Sure, when you're a musician, you can win an AMA, or a Grammy. You can get a Gold, Platinum, or even Diamond album. You can tour the world, hear your music during football games, and even get inducted into the Hall of Fame. These are all milestones of a successful career...
But, when you are honored by the President and the Kennedy Center, you've reached a whole new level.
That is what happened to Led Zeppelin this month.
They were honored with Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Buddy Guy, and Natalia Makarova.
Check out the President talking about Led Zeppelin before the performances.
Jack Black intro's Led Zeppelin
Foo Fighters (with Taylor Hawkins singing)
Kid Rock
Lenny Kravitz
and finally Heart (featuring Jason Bonham) took it to a whole new level! Watch Robert Plant, he wipes away tears at the end!
After the ceremony, the joined David Letterman (also honored) on his show!
The 121212 Concert for Sandy Relief turned into a 5 hour concert, and emotional event that had sentimental moments that brought you to tears, funny moments that made you laugh through those tears, and some moments that just pissed you off.
The show sounded great for the most part, and stars like Billy Crystal, Brian Williams, Jon Stewart, and Jimmy Fallon did a great job of putting the focus where it needed to be, on the victims of Sandy.
Bringing out Springsteen to kick off the show was brilliant, and when he invited Jon Bon Jovi to sing Born To Run with him, even Jon himself looked excited.
Roger Waters inviting Eddie Vedder to sing Comfortably Numb with him was another highlight! I love this version!
But I thought Roger Waters set, should have been all Roger singing. He had a guest vocalist from his band sing 2 songs, and no one even knew who he was. It was awkward. He should have just asked Eddie to do more than one song!
I thought Adam Sandler was a hit, he made me laugh even though others thought it was stupid!
The Who did well, but Roger Daltrey struggled with some of the notes, and he should keep his shirt on! But that's just me!
I thought the Rolling Stones did well too. They seemed like they were genuinely happy to be there, and to be part of the event.
Clapton killed it! He was great!
Christ Martin from Coldplay inviting Michael Stipe from REM onstage, was a welcome surprise and a definite highlight!
Billy Joel was one of the best performances of the night. He sounded great and was sincere in his delivery. I have been listening to Billy Joel since the show last night. One of my favorite songs of all time is Goodnight Saigon!
Bon Jovi was a huge hit and Wanted Dead or Alive is just as much as great song today as it was when it came out! But really Jon, a turtle neck? How were you not sweating to death in that thing?
And of course Paul McCartney and the remaining members of Nirvana! It was much anticipated, and I thought it was cool! Dave Grohl looked like a little kid at Christmas up there!
As far as lowlights, there were a few. Some of the SNL skits weren't very funny, Kristen Stewart introducing Bon Jovi seemed awkward and uncomfortable, Alisha Keys sounded good, but she should have closed her set with New York instead of closing the entire show with it, and Jay Z should have been there. He would have mopped the floor with Kanye West who was the biggest joke, and time suck of the evening. We could have had more Stones, more Eddie Vedder, more Dave Grohl, or an all star jam at the end, and instead we got almost 25 minutes of self indulgent, auto tuned, crap!
He seemed clueless about the victims as he sang songs about how cool he is, and how big his private jet is. Gold Digger? REALLY? He even mentioned how emotional it was to have friends stay with him, who had lost their homes. REALLY? What a dick!
He could have salvaged his "performance" with a few changes. 1. put him on BEFORE all of the Hall of Fame members. He looked foolish going on after them. 2. GET A BAND! The Roots would have given his performance a soul! 3. pick better songs, if you have them. 4. NO AUTO TUNE! You are sharing a stage with Roger Waters, Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and a f*cking Beatle figure it out and just decline the invite all together! 5. Bring Jamie Foxx up on stage since he was there already, or invite members of Run DMC or the Beastie Boys to come up onstage with you. ANYTHING BUT WHAT YOU DID!
All in all, it was a great night, for a great cause, and you can purchase the entire show from iTunes with the proceeds going to the charity! I would just skip over Kanye!
Starting at 7:30 tonight, some of the biggest names in music will join together to help raise money for the Robin Hood Relief Fund to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy. There are going to be some amazing collaborations tonight, including Eddie Vedder and Roger Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" and Paul McCartney joining the remaining members of Nirvana on stage. And those are just the one's we know about!
Tickets have been sold out since they went on sale, but you can watch the entire show LIVE in the player below!
Let me know who your favorite performer was, and don't forget to donate!
The Grammy Nominations have been released!
Here are the categories that everyone talks about...
Record Of The Year:
"Lonely Boy" — The Black Keys
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" — Kelly Clarkson
"We Are Young" — Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe
"Somebody That I Used To Know" — Gotye featuring Kimbra
"Thinkin Bout You" — Frank Ocean
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" — Taylor Swift
Album Of The Year: El Camino — The Black Keys Some Nights — Fun. Babel — Mumford & Sons Channel Orange — Frank Ocean Blunderbuss — Jack White
Song Of The Year:
"The A Team" — Ed Sheeran, songwriter (Ed Sheeran)
"Adorn" — Miguel Pimentel, songwriter (Miguel)
"Call Me Maybe" — Tavish Crowe, Carly Rae Jepsen & Josh Ramsay, songwriters (Carly Rae Jepsen)
"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" — Jörgen Elofsson, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin & Ali Tamposi, songwriters (Kelly Clarkson)
"We Are Young" — Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe)
Best New Artist:
Alabama Shakes
Fun.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean
Here are the one's that we REALLY care about!
Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance
Anthrax, ‘I’m Alive’
Halestorm, ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’
Iron Maiden, ‘Blood Brothers’
Lamb of God, ‘Ghost Walking’
Marilyn Manson, ‘No Reflection’
Megadeth, ‘Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)’
The nominees for Best Rock Performance are "Hold On" by Alabama Shakes; "Lonely Boy" by the Black Keys; "Charlie Brown" by Coldplay; "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons; and "We Take Care Of Our Own" by Bruce Springsteen.
For Best Alternative Music Album, the nominees are The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do by Fiona Apple; Biophilia by Björk; Making Mirrors by Gotye; Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. by M83; and Bad As Me by Tom Waits.
and a few more for good measure...
The nominees for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance are "Shake It Out" by Florence & The Machine; "We Are Young" by Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe; "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra; "Sexy And I Know It" by LMFAO; and "Payphone" by Maroon 5 & Wiz Khalifa.
For Best Dance/Electronica Album, the nominees are Wonderland by Steve Aoki; Don't Think by the Chemical Brothers; > Album Title Goes Here < by Deadmau5; Fire & Ice by Kaskade; and Bangarang by Skrillex.
The 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on GRAMMY Sunday,Feb. 10, 2013, at Staples Center in Los Angeles and once again will be broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8–11:30 p.m. (ET/PT). The 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards are produced by AEG Ehrlich Ventures for The Recording Academy. Ken Ehrlich is executive producer and Louis J. Horvitz is director.
