By the time the last pair of designer shoes walked the red carpet at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, the vast majority of the nominated artists — including the entire Washington delegation — had already learned whether they’d won or lost at an afternoon ceremony at a theater across the street from the Crypto.com Arena.
Nevertheless, a pair of homegrown music stars who weren’t nominated this year hit the prime-time stage to honor fallen music legends during the show’s In Memoriam segment.
Kicking off a star-studded medley honoring music greats lost in the last year, Reba McEntire came out flanked by Morton country/Americana vet and 17-time Grammy nominee Brandy Clark and Lukas Nelson to perform McEntire’s “Trailblazer,” co-written by Clark. The recorded version — sung by McEntire, Miranda Lambert and Lainey Wilson — is a salute to generations of women in country music and earned the all-star trio a nomination for best country duo/group performance.
It also proved a perfect heartstring tugger as the Grammys recognized a number of late musical greats, including Brian Wilson, Bob Weir, D’Angelo, Roberta Flack and others.
After Clark & Co.’s stunning strings-laced performance, a hard-rocking supergroup featuring Guns n’ Roses bassist and Seattle punk lifer Duff McKagan turned the energy (and volume) up about a thousand notches to pay respect to metal god Ozzy Osbourne, who died last summer at age 76. McKagan, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, producer Andrew Watt and McKagan’s GnR mate Slash provided the musical muscle behind Post Malone, as the quintet gave a literally fiery rendition of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” that moved Osbourne’s family to tears.
Malone might still be in his country phase, but as Nirvana fans learned a few years ago, the rap-crooning pop star rarely misses with his rock covers. With Posty snarling and growling over the top, Smith and McKagan delivered the rhythmic kick in the teeth, while Slash and Watt — an elite guitarist — traded wild-man licks.
McKagan, Smith and Watt have become something of a mini hard rock wrecking crew through their L.A. studio work. The trio played together on Osbourne’s Watt-produced album “Ordinary Man,” as well as Iggy Pop’s 2022 effort, “Loser.”
Watt has become a familiar name to Seattle fans in recent years, with Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam and Brandi Carlile — including her Grammy-nominated duo album with Elton John — among his many big-name collaborations.
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