At last night's (February 10th) 61st Annual Grammy Awards, stoner thrash trio High on Fire shocked many when they received the award for Best Metal Performance, beating out more mainstream darlings like Between the Buried and Me, Trivium, and Deafheaven. The notoriously gritty trio attended the ceremony in style, with even perennially shirtless frontman Matt Pike donning an all-black head-to-toe look (complete with a dapper matching cane to aid in walking while he recovers from diabetes-related foot surgery) for the once in a lifetime event.
A humbled Pike took the microphone during the acceptance speech first declaring, "Wow what a trip" before looking around a bit and laughing. He first thanks his two bandmates and professes, "We never really needed an award for doing what we loved. 21 years later, [we] finally got this." The hesher thanks the academy, producer/Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou who has worked with the band on several of their most recent releases, others who worked on the record, their significant others and families, and their crew before passing off the trophy and mic.
Drummer Dez Kenzel, suited to the nines, kept it very brief in his portion of the acceptance, thanking only his wife Beth, his parents, his sister, and his children before handing it over to bassist Jeff Matz. Matz echoes many of the same thanks as Pike, but adds on a special bit at the end for Nick John, the band's manager who passed away in September 2018 after battling pancreatic cancer. The bassist ends his speech with a brief "peace" sign and the three walk off as the sparse crowd applause. The award was given to them prior to the televised portion of the show, hence the light crowd attendance.
Other take-homes in the rock and metal related categories include Chris Cornell's posthumous win with "When Bad Does Good" for Best Rock Performance, St. Vincent's "Masseduction" in the Best Rock Song category, and newcomers Greta Van Fleet for Best Rock Album with their debut From the Fires. The latter was perhaps the least expected, as the classic rock acolytes beat out both grunge stalwarts Alice In Chains with their latest album Rainier Fog and Swedish occult rockers Ghost's Prequelle. See the full list of Grammy winners here.
