Ex-JETHRO TULL Guitarist MARTIN BARRE Explains Why Band’s ‘Hard Rock/Metal’ GRAMMY Was Well Deserved

METALLICA was nominated for the very first “Hard Rock/Metal Performance” Grammy in 1989, but famously lost to JETHRO TULL, a band distinguished mainly by its heavy use of flute. Fans — and even some audience members — were rightly outraged, though TULL‘s record label tried to make light of the faux pas by placing a Billboard ad that read, “The flute is a heavy, metal instrument.”

In a recent interview with VRP Rocks, ex-JETHRO TULL guitarist Martin Barre, who was in the group for 43 years and performed on 11 gold and five platinum albums, including the Grammy-winning “Crest Of A Knave”, was asked about why and his bandmates did not accept the Grammy Award in person. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No. Well, the record company didn’t think we’d get it. And they said that we stood no chance. And they said, ‘Don’t go.’ I mean, I really wanted to go. Even as a loser, I wanted to be there. So I have to say it was their mistake and their lack of confidence in the band. But, yeah, what a shame, ’cause at the biggest moment possibly ever in my career and maybe Ian‘s [Anderson, JETHRO TULL leader] and the others’, it was lost forever and it didn’t come across well that we weren’t there. It just looked really bad.”

He continued: “But despite that, I’m proud of it, and it’s a big, big deal. It’s a big deal for me because essentially it was me, Ian, and Dave Pegg that wrote, arranged and recorded that album. So I feel a big, big part of it. And yeah, dare I say I deserve it. I don’t have a problem with it. Because to me it doesn’t just represent one album; it represents years and years of a band putting something into the system. And I think that year, whoever it was, recognized that we needed a little bit of a nod. And it was a good album to choose.”

Barre joined JETHRO TULL in 1968 and made his recording debut with the band on its classic second album, “Stand Up”. He departed in 2011. His unique sound and style contributed to album sales exceeding 60 million units.

This past May, Anderson was asked in an interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station where he keeps his Grammy. He said: “Well, my son actually found it a few years ago. It disappeared for about 20 years, and he stumbled upon it. He came down [and said], ‘What is this?’ And I said, ‘That’s the Grammy. Where did you find that?’ And he said, ‘Oh, it was in one of the bedrooms upstairs, in a cupboard somewhere.’ And I said, ‘Well, there you go.’ And since I have not seen it advertised on eBay, I must assume that he actually returned it to the cupboard that it came from. But I haven’t seen it again since. I haven’t gone looking for it.”

Regarding why he doesn’t display his Grammy Award at his house, Ian said: “I am not disparaging or negative about peer-group accolades. It’s very nice to have people enjoy your work, especially when it’s the five thousand voting members of the National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences. But it’s not something that I want to revel in. I am not a trophy hunter. You don’t find Grammies in my house displayed or gold albums on the wall or the head of a moose that I have shot with a large-caliber rifle. I’m just not that kind of a guy. I don’t do trophies.”

A year and a half ago, Ian was asked in an interview with the St. Louis, Missouri radio station KSHE 95 if he ever got a chance to “to rub in the face of METALLICA” the fact that his band won a “Hard Rock/Metal Performance” Grammy over the San Francisco Bay Area heavy metal giants. He responded: “Well, I think METALLICA were actually very gentlemanly. 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.”

Four years ago, on the 30th anniversary of that fateful day, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich took to his Instagram to reflect on his band’s first Grammy loss, writing: “Today 30 years ago, February 22 ’89, we played the Grammys for the first time and that was quite a mindfuck!!

“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!!”

After METALLICA lost the 1989 “Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording” Grammy to JETHRO TULL, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS),parent company of the Grammys, separated the two genres in 1990 by creating categories for “Best Hard Rock Performance” and “Best Metal Performance”. METALLICA won the “Best Metal Performance” award the next year, for “One”, and has earned nearly a dozen so far.

When METALLICA‘s “Black” album won another “Best Metal Performance” Grammy in 1992, Ulrich “thanked” JETHRO TULL for not releasing an album in that year.

In a 2012 interview with Powerline, Anderson recounted that historic day when his band was given the award for best hard rock/metal performer.

“I probably get [the question] a lot more when I’m talking to American writers than I do [at home in England],” Anderson said. “It’s not really a big deal over here. It was in a year where it was a new category for ‘hard rock’ forward slash ‘metal’ and that category still exists today … and we were, for some strange reason, nominated. 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 JANE’S 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.”