Dave Grohl Doesn’t Understand Grammy Awards ‘Process’
Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl said he didn’t understand how Grammy Award winners were chosen.
His comments came after he was asked about the 2022 nominations, where only one band in the rock music categories has been around for less than 20 years. In an interview with Variety, he responded by trying to put some context to his own experiences of winning awards.
“I have to be perfectly honest, I don’t know what the process is,” said Grohl, who’s received 16 Grammys across his career and is nominated for another three this year. “I don’t know the mechanics of how it works. But I will say this: Years ago when we were nominated for a Grammy, we were in the same category as Alabama Shakes. I remembered the Alabama Shakes from years ago when we would come to a festival and see them like midday on the side stage. And then the next year we’d come back to the festival and they were headlining the side stage, and then the next year they’re midday on the main stage, and then the next year they’re headlining. When Alabama Shakes beat us for that Grammy, I was so fucking happy to see that they had made it to that point in the most rewarding way possible and that they had that entire experience leading up to that moment.”
He went on to say that he was “not a competitive person” when it came to music. “I think there are a lot of fucking great bands out there that deserve the same sort of recognition that a band like ours does," he noted. "I don’t understand the optics. I don’t understand the industry, how that works. But I know that there is rock ‘n’ roll out there that’s totally valid and totally worthy of these accolades. It’s just up to some process that I don’t understand to find them. I’m not sure.”
Grohl said he's never considered the situation surrounding awards. "All I know is that if I’m in a category with AC/DC," he said, "I’m just going to fucking give it to AC/DC."