Foo Fighters sweep up three awards at the Grammys, Dream Theater scoop Best Metal Performance for The Alien

It was a stellar night for guitar-based acts at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards yesterday (April 3), with Foo Fighters, Dream Theater, Brothers Osborne and more all scooping trophies.

Foo Fighters – who were absent from the ceremony following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last month – won three categories: Best Rock Album for their tenth outing, Medicine at Midnight; Best Rock Performance for its opening track, Making a Fire; and Best Rock Song for its third official single, Waiting on a War.

With the latter, Dave Grohl and co beat out Mammoth WVH, who were in the running with Distance, Wolfgang Van Halen's heartfelt tribute to his late father and guitar hero, Eddie.

The Foo Fighters – who were also scheduled to perform at the awards prior to Hawkins' death, but canceled in the wake of the news – had their awards accepted by presenter Jimmy Jam, who offered “prayers to their loved ones”.

Host Trevor Noah echoed the sentiment, saying: “Our thoughts go out to Taylor's family, his friends, the Foo Fighter[s] family, and all of their fans around the globe.” Noah's statement was followed by a tribute video created by the Recording Academy honoring the late drummer.

Hawkins headed up the Recording Academy's televised In Memoriam segment – which also included tributes to ZZ Top's Dusty Hill, The Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts and a host of others – however in a notable exclusion, Slipknot founding drummer Joey Jordison, who died last year, was not mentioned. He was, however, included in an In Memoriam list on the Grammy.com website.

Foo Fighters are no strangers to Grammy wins, sweeping up a total of 15 over the course of their near-30-year career. They began collecting awards in 2000 with their third studio full-length, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, which scooped Best Rock Album that year. They are the first American band in the history of the Grammys to win that many awards.

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards was also a big night for Dream Theater, who beat Deftones, Gojira, Mastodon and Rob Zombie to secure Best Metal Performance for The Alien, the sprawling opener for their 2021 album, A View From the Top of the World.

Accepting the award, guitarist John Petrucci called the experience “absolutely insane”.

“They used to tell us our songs were way too long, we used weird time signatures and there were too many guitar solos,” he said. “In fact, this song is in 17/8, so try to tap your foot to it! But we just won a Grammy so I'm glad we didn't listen... All the Dream Theater fans around the world, you guys rock. We love you. For fans of prog and prog metal, stay true to your art. It's alive and well.”

Other notable guitar-driven acts to secure awards at the Grammys 2022 included country duo Brothers Osborne – who won Best Country Duo/Group Performance for their track Younger Me – and Trent Reznor, though he won his award for the not-especially-guitar-y Soul soundtrack. Silk Sonic – composed of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak – also took home a huge prize: Record of the Year for Leave the Door Open.

In a tearful acceptance speech, Brothers Osborne frontman TJ Osborne said that being accepted by the country genre was “amazing”.

“I never thought that I'd be able to do this professionally because of my sexuality,” he said. “I certainly never thought I would be here on this stage accepting a Grammy after having done something I felt like was going to be life-changing, potentially in a very negative way.” TJ Osborne came out as gay last year.

It was a successful Grammys for blues guitarists, too; Cedric Burnside won Best Traditional Blues Album with I Be Trying, while Christone “Kingfish” Ingram bagged Best Contemporary Blues Album with 662. Elsewhere, St. Vincent won her third Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album with Daddy's Home.

H.E.R., meanwhile, won Best Traditional R&B Performance and put on a fiery medley performance, which culminated in a rendition of Are You Gonna Go My Way? with Lenny Kravitz and Travis Barker.