Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor was none too pleased with the way the GRAMMYs handled his nightcap performance, cutting him off with the credits before his jam with Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and Lindsey Buckingham was over.
Following the show, Reznor tweeted:
Music’s biggest night… to be disrespected. A heartfelt FUCK YOU guys.
— Trent Reznor (@trent_reznor) January 27, 2014
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, GRAMMY executive producer Ken Ehrlich, addressed Reznor’s grievances:
“I’m sorry he was upset. I was really thrilled that we were finally getting him on the GRAMMYs. The final jam started with Arcade Fire a few years ago, and LL Cool J last year. I want to end on a high, an up note. I did tell them we’d take it as long as we could. The number was about five, six minutes long, and we got to within a minute twenty of the end. We got as close as we could possibly get. “
Reznor was able to complete Nine Inch Nails’ “Hesitation Marks” cut “Copy of A” and play a couple minutes of Queens of the Stone Age’s “My God Is the Sun” before the credits interrupted and the broadcast cut off.
Backstage after the show, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow told reporters, “We save the end slot for something that is a bit of a jam, because you can have the energy go and then it’s just a matter of the clock.”
This wasn’t the first time Reznor was critical of the GRAMMYs. In a December 2011 cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, he said: “Why don’t the Grammys matter? Because it feels rigged and cheap — like a popularity contest that the insiders club has decided.”