Cage The Elephant’s Matt Shultz opens up about “mental health crisis” that led to his arrest last year

29 February, 2024

Cage The Elephant frontman Matt Shultz has opened up about the “mental health crisis” he faced that led to his arrest in 2023.

In January last year, Shultz was apprehended for illegal possession of two loaded guns the day after an employee at the Bowery Hotel in Lower Manhattan allegedly saw him carrying a handgun into the ground floor public toilets.

The prosecutors claimed Shultz appeared to be intoxicated at the time and when the police arrived at his hotel room, they found two guns and a set of 11 Polaroid photos, some of which showed the firearm in question.

He later pleaded guilty to three charges of attempted criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon and walked away with a no-jail plea deal.

Matt Shultz of Cage The Elephant. Credit: Tim Mosenfelder via Getty Images
Matt Shultz of Cage The Elephant. Credit: Tim Mosenfelder via Getty Images

Now, Shultz has finally opened up about the incident via a post on Instagram. “It’s a miracle that I’m here today. I was arrested last year, and it undoubtedly saved my life. After my arrest, I went to the hospital for two months followed by months of outpatient treatment. I can finally explain what happened,” he wrote.

The vocalist explained: “Over the last three years, I was unknowingly fighting my way through an utter mental health crisis. In a short time, I had slipped into psychosis due to an iatrogenic response to a medication I was prescribed.”

He went on to say that it was through the love of his friends, family, bandmates and wife that he managed to get through it. He spoke about his wife’s “unwavering love” and support, saying that her support “coupled with professional treatment helped me to regain my grip on reality and full recover.”

In January this year, Cage The Elephant returned with their first new song in five years, ‘Neon Pill’. The track marks the band’s first new music since the release of their 2019 album ‘Social Cues’ and sees frontman Matt Shultz reminisce upon a failed romance.

‘Social Cues’ scored a four-star review, with Andrew Trendell writing for NME: “‘The War Is Over’ and ‘What I’m Becoming’ both have that sombre and smokey lounge act feel of The Last Shadow Puppets or Mini Mansions, but just revisit the more refined moments on ‘Melophobia’ and ‘Tell Me I’m Pretty’ and you’ll realise that it’s a guise that Cage The Elephant have carried within them all along.”

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