Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde discussed the Grammys in a new interview with Hatebreed’s Jamie Jasta (transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar). Fans recently ripped the Grammys for not televising major rock awards featuring bands like Foo Fighters and Metallica. Avenged Sevenfold voiced their displeasure about the snub as well.
“Do you know what I think is so hysterical with the Grammys? That any of our friends who don’t want the Grammys actually get upset about the Grammys!
“Do you know what Grammys is? It’s the equivalent of any of our friends, or me and you, with our Sabbath and Zeppelin records – we’ll throw in some Allman Brothers in there too – we go to [iconic disco nightclub] Studio 54 and it’s 1978 and we’re like, ‘Man, put on some Sabbath and Zeppelin!’
“And they’re just like, ‘You’re at the wrong bar, guys. We don’t play that in here. But down the road there’s plenty of bars that play all the music that you want to listen to.’
“I’d be curious to find out… When Zeppelin was playing Tampa Stadium [in 1973] with the big thing, ‘Bigger than The Beatles,’ because they sold more tickets – The Beatles sold like 65,000 and Zeppelin had like 67,000 or 68,000 [it was actually 57,000, which at the time was the record for the largest audience to ever see a single artist] – here’s a band that’s doing stadiums now, they sold millions of records and I’d be curious to look up the Grammys in 1973, who the artists were that won and who the nominees were for the Best Album of the Year. And I’m sure Zeppelin had a no.
“I’d just be curious to see if Zeppelin was even mentioned in the Best Album of the Year, or Best Dragon Pants, or Best Robert Plant With Best Chest and Hair. I’m just saying – why does anyone get upset about it and not just go, ‘Well, cool, we crashed the party!’
“Put it this way, if the band wins anything – awesome! As for a footsie rub, I still don’t get one and I’ve got a Grammy. It doesn’t help things.”
Wylde also talked about the Best Metal Performance Grammy he won with Ozzy Osbourne in 1994 for the live rendition of “I Don’t Want to Change the World” off the “Live & Loud” live record, saying he didn’t actually get the iconic statue award, but a written certificate:
“It’s an actual certificate that you won, it’s a frame thing that they give you. Ozzy has the Grammy at the house, but I have the letter from the academy and the whole nine yards that we won it and stuff.
“But the whole thing is – with any of our friends that get upset about this… it’s like any of our friends that get upset about Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga. And it’s like, really?
“It’s like ‘Frank, name me one Lady Gaga song or Justin Bieber song.’ And like, ‘I don’t know any.’ And I go, ‘Okay, name me a Joe Pass song.’ You know, the legendary jazz guitarist. They go, ‘Well, I don’t listen to jazz.’ I go, ‘I know. So why would you get upset about it if Joe Pass did three nights in Madison Square Garden?’
“I mean, why do you even get pissed off about things you don’t even listen to? I’m too busy listening to Zeppelin and Sabbath and Bad Company and bands I like. [Laughs] I don’t even get it, man.”
Asked if he would perform with Lady Gaga the way Metallica did at the recent Grammy ceremony, Wylde replied:
“Any band… If Hatebreed could get on there… It’s just kind of like Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, that was like a cool thing. Any exposure… It’s cool if you actually saw Mastodon for 20 seconds on there. I’m saying if we were 17-years-old you’d be like, ‘Cool man, Mastodon was on!'”
He also discussed Metallica and Lady Gaga’s technical mishap.
“I thought it was still cool that James [Hetfield] just had the balls and just kept going instead of quitting. I thought that was even cooler that there was a fortitude of not getting pissed off and just [stopping].
“The coolest thing was that the band didn’t quit. And people were talking about it more because of the fact that things were going wrong and they didn’t quit. They just kept plowing.”
