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Child Abuse Charges Against Alabama Shakes Drummer Steve Johnson Dismissed

He was arrested in March
Steve Johnson Alabama Shakes
(Credit: Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)

Earlier this year, Alabama Shakes drummer Steve Johnson was arrested on child abuse charges. All that was known at the time was that the charges were “willful torture, willful abuse, and cruelly beating or otherwise willfully maltreating a child under the age of 18.”

Last week, on December 16, AP reported that the charges were dismissed by a judge in Limestone County, Alabama.

“Steve Johnson maintained his innocence the entire time. He had to wait for his day in court like so many people do. Thankfully, these charges have been dismissed,” Johnson’s attorney, Nick Lough, told the AP.

Initially, the specific details to the charges against Johnson weren’t and haven’t made public, but Lough said that they were related to a “spanking incident.”

Johnson is a founding member of Alabama Shakes, the Grammy-nominated Athens, Alabama-based band. Johnson is featured on both their albums: 2012’s Boys & Girls and 2015’s Sound & Color. The band has been on hiatus since 2018.