Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental

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The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental was awarded at the Grammy Awards of 1989 for music released in the previous year.

[edit] Award winner and controversy

The first, and only, time the award was given out it was won by Jethro Tull for the album Crest of a Knave. The result generated much controversy, as Jethro Tull was hardly considered Hard rock, let alone Metal, even by themselves.^[1]

American heavy metal group Metallica were widely expected to take home the award, and were actually standing just off-stage in anticipation of receiving it after performing the song "One" for the telecast. Tull, who had figured they were a long shot at best to win, had not even bothered to attend the ceremony, and when the winner was announced by presenters Alice Cooper and Lita Ford, much booing could be heard from the crowd.^[1]

[edit] Aftermath

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."^[2] Metallica also added a sticker to And Justice for All... reading "Grammy Award LOSERS", with the word "Losers" appearing in graffiti over a scratched out "winners".

This incident is a popularly cited example when people criticize the Grammy Awards selection committee being "out of touch" with popular sentiment.

When Metallica won a Grammy in 1992 drummer Lars Ulrich referenced the previous award by saying "We gotta thank Jethro Tull for not putting out an album this year," though Tull had in fact release a new album, Catfish Rising, in 1991.

Separate awards for Best Hard Rock Performance and Best Metal Performance were introduced in 1990.