Metallica: One. Live at the 1989 Grammys. With description.

Click through for description.

The most significant video in Heavy Metal history (IMO). I uploaded it because of its significance.

This video is not my content and is uploaded under fair use for entertainment, educational, and historical purposes.

Award

In 1988, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences decided to add a Hard Rock/Metal Performance category for the 31st Grammy Awards. Nominated works for the award included Blow Up Your Video by AC/DC, "Cold Metal" by Iggy Pop (from the album Instinct), Nothing's Shocking by Jane's Addiction, Crest of a Knave by Jethro Tull, and ...And Justice for All by Metallica. Jethro Tull's lead singer Ian Anderson was surprised by the band's nomination, as both Anderson and music critics did not consider the group's music to be part of the heavy metal genre.

Metallica's performance at the ceremony, held in February 1989 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, marked the first time a heavy metal group performed during the Grammy Awards. Metallica was expected to win the award, and members of Jethro Tull were told by their record label Chrysalis Records not to bother attending the ceremony because they "weren't likely to win." Jethro Tull received the award (recipients included members Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, and Dave Pegg), and when presenters Alice Cooper and Lita Ford announced the result, booing could be heard from the crowd. Anderson, who assumed that the band was being recognized for their twenty year history as opposed to a single album, later stated that he was "lucky" for not attending the ceremony, admitting that there was "no way [he] could have accepted [the award] under those circumstances."

Controversy and aftermath


The result, considered an "embarrassment" on behalf of the Academy, generated much controversy. In response to the criticism they received over the award, Jethro Tull's record label took out an advertisement in Billboard magazine with a picture of a flute (part of their trademark sound) lying amid a pile of iron rebars and the line, "The flute is a heavy, metal instrument!" Metallica also added a sticker to subsequent releases of ...And Justice for All, reading: "Grammy Award LOSERS".

Separate awards for Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance were introduced in 1990, and in the first three years of the latter award's existence Metallica won consecutively for the song "One" from ...And Justice for All, their cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy", and their eponymous album. When Metallica won a Grammy in 1992, drummer Lars Ulrich referenced the previous award by facetiously "thanking" Jethro Tull for not putting out an album that year, though they actually had released the album Catfish Rising in 1991. A decade after Jethro Tull defeated Metallica, Ulrich admitted: "I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I was disappointed. Human nature is that you'd rather win than lose, but Jethro Tull walking away with it makes a huge mockery of the intentions of the event." As of 2010, Metallica holds the record for the most wins in the metal category, with a total of six.
This incident is often cited as an example of the Grammy Awards selection committee being out of touch with popular sentiment, and was even named the biggest upset in Grammy history by Entertainment Weekly. Other publications that have included the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance upset in their lists of top Grammy moments include Cracked.com (number one), Time (number ten), and the Ventura County Star (number twenty).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Metallica
• One
• 1989
• Grammys
• Jethro
• Tull

[raksh9]

Thank you for not only posting this video but this story. I watched this when it was broadcast in Australia and I shared the disappointment and shock when Jethro Tull won the award, despite so much popular attention going to Metallica. I recorded it back then but lost the tape some time in the early 90's, and I only found this today by accident. I have a lot of happy memories from those times. Thanks again for the upload and description.

[BonesTheCat]

@raksh9 No worries. Cheers.

[TheLastBrainLeft]

I can totally see why Jethro Tull won over this. DEP