One of the more infamous moments in heavy metal history came courtesy of the Grammy Awards in 1989. Metallica was up for “Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording” and seemed a shoe in to win the award in a category that also included AC/DC, Iggy Pop, Janes Addiction and Jethro Tull. It was Jethro Tull that walked away with the honor much to the shock of the hard rock and heavy metal community and even to Jethro Tull themselves. Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson was recently asked by KSHE95 in Missouri about winning the award over Metallica and if he ever got a chance “to rub in the face of Metalica” that they won.
“Well, I think Metallica were actually very gentlemanly,” Anderson said. “At the time, they did say, when they did win the Grammy next year, as I predicted they would, they took out a page in Billboard thanking the record company, their friends and family for supporting them, the dog — I mean, they thanked everybody, including Jethro Tull for not releasing a new album that year. They had a sense of humor about it. They took it on the chin even though everybody was busy telling them they were gonna win a Grammy and then, unfortunately, that year they didn’t. But they were the hot new act, and surely they were gonna win it the following year, and, of course, they did.”
Lars Ulrich previously commented on the situation via Instagram on the 30th anniversary of that day. “Today 30 years ago, February 22 ’89, we played the Grammys for the first time and that was quite a mindf*ck!!” Ulrich wrote. “First time we were in front of a mainstream TV audience. First time mainstream America was exposed to whatever the hell it is we do. First time they had a hard rock/metal category on the Grammys. First time we were Grammy losers, since Jethro Tull, somewhat unexpectedly to most people, walked away with the win. But all was not lost. The expressions of disgust from most members of the audience (other than Iggy!) is something I will treasure for the rest of my life. And I was rocking some pretty crazy hair that was edging dangerously close to a mullet! Happy days indeed!!”
The Grammys would split the award into two categories the next year, “Best Hard Rock Performance” and “Best Metal Performance.” Metallica won the “Best Metal Performance” that year and has won the award more than 10 times since.
Anderson spoke about winning the Grammy previously in an interview with Powerline. “… We were, for some strange reason, nominated,” he said. “And at the time, no one paid any attention to the fact that we were nominated. There was not a peep out of anyone. Because they thought there’s no way Jethro Tull are gonna win it. Nor Iggy Pop, nor Janes Addiction. It’s going to be Metallica, because they were the huge, new, straight-out-of-the-box, enormous, hit talent that year and everybody took it for granted that Metallica were gonna win the Grammy, including Metallica themselves. And when it was ordered to Jethro Tull, to a barrage of boos and hisses and gasps of disbelief, I’d like to think that it wasn’t that the six thousand voting members of the National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences were voting for Jethro Tull as a heavy rock band or a heavy metal band. They gave us the award because we were a bunch of nice guys who never won a Grammy before. And sad to relate, even after all these years, there is still no category for best one-legged flute player. Otherwise, I’d be winning it every year.”
