When Bon Iver scored a Grammy Award nomination late last year, many music fans were amused to learn that songwriter Justin Vernon had insulted the industry award show in a prior interview. Well, evidently getting nominated hasn't improved Vernon's opinion of the event, since he reportedly turned down a chance to perform at the show.
The singer told Billboard that, while he would have possibly been interested in performing his own music, the Grammy organizers told him that the performance would have to be a collaboration.
"We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn't play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else," he complained. "We kind of said 'fuck you' a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don't think they wanted us to play."
However, Vernon's harsh refusal evidently had nothing to do with the people he was being asked to play alongside.
"Awesome people. People that I would love to play a song with," he said of his unnamed potential collaborative partners. "But you know what? Fuckin' rock'n'roll should not be decided by people that have that job. Rock'n'roll should be the fucking people with guitars around their backs. And their friends. And their managers."
But hey, getting nominated for the Grammys isn't all bad. Here's what Vernon said about the recent Grammy Awards commercial highlighting his music (see below): "Go ahead, pay for our commercial. There's a big misunderstanding -- I don't want to sell music. But if people are going to be selling music, and they want to sell our music without disturbing the medium of what it actually is, we want to fucking do that. I want people to hear the music that we make, I don't want to do it in any shitty way."
The Grammy Awards air on February 12.
The singer told Billboard that, while he would have possibly been interested in performing his own music, the Grammy organizers told him that the performance would have to be a collaboration.
"We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn't play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else," he complained. "We kind of said 'fuck you' a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don't think they wanted us to play."
However, Vernon's harsh refusal evidently had nothing to do with the people he was being asked to play alongside.
"Awesome people. People that I would love to play a song with," he said of his unnamed potential collaborative partners. "But you know what? Fuckin' rock'n'roll should not be decided by people that have that job. Rock'n'roll should be the fucking people with guitars around their backs. And their friends. And their managers."
But hey, getting nominated for the Grammys isn't all bad. Here's what Vernon said about the recent Grammy Awards commercial highlighting his music (see below): "Go ahead, pay for our commercial. There's a big misunderstanding -- I don't want to sell music. But if people are going to be selling music, and they want to sell our music without disturbing the medium of what it actually is, we want to fucking do that. I want people to hear the music that we make, I don't want to do it in any shitty way."
The Grammy Awards air on February 12.
