Photo Credit: Stefan Brending / CC by 4.0
Ain’t no rest for the wicked as Matt Shultz, singer of the Grammy-winning band Cage the Elephant was arrested Thursday night in New York on gun possession charges.
Matt Shultz, the lead singer of the alternative rock band Cage the Elephant, was arrested in New York Thursday night after police discovered two loaded firearms for which he did not have a license in his room at the Bowery Hotel. Shultz received two felony charges of criminal possession of a weapon.
A Bowery employee saw the singer, who was a guest at the hotel, carry a handgun into a public restroom on the ground floor of the building on Wednesday night. Police responded to a 911 call and knocked on Shultz’s door the following day when they recovered the weapons, a Sig Sauer and a Smith & Wesson. Shultz then spent the night at the 9th precinct in Lower Manhattan.
Cage the Elephant is a two-time Grammy winner for Best Rock Album, having taken home trophies for 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty and 2019’s Social Cues. The band’s 2013 album Melophobia featured the hits “Come a Little Closer” and “Cigarette Daydreams” and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album.
The group first hit the scene running in 2006, becoming an alt-rock mainstay throughout the next decade with the 2008 hit “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked” from their self-titled debut album. Cage the Elephant enjoyed several more hits in the 2010s, including “Shake Me Down” and “Trouble.” Their hit song also appeared as the opening theme for the 2011 Gearbox Software game, Borderlands.
Originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the band moved to England in 2008. Shultz formed Cage the Elephant with his older brother Brad, along with Jared Champion, Daniel Tichenor, and Lincoln Parish, who left the group in 2013.
Most recently, the group performed at Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival in San Diego, California, on November 20, 2022.