NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - One of the night's biggest winners,
Alicia Keys, might have snubbed the main backstage press area at the 44th Annual GRAMMY? Awards Wednesday (Feb. 27) night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, but we had our fair share of big names to take up the slack. Here's what some had to say:
T-Bone Burnett, producer of O Brother, Where Art Thou?: "Everybody thought I was insane. I had produced the Counting Crows record that had sold 7, 8 million records. I produced the Wallflowers record that sold 5 million records or something like that. It seemed to be like one of those records to me. Those kind of songs. That general kind of music -- American music. Except, instead of one good singer, we had 15 or 12 great singers and Ralph Stanley, the most important figure in country music today. And, he won Best Country Vocal of the Year. I'm happier about that than anything.
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"They're the most collaborative, intelligent, subversive people, artists, I've ever gotten a chance to work with," he continues. "There's never any tension, there's just creativity and imagination. We've just started a record label called DMZ, the Coens and I, in partnership with Columbia, and our first release is a Ralph Stanley record. And after 600 records or however many he's made, we were going to call the record
Introducing Ralph Stanley, except we just decided to call it
Ralph Stanley."
Ralph Stanley: "I think this is the best birthday I've ever had. I've been celebrating about a week now, but I think tonight's done the job. I'm having fun tonight, things are goin' great, but I'm getting tired." (Stanley just turned 75.)
Emmylou Harris |
Emmylou Harris: "I'm Emmylou Harris, I was the voice of one of those women who had the wet clothes on. I don't think of this as an album, but more an event, a collection. I was surprised to see it in this category. I was happy for just the attention to the music, the nomination. But something's goin' on. I don't know about country radio, but there's obviously 4 or 5 million people that bought this record, and are discovering Ralph Stanley."
U2 |
U2: "We're huge fans of his work," said the Edge about T-Bone Burnett. "So it felt, on one front, we're disappointed [we didn't win Album of the Year], but on another, we're so proud of him and so proud of his work we wouldn't have wanted to lose to anyone but T-Bone. It was kind of a sweet defeat."
And what did Bono say to India.Arie, caught on camera behind the stage before the band picked up their Record of the Year honor for "Walk On?" " I said, 'That frock is really working for you.' She's extraordinary, too," he added, using his favorite word during the night. "But it's important we don't say everybody's extraordinary, 'lest you think we're on drugs."
Nelly Furtado |
Nelly Furtado: "It was a great night. A couple of days ago, I did a
Billy Joel tribute. It got me in the mindset of respecting people who've been in the business 10, 20, 30 years. That's an amazing thing.
Mary J. Blige's performance brought me to tears."
Asked about Recording Artists' Coalition and the weeks' concerts in L.A. (allstar, Feb. 27), Furtado said, "Times are changing, for sure. A lot more artists are coming out with label deals, production deals. I think definitely the days of na�ve artists are long gone, people are more empowered, have more access to more information. More and more record deals are altered. We have more power, that's a positive thing."
Furtado recently worked with Dan the Automator of Gorillaz on a remix of her single, "On the Radio (Remember the Days)," and she recently finished a collaboration with the Roots for her second album. "You're going to hear lots from me and Timbaland in the future, and I'll be working with Missy [Elliott] again."
Train |
Train: "Thanks for the applause," said a sarcastic Train to the press that didn't clap when they entered the room (most were on final deadlines). The band took Best Rock Song for the title track from their album, Drops of Jupiter. "We felt like we won before we showed up," said singer-frontman Pat Monahan. "We felt like being nominated, someone saying, 'Hey, your work is as good as all this.' That's winning to us. And then being asked to perform, that's winning. We won a lot of things today."
Eve |
Eve: Winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Let Me Blow Ya Mind," her duet with
No Doubt singer, Gwen Stefani, Eve gave all the credit to "Girl Power." "This was the hardest song I ever wrote and it's one of my favorite songs. I feel tremendously blessed.
Dr. Dre is hard to work with. He's a great producer, but for me to sit and write... and he sits right with you, and he's very critical. But he brings the best out of you," she said, showing a lot of legs in her flowing, colorful slit-up-the-thigh Jean-Paul Gaultier ensemble.
Eve co-stars with Ice Cube in the film Barber Shop, likely set for release this fall. "It's a great cast. I play Terry, who is the only girl barber in the shop. That's what the hair is for," she said, flipping her blonde ponytail. "She has the attitude most of the time, but I love her. It's a fun role to play."
Lil' Kim |
Lil' Kim: The girls of "
Lady Marmalade" shared the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocal win, and rapper
Lil' Kim arrived at the ceremonies via a motorcycle. "I am a girl that likes to ride," she said with a sly smile, sporting a 2.5-carat Harry Winston ring loaned out to her for the occasion. "Motorcycles are just so pretty to me. I need the vroom, vroom. It gets you to where you're goin' really fast."
Will the foursome get together again for another record or some other kind of collaboration? "Oh my gosh, There's been plenty of talk. A 'Lady Marmalade' movie. Pink wants to collaborate with me again. Christina has asked me to do things with her. Mya and I, we talk all the time. I don't know, maybe we could do 'Set it Off 3.'"
