Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson distances himself from the ‘tedious’ Grammys and Rock Hall of Fame

Despite being eligible for the Hall of Fame since 1993, Jethro Tull haven’t even made the shortlist once – something that’s unlikely to lose Ian any sleep.

Speaking to eonmusic about Tull’s triumph over Metallica in the ‘Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance’ category at the Grammys in 1989, Ian said: “It would be nice to be able to not talk about Grammys full stop, and even more so, the American Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

“I mean, I find these (events) really rather tedious; it’s America, I don’t come from America, I don’t play American music, I don’t belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and the Grammy thing was just a one-off little moment where five thousand members of the National Academy of Recording Artists decided to award to Jethro Tull rather than Metallica.”

Ian explained that Jethro Tull didn’t even attend the 1989 Grammy Awards as their record label “didn’t think it was really worth the expense of flying us over to Los Angeles because Metallica were favourites to win it.”

He added: “We got the news (of the win) while we were sitting in the studio; a representative from Chrysalis Records called us and said: ‘Congratulations, you’ve won the Grammy!’, and I’m not sure if we could hear the boos at that point, but clearly it was a very unpopular win.

“Poor Alice Cooper, being the presenter had to step to make a rather dubious acceptance speech on my behalf. But Metallica took it in reasonably good grace, and took out an ad the next year when they did win the Grammy, thanking Jethro Tull for not bringing out a new album that year.”

Just last week, KISS bassist Gene Simmons gave the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a fresh tongue lashing for inducting artists outside the sphere of rock music.

The ever-opinionated Demon said: "There are people from different genres that I don't believe belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

"There's disco and rap and all kinds of stuff. And I highly respect rap, but on the day Led Zeppelin gets put into the Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame, is the day I will personally accept rap artists as being brought into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. It just ain't the same thing.

“You go to Apple Music, and you go to different genres and you type in 'rock,' you're not gonna find a single rap band in that category. Likewise, if you look at hip hop or rap, you're not gonna see AC/DC or KISS in the list in there."

Jethro Tull’s new album ‘String Quartets’ is released on Friday 24th March.