Alabama Shakes drummer Steven William Johnson was arrested earlier this week on several counts of child abuse in Limestone County, Alabama, according to WHNT of Huntsville. A grand jury charged him with “intentional torture, intentional ill-treatment and cruelly beating or intentionally ill-treating a child under the age of 18.” His lawsuit is scheduled for April 7, 2021.
Last March, Johnson pleaded guilty to a 2019 violation of a protection order against domestic violence in March last year, according to WHNT. He is a founding member of Alabama Shakes and played both in 2012 Boys and girls and in 2015 Sound and color. The group stopped in 2018 when striker Brittany Howard focused her solo work. Pitchfork has contacted Alabama Shakes representatives to comment.