BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
LOS ANGELES – Music’s Biggest Night is a wrap, but maybe you’re still chatting about Pharrell’s crazy yellow shoes or Prince’s sly commentary -- “Like books and black lives, albums still matter.”
And if you’re a Beyonce fan, you’re possibly still stewing over her loss to Beck for album of the year.
No? You’re OK with that? Well, before you completely shift your thinking to the next major awards show (“Birdman” or “Boyhood”? And J.K. Simmons is a lock, right?), here are a few final snippets from backstage and the pre-telecast, er, Premiere Ceremony, at Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Most artists view their after-show press rounds as an obligation and grit their teeth through it (yes, Beyonce, we saw you and Jay Z walk right by the press room).
But Sam Smith was one of the most genuinely happy dudes I've ever seen back there.
“You all look very comfy,” he quipped to the room full of rumpled journalists packed like lemmings.
In his black Gucci tux and bow tie – “I wanted to look a bit old-school,” he explained – Smith said that his four Grammy wins can only help his future work.
“What’s beautiful about this record is that I didn’t play a character, so I didn’t have to work really hard. I was just living my life and letting it speak through the music,” he said.
He recalled his earliest days trying to break into the industry and said he struggled every day trying to be himself.
“I had a very warped idea of what I had to do to be heard and to be a pop star, so I started losing loads of weight and wearing makeup. That works for lots of people, but not for me,” he said with a smile.
Smith, who cheerfully lingered to answer more questions even as his handlers tried to hustle him out = "It's OK, I'm really enjoying this," he remarked – said he was still a bit awed at meeting Paul McCartney, Madonna and Lady Gaga, but that he'd most like to work with Joni Mitchell ( perhaps they talked at Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy bash on Saturday? ).
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Superstar producer Rodney Jerkins, whose tweaked version of "Stay with Me" nudged Smith into victory lane, had high praise for the young singer.
“Sam sticks to the melody. He’s a great songwriter. I’ll use the voices of Whitney Houston, George Michael, Luther Vandross, Patti LaBelle – I’ve worked with them all and he’s right up there with them…and he’s only 22! He’s got a bright future in front of him.”
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Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Atlanta's Lecrae visited the press room after nabbing his second career Grammy (for best contemporary Christian music performance/song for "Messengers").
“I exist to break the boundaries of what genres look like,” he said. “I was nominated in three different categories, and hopefully that is a testament to the music that I make…At the end of the day, it’s about what is in you. If I am a Christian, you’re going to hear that in whatever I talk about. It’s not difficult at all. I’m just trying to be myself.”
Lecrae said he’s preparing to head back on tour “and hopefully continuing to make good music.”
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Glen Campbell's wife, Kim Woollen, accepted the country icon's award for best country song ("I'm Not Gonna Miss You") and said, "I'm so proud of him. It's been an amazing journey…Music, I really believe, kept him healthy for a longer period of time."
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The Band Perry, which won its first band Grammy for Campbell's "Gentle on My Mind" (best country duo/group performance), said backstage that Campbell was the "quintessential entertainer."
The band’s Reid Perry, his long hair pulled back into a ponytail, added that “Gentle” is, “the quintessential country song. None of the lyrics are the same, so it took us forever to learn them!”
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Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
When Melissa Rivers accepted the best spoken word album Grammy on behalf of her mother, the late Joan Rivers, she reeled off this gem that her mother would have loved .
Rivers clearly learned well – and/or has some funny friends who helped write her acceptance speech – because she continued with another affectionate zinger: “(My mother) would not have only been honored to hold her first Grammy, but she would have had it copied an on the air on QVC by 11.”
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Rosanne Cash was thoroughly thrilled with her three Grammy wins and appeared truly surprised by the outcome.
But she didn’t allow herself to get too carried away.
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I kept working when nobody cared,” she said.
When t the topic turned to the changes in the music industry, Cash pointedly noted, “If you don’t steal an apple from a grocery store, why would you steal a record?”
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