Grammy Exec Embarrassed By Jethro Tull Metal Win

The Recording Academy's Head of Awards Bill Freimuth looked back on one of the Grammy Awards biggest goofs when they awarded Jethro Tull the statue in the metal category over Metallica and other real metal acts 30 years ago.

Rock and metal fans were shocked when Jethro Tull's "Crest of a Knave" was awarded the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance and here caught up with Freimuth to reflect on the controversy and how it changed things for the Academy.

"I wasn't here at that time and I don't weigh in on the choices made by our voters," Freimuth said. "What happened as a result of that particular situation is that we've made a change to our process where we added this whole layer called screening committees.

"We now have 24 different committees of people ranging in size anywhere from 15 to 70 people who sit around and listen to all the music and make sure that it gets to the right category so something like that doesn't embarrass us again."

Metallica Announce Second Round Of All Within My Hands Grants

Metallica To Stream Full Sick Of The Studio Kickoff Show

Metallica's Kirk Hammett Would Change Alcoholica Past

Metallica To Stream Full Historic 1999 Show

Metallica's Best Song Selected By Fans

Metallica Felt Confident Going Into Black Album

Metallica To Stream Full 2008 Spain Concert For MetallicaMondays

Metallica Streaming Festival Footage For Just 24 Hours

Metallica Working On New Music During Lockdown

More Metallica News

Share this article