Jethro Tull’s biggest regret, according to Martin Barre

In 2017, the former guitarist of Jethro Tull, Martin Barrerecounted the bizarre moment his band surpassed the Metallicagreat favorites of the day before, and won the Grammy Awards in 1989, and regretted that they were not present to accept the award.

Although i Jethro Tull have explored different sounds over the course of their long career it was really very surprising when the album “Crest Of A Knave” won the Grammy for best hard rock/metal performance. Even today fans of Metallica they are scandalized.

Martin Barre
he is very proud of that award, albeit with some distinctions. “Unfortunately it ended up in a very embarrassing section that they invented. They are certainly two different musical categories and unfortunately they put them together that year. It opened up to misinterpretations. Metallica were perfect for that genre and were expected to win, which is why we didn’t go to the ceremony. We thought: ‘Well, they gave us a nice certificate certifying our nomination, how nice; we’ll hang it on the wall’.”

He continues his story: “Then, that evening, we got a phone call and I was completely stunned. Most of all, I was sorry I wasn’t there. At that time, something really significant and important happened to the band, we weren’t there to enjoy it. Of course, it wasn’t taken well. People assumed we wouldn’t like being there, which wasn’t true.”

At home in England, away from the pomp and glitter of ceremony, something had to be done to celebrate and so… “My wife, being a very enterprising person, rang everyone we knew. At half past midnight there were about 30 of us in our house, drinking champagne and raving! It was the right thing to do. I’m really proud of it and I’m glad we had that one little window in our career where we released a good album, we were quite important in the world of music and people he only recognized us for this.”

About the
Jethro Tull
their albums and their musical versatility
Martin Barre
proudly declares: “I loved them all! I always thought that Tull had a constant – which was me and Ian Anderson – and some variables, people who joined. Some of them left for various reasons. They came and went, but they left their influences behind for the time they were in the band.”