Cage the Elephant is an American rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, that formed in 2006. They relocated to London, England in 2008 before their first album was released. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Matt Shultz, rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, lead guitarist Nick Bockrath, guitarist and keyboardist Matthan Minster, bassist Daniel Tichenor, and drummer Jared Champion. Lincoln Parish served as the band's lead guitarist from their formation in 2006 until December 2013, when he left on good terms to pursue a career in producing. The band's first album, Cage the Elephant, was released in 2008 to much success, spawning several successful radio singles and gained the band a large following in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It was influenced by classic rock, funk, and blues music.
The band's second album, Thank You, Happy Birthday, was heavily influenced by punk rock as well as bands such as Pixies and Nirvana. The band's third album, Melophobia, was the band's concerted effort to find its own distinct musical identity. Cage the Elephant's fourth album, Tell Me I'm Pretty, produced by Dan Auerbach, was released on December 18, 2015. The band released a live album, Unpeeled, on July 28, 2017. Their fifth studio album, Social Cues, was released on April 19, 2019. They won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album twice, in 2017 for Tell Me I'm Pretty and in 2020 for Social Cues.
Members of Cage the Elephant had previously been involved in the band Perfect Confusion when they were in high school and released a self-titled LP in 2005. Matt Shultz was also in an experimental punk band in middle school called Left Nostril. The band's name, according to lead singer Matt Shultz, came from an incident in 2006 when a mentally disturbed man approached the band after a show. He hugged Shultz and kept repeating the sentence "You have to cage the elephant" over and over again.
