I was a feminist, I had armpit hair, and everyone in America anyway made such a huge deal about it - it wasn’t any big deal anywhere else but America, with our leftover puritanical values. But it was kind of surreal, and I didn’t place too much importance on it - and having not been, like, a media junkie, I wasn’t really prepared for the red carpet, I wasn’t prepared for the fallout. I won best new artist, but I had all the big nominations, which was amazing. Paula Cole (performer/winner): There was a lot of pressure in seven nominations, and I was a dark horse in every way, I think. What did I think my chances of winning were? I didn’t really care … I was with some pretty heavy company, and not necessarily the biggest name. I mean, I didn’t consider myself a hit artist, even though “Sunny Came Home” was a hit. They must have known I was getting some pretty big nominations, which is why they asked me to be there.
Shawn Colvin (performer/winner): I was at the little ceremony they have to announce the nominees, and I helped to announce them. RZA (Wu-Tang Clan rapper/producer, nominee): The cool thing, for me and my experience, was seeing hip-hop be at the pre-ceremony or a separate ceremony, and then seeing it make it to the main stage … to see it become a part of the ceremony was great, especially having Wu-Tang nominated in the 1998 Grammys. I mean, Kelsey Grammer was hosting the Grammys.ĭJ Jazzy Jeff (Will Smith producer, winner): I think the Grammys had come a long way from the first time that were there … just through all of the stuff that we had kind of gone through, with the Grammys not acknowledging the hip-hop category, and just watching the state of hip-hop grow to the point that now it’s probably one of the biggest categories in the Grammys. It was not done in a giant room, it wasn’t done in an arena, it was done at Radio City Music Hall … it wasn’t a flashy thing quite in the way it has become since then. Isaac Hanson (Hanson guitarist, performer): The Grammys, especially in the late ‘90s - they were much snobbier. 25, 1998 - as recalled by those who lived through its insanity. Here are the events of the 40th Annual Grammy Awards - which took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Feb. “We’ve had equally interesting things happening during a show ,” recalls longtime producer Ken Ehrlich. The seemingly non-stop chaos of the ‘98 Grammys stands alone 20 years later as the gold standard for unforgettable unpredictability on music’s biggest night. While the event was confounding to those in attendance, and remains largely unexplained 20 years later, it stands as a pre-Nipplegate, pre-Kanye moment of amusingly harmless award-show anarchy, one which might never be possible in the same way again.
#EVER FORWARD GARY SIMMONS FULL#
That was the message inscribed in big black letters on the chest of experimental artist and comedian Michael Portnoy, as he interrupted Bob Dylan’s “Love Sick” performance to gyrate sans shirt alongside the rock legend for a full half-minute.
Shawn Colvin saw her song of the year win interrupted by a just-snubbed Ol’ Dirty Bastard, memorably declaring in protest of his group’s hip-hop loss: “Wu-Tang is for the children!” And two versions of the same country song, released simultaneously as singles by LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood, were nominated in the same Grammy category - and the version performed on the show wasn’t the one that ended up winning.Īll of that, plus, well, SOY BOMB. Aretha Franklin pinch-hit for Luciano Pavarotti at the last minute on a performance of aria “Nessun Dorma,” often ranked among the greatest in award-show history. The 1998 Grammys were the most action-packed ceremony in the show’s soon-to-be-60-year history.
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