Bon Iver

Now back to Bon Iver. Vernon understandably slammed the NY Times for releasing his earlier Grammy gripes after the nominations came out, but the indie singer proceeded to double-down on his recording academy critiques in the following weeks. In a December interview with CBC Radio’s Q, Vernon said “I think I can stand behind all that stuff. I come from a place where music, growing up, was an expression, it was a journey, a vehicle for self-discovery. So I've always been a little bit hesitant of the industrial approach to music and making music. I was a high-school football player and basketball player, and winning [was] awesome," he added. "But music, when you win, it's almost like, 'Oh, I'm sorry.'" But though he’s planning to show for the award show to see if he wins one of his four nominations, he won’t be performing despite the Grammy organizers asking him to. "We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn't play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else,” he revealed to Billboard. “We kind of said 'f--- you' a little bit."