Credit: Travis ShinnOne of the quirkiest facets of the 2017 Grammy nominations is that R&B mega-star Beyonce is up for Best Rock Performance. Her song "Don't Hurt Yourself," which she recorded with Jack White, will compete against Disturbed's "The Sound of Silence," Twenty One Pilots' "Heathens," David Bowie's "Blackstar" and Alabama Shakes' "Joe" for the prize.
In an interview with Billboard, Disturbed frontman David Draiman says that he has "mad respect" for all the nominees, but adds that facing Beyonce in a rock category feels "strange."
"It definitely stands out," Draiman says. "Like, one of these things is not like the other, you know? But what are you going to do?"
He adds that the Best Rock Performance nominees are "the people who made a serious impact this year."
"Those boys in Twenty One Pilots did some damage this year," says Draiman. "And Bowie, a posthumous award happens all the time, and who more deserving? It's crazy the amount of talent in this category."
Draiman does wonder, however, "When did it all become 'rock?'"
"If you look at every other genre, there are so many categories and sub-categories," Draiman says. "For rock, this is all we've got, so everything ends up being jammed into these four categories."
"Is it diverse? Absolutely. It's too diverse!" he continues. "When you can have, with all due respect, a Beyonce and a Disturbed in the same category, something has gone wrong. Not taking anything away from her whatsoever, we're just very different from each other."
As for who will win the Best Rock Performance prize, Draiman's money is on Bowie.
"If we’re gonna lose to someone, I'd love for it to be Bowie,” he says. "The nice thing about Bowie is that he’s been nominated in five categories, so he can give us this one!"
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