The 64th annual Grammy Awards were held Sunday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The rock and metal categories don’t get as much recognition as they have in decades past, but the Recording Academy hands out awards for “Best Rock Performance,” “Best Rock Song,” “Best Rock Album” and “Best Metal Performance.” Given recent events, unsurprisingly the Foo Fighters swept the awards in the rock division, and Dream Theater took home “Best Metal Performance” for their song, “The Alien,” from 2021 album “A View From The Top Of The World.” Dream Theater beat out the Deftones, Gojira, Mastadon and Rob Zombie.
“Wow, this is absolutely insane,” said Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci in his acceptance speech. “On behalf of the entire band, I’d like to thank the Recording Academy and everybody who voted for us. You know, they used to tell us our songs were way too long, we used weird time signatures and there were too many guitar solos. In fact, this song is in 17/8, so try to tap your foot to it. But we just won a Grammy, so I’m glad we didn’t listen… All the Dream Theater fans around the world, you guys rock. We love you. For fans of prog and prog metal, stay true to your art. And it’s alive and well.”
The Foo Fighters won “Best Rock Performance” for “Making A Fire,” “Best Rock Song” for “Waiting On A War” and “Best Rock Album” for “Medicine at Midnight.” In the “Best Rock Performance” category the Foos beat out AC/DC, Black Pumas, Deftones and the late Chris Cornell. In the “Best Rock Song” category, they topped Weezer, Kings of Leon, Mammoth WVH and Paul McCartney. In the “Best Rock Album” category, they beat AC/DC, Black Pumas, Chris Cornell and Paul McCartney. The Foo Fighters were scheduled to play but canceled following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. The Grammys paid tribute to Hawkins in a video montage while the band’s song “My Hero” played.
