Jethro Tull and their leader Ian Anderson won the Grammy Award in 1988 for their album “Crest of a Knave” in the new category “Best Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental”, even though the album was not that heavy to be considered Metal at all.
That episode became one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of the award ceremony, since Metallica had been widely expected to win for their album “…And Justice for All”. Over the years, Ian Anderson has spoken about many heavier bands, including Metallica.
What is Ian Anderson’s opinion on Metallica
Ian Anderson curiously enjoys heavier music and has already revealed that he is a fan of Motörhead, for example, a band that influenced Metallica a lot. He once called the Thrash Metal group “the heaviest of Metal bands” and has always spoken about them with respect. “The Metallica boys did have a sense of humor about it (losing the Grammy to Jethro Tull). In a way it was rather good for them, I think. To have to wait another year to win a Grammy.”
“I said at the time: ‘Oh, don’t worry, they will win a Grammy next year’. Indeed they did and they did an acceptance speech, which they went to press and to media, thanking their record company, their wives, their girlfriends, the family dog and Jethro Tull for not bringing out a new album this year (laughs). I thought it was quite funny for the heaviest of Metal bands. But the guitar player in Metallica (Kirk Hammett), he apparently was and is a Jethro Tull fan. He tried to get in touch with me last year sometime, but via my son.”
“I think I wrote back to him, but I didn’t get a reply or a response. Or maybe went to spam, but I thanked him for his interest and you know, whatever, and not bringing out a new Metallica album. But anyway, the Metallica boys…, I have yet to meet apart from Chuck Berry, Van Morrison and one other person who escapes me at the moment who snubbed me. I’ve yet to meet anybody who wasn’t actually a nice person and had a warmth and a humor about them.”
Ian Anderson continued:
“All the bad guys in Rock and Roll, some of them are my pals, the baddest people in Pop and Rock. You know, they turn out to be really nice guys and fun guys, even perhaps their exterior (doesn’t show). Ritchie Blackmore, you know, perfect gentleman, nice guy. Lots of them are like that, they don’t live up to the bad PR reputation with witch they have been both blessed and cursed, but obviously helps in a way maintain their credibility as bad boys,” Ian Anderson told Classic Album Review in 2025 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Anderson has not had the chance to meet the Metallica members in person yet, but he did meet Alice Cooper and apologized to him, since Cooper was the one who went on stage at the Grammy Awards to receive that infamous metal award.
Interestingly, Anderson could have changed Metal history, since Sabbath’s Tony Iommi briefly joined Jehtro Tull. He even performed with them at The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Fortunately, Iommi’s stint with the band lasted only a few weeks. He decided to return to Sabbath to make the heavier kind of music they were doing. So, in a way, Metallica exists as we know them because of Iommi’s decision to leave Tull, since Black Sabbath has always been one of their biggest influences.
Ian Anderson said he would be willing to record with Metallica one day
Since there are no hard feelings about the Grammy episode, Ian Anderson, who often accepts invitations to play flute on other people’s records, whether they are famous or not, said he would be willing to record with Metallica one day if he were invited. “I’ve played actually with quite a few acts that you would call Hard Rock, Metal or even Thrash Metal. So yeah, I do from time to time that sort of thing. Because it’s a challenge for me to work especially as a flute player. To find a way to make that fragile little voice work in the context of the ultimate sort of aggressive loud Rock music. (…) So if Metallica got on the phone or sent me an e-mail saying: ‘Can you play on this track?'”
“I would say: ‘Yes, but don’t expect me to come to America to do it. Send me a rough mix and tell me where you want me to play. Give me some vague, verbal description of the kind of thing you’re looking for and let me loose. I’ll do it, send it back to you. If you like it, use it, if you don’t just delete the file. No charge, no expectation, no damage done if you feel it doesn’t fit. It’s on those terms that I always played with other people. I’ve never accepted a fee or a royalty from playing on another people’s records,” Ian Anderson told Thomas S. Orwat Jr. in 2014 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
He once said Metallica would be seen in the future as a “kind of recycle of Black Sabbath”
Although he has always been respectful toward Metallica, back in 1993 he said that he would not have liked to be a member of bands like them or Guns N’ Roses. According to him, Metallica would be seen in the future as a second recycle of Black Sabbath. “I imagine Jethro Tull is always gonna be seen as one of those quaint, sort of idiosyncratic bands of the sort of ’70s that sort of, kind of did the stuff that was you know, kind of not the norm and had its brief connection with commercial success. But overall was a sort of band that kind of did things that weren’t quite mainstream.”
“I suppose at the end of it all I think I’d rather be in Jethro Tull than be in Guns N’ Roses. Because, you know, Guns N’ Roses, if they are remembered in 100 years from now in the sort of music books or the history books, they’re gonna be remembered as a band who kind of were a second recycle of a kind of Rolling Stones phenomenon. Just as Metallica will be remembered as a kind of second recycle of the Black Sabbath phenomenon.”
“I mean, Jethro Tull, along with ELP and Yes, and all of these kind of progressive rock bands of the early ’70s are sort of seen as being slightly kitsch. Slightly you know bombastic, overblown, whatever. But at least some people remember our names. Some of us are remembered as musicians, not just as images,” he told Marc Allan.
Ian Anderson think Heavy Metal has a silly side sometimes
Although he enjoys a couple of heavier bands, Ian Anderson thinks Heavy Metal has a silly side to it sometimes. When talking to Loaded Radio in 2025, he used comic books as an example of the absurdity that he sometimes sees in Metal bands and their music. “(…) The absurdity of Heavy Metal approach. I think a lot of them (Metal musicians) do see the slightly silly side of it. That applies to bands like Iron Maiden. They certainly have a great awareness of the absurdity of some of the things they do. They just enjoy the fun and games of it. It’s comic book, it’s larger than life. It’s something that people revere, even if it’s a little silly.”
“You know, like ‘The Walking Dead’, people enjoy all that stuff. Even thought they know it’s improbable, impossible or utterly absurd and in that case utterly violent. I think when they meet my son-in-law Andrew Lincoln they don’t really expect him to be (like his character). (Especially) if they meet him in the supermarket doing a shopping on a Saturday morning,” Ian Anderson said. After that award Jethro Tull was never again nominated to the Grammys. Meanwhile Metallica has been nominated 22 times and won 9.