Mastodon's history at the GRAMMYs finally included a win in 2018 when the band achieved an award for their "Sultan's Curse" song in the Best Metal Performance category.
The band's album Emperor Of Sand lost in the Best Rock Album category that year, and previous years the band had also lost out – specifically 2007, 2012, and 2015.
In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, guitarist and vocalist Bill Kelliher discusses the band's loss in 2015 when "High Road" lost out to Tenacious D's cover of Dio's "The Last in Line." He says "they're a comedy duo" and the loss was "a bit of a kick in the balls."
In 2015, Kelliher even became an insider, joining the Grammy committee for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. "I thought it was my chance to step up and do this for the community," Kelliher offers. "No one takes [the awards] seriously, because it's always the same fucking' people that win every year. Like: 'oh, look, it's Dave Grohl again!' [In 2015], we lost to Jack Black and Tenacious D. That was a bit of a kick in the balls, because they're a comedy duo."
To be fair, Tenacious D is pretty great vocally and instrumentally, but awarding a Grammy to a cover song does seem like exactly the type of bullshit the Grammys used to pull in the metal category, although it's been much better in recent years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bPIgJSg00
