Chris Adler says he’ll give his Grammy to his mum if Lamb Of God win the prize for Best Metal Performance at this year’s ceremony.
The band’s track 512 is up against Slipknot song Custer, Ghost’s Cirice, Sevendust’s Thank You and August Burns Red’s Identity for the honour at the 58th annual Grammy Awards, which takes place on February 15 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
But the drummer says he doesn’t even think heavy metal has a place at an awards ceremony that ‘doesn’t understand’ the genre.
He tells Elliot In The Morning: “This is not the kind of award that we aim for when we’re writing music. And metal, for me, shouldn’t really even be a part of it.
“In the way that the Grammy awards has presented itself, it’s basically a pop show. As far as songwriting, it comes down to lyrics and melody. Metal, to me, is not supposed to be popular. It’s not supposed to be awarded, it’s the music for outsiders. It’s rebellious and a little more aggressive than most people would want to deal with.
“I’m glad that it’s represented there, but I don’t think there’s method in place there that really understands what we’re doing. Yes, I respect the artists that we’re up against, but basically it’s a popularity contest when we get there.”
Lamb Of God were nominated in the same category in 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2013 and have never won. This year will be the first time they won’t attend the ceremony as they’ll be on tour.
Adler adds: “We’ve been to every other one when we’ve been nominated, so maybe us not being there will help us win one. I’ll send my dad maybe. He’ll have a 30-minute speech and get yanked off.
“I hope we win one, I’ll give it to my mum. It’ll mean more to her than it will to me.”
But if it does end up fifth time lucky for LOG, Adler says the band will take it with a pinch of salt. He says: “They’ve gotten it wrong so many times that if we were to get it, we’d have to look back and be real with ourselves and say, ‘Listen, every other time that we missed it when we should’ve got it was a joke too, so we can’t take this too seriously.”
The band’s most recent album, VII: Sturm Und Drang, was released last year. And Adler is looking forward to the January 22 release of Megadeth’s Dystopia, on which he plays drums.
“It’s good to be me right now,” he says. “I’m really excited about that. I think, for Megadeth fans, it’s gonna be a real return to form and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of that project as well.”
