Justin Vernon, principal member of Bon Iver, has continued his criticism of the Grammy Awards, branding the ceremony as ‘too self-important’.
Ahead of the 54th Grammy Awards earlier this month, Vernon revealed he had turned down the chance to perform on the night, telling Billboard:
“We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn’t play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage – we’re getting nominated for this record that we made. We were given accolades for it, and all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that.”
As it turned out, Bon Iver triumphed in the main Best New Artist category, and also took home the Grammy for Best Alternative Album, but Vernon has told Spin he still holds reservations about the annual industry bash.
“Ed Droste wrote me a note that said ‘Hey man, go win one for the indies’,” Vernon said. “I may not know what he means by ‘the indies’. We could sit down and make a ten-point definition of what the indies are; we may not agree on every one on of them.”
“But he’s a friend and he’s saying, ‘We’re with you’. You can’t deny the fact that the Grammys have a historical significance as far as the industry staying above water. But that doesn’t budge some of my personal concerns about it being too self-important.”
So, The grammys are too self important, but Vernon refused to play if that meant he had to share the stage with anyone else…whaaaa?