Grammy-Nominated Artists Officially “Conflicted” About Appearing On Strike-Plagued Broadcast

Jess Harvell | January 21, 2008 8:54 am
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As the Writer’s Guild of America strike drags on and the writer-free Grammy broadcast shapes up to be tremendously boring/tremendously terrifying, musicians are being forced to decide whether or not they will cross the proverbial picket line come the big night now that the Guild has refused to grant the show a waiver, though some are still holding out hope for a reversal. Needless to say, many are unsure of the right move, even after getting the go sign from their own unions. Most are nominally siding with the writers but pissy that they’re spoiling their big night out. They already bought their outfits and everything!

Best new artist nominee Feist, who is up for four Grammys, told the AP last week she planned to go to the event.

“It’s going to be kind of a reunion for `The Reminder,’ everyone who was involved,” she said of her critically acclaimed album. “For us, it’s just a night to see everyone dressed up.”

That may change if the WGA pickets. She admitted she doesn’t really understand the issues involved in the writers strike, and because of that, she said, she turned down an invitation to appear last week on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

“I just balked,” she said. “I couldn’t see myself crossing the picket line. I don’t know enough about the cause to speak about it, for or against. You cross the picket line, you have to speak about it.”

And here we suspected it’d be easy for the “indie” artist hailing from our commie neighbors to come out in favor of artistic solidarity rather than the execs/the opportunity to get her hair did. Realest talk comes from Tom Petty, whose support for the workin’ man will keep him away from the show but that his decision is mostly academic since, “I’ve never met a musician who gave a damn about the Grammys, actually.” Dude, we’ve been watching Grammy-related performances for more than 20 years; we know.

Music Industry Frustrated Over Strike [Yahoo; Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com]