I’m sorry – I actually applauded the GRAMMYs a couple of years ago when they awarded the “Best Rock/Metal” award to Halestorm on the basis that it might give a boost to new, hard-working bands.
To then give this year’s award to Tenacious D when the alternatives were stalwarts such as Motorhead and Anthrax just goes to show that they’re picking names out of a fucking hat, and nobody wins that award on merit. Looking at the other entrants, it’s another case of “they’re not as loud and scary and I’ve seen him in a film so let’s give the award to them”.
When you have a rock/metal category and the award always seems to go to the single rock act amongst the actual metal, one has to wonder about who’s picking the winner.
The run-down this year included Mastodon, Motorhead, Anthrax (themselves, like Tenacious D, listed for a Dio cover) and Slipknot. Not one of these bands needs a publicity kick as Halestorm needed compared to their competitors in 2013 so theoretically it was more of a level playing field to pick the winner from.
Personally, and though I’m not actually a huge fan, I’d have gone for Motorhead purely for the chance to highlight Lemmy’s tenacious (I could have picked a better word…) battle against ill health over the last year. That embodies metal and would, I feel, have been a popular choice.
Still, “it’s only the GRAMMYs”. I’ll stick to proper award like the Golden Gods in future.
