.”

“I don't think I sound like Janis Joplin. I'm a woman with a raspy voice.”

“I was a strange kid. I'm still strange. People didn't get me. And I didn't expect them to.”

“Oh, man, I love the Staple Singers. I love Pop Staples' guitar playing, too. He's one of my favorite guitar players.”

“My dream was to not work for anyone. There's only so many things I was good at - and how am I not going to work for anyone? I just don't want people telling me what to do.”

“When I first started, I was much weaker of a singer because I wasn't used to singing so much. Now I've learned, when I'm singing on stage, not to go over. You can go over and mess yourself up. I used to do it all the time, wouldn't know how to preserve it for the next show.”

“I probably bring four dresses on the road and rotate those. I always wear something light when I go onstage because I move around a whole lot. It's a sweaty business.”

“For my band's debut tour in 2011, we road-tripped across the country in a 15-passenger van. It was the first time I'd left Alabama. I drove through scenery I'd only ever seen in calendars: auburn leaves falling in Vermont, the sun setting over purple mountains in Arizona. It was incredible.”

“Contacts would bother me. I'm just not that used to them. I think glasses are a great accessory.”