Rolling Stones Win Grammy for ‘Blue & Lonesome’
The Rolling Stones' return to their roots, Blue & Lonesome, has picked up the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. The award was given out at the Premiere Ceremony prior to tonight's telecast.
In the Best Rock Song category, Foo Fighters' "Run" beat out Metallica's "Atlas, Rise!" Metallica's Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct was also up for Best Rock Album, as was Queens of the Stone Age's Villains, but that award was won by the War on Drugs' A Deeper Understanding.
Randy Newman's song "Putin" also won for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals. The song appeared on his most recent album, Dark Matter. Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker" earned a posthumous Grammy for Best Rock Performance.
Other than those awards, classic rock was shut out from this year's Grammys. Gregg Allman was nominated for Best Americana Roots Song ("My Only True Friend") and Best Americana Album (Southern Blood), but lost out in both to Jason Isbell ("If We Were Vampires" and The Nashville Sound, respectively). The audiobook of Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, Born to Run, lost out to Carrie Fisher's The Princess Diaries in the Best Spoken Word Album category.
Hosted by Paul Shaffer, the Premiere Ceremony is currently taking place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and is being streamed live on the Grammys website. Music is being provided by Shaffer's The World's Most Dangerous Band, and it's the first time the ensemble has performed together since The Late Show With David Letterman went off the air in 2015.
Later tonight, the Recording Academy will give out the Grammy for Best Rock Song, a category that includes Metallica's "Atlas, Rise!" and Foo Fighters' "Run." Metallica's Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct is also up for Best Rock Album.
10 Times the Grammys Got It Wrong