Lars Ulrich and fiancee Jessica Miller at the Grammy Awards 2014
Metallica thought it was "f**ked up" that they lost their first Grammy nomination over two decades ago.
The heavy metal act - who performed at the ceremony on Sunday night (26.01.14) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles - were nominated in the inaugural Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category in 1989 for their album 'And Justice for All' but lost out to rock band Jethro Tull.
Drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone magazine: "When Jethro Tull was announced, after we had performed, it sort of reiterated what everybody had thought all along.
"It was the thought that the Grammys were out of whack with what was current, that it was still sort of a few years behind the curve in terms of what was really going on in the music world, rather than what was going on within the Recording Academy.
"This is how f***ed up it was: The record company had already made 10,000 one-sheets [publicity documents] to put in record stores that said 'Grammy Award Winner.' So we said, why don't we just put a sticker on them that says, 'Grammy Award Loser'?"
Despite it being a disappointing night, Metallica - now made up of Lars, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo - have gone on to win a number of Grammy Awards since and their performance at the weekend - accompanied by pianist Lang Lang - marked 25 years since their first appearance at the ceremony.
Lars added: "We were psyched that we were involved. We were psyched that we were invited. We were psyched that we got to perform. And then, a year or two later, they invited us back and we got our award.
"We've won a bunch of them since. I can't remember the count. So it worked out OK. I'm happy that we were the first guys to knock on the f***ing door."
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