Moments before they received the Recording Academy's high honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward of GRAMMY-winning metal group Black Sabbath took a moment to reflect on their influential half-century-long career.
"It's great, after all these years. We were written off as nothing when we first started out, and here we are getting a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award," Butler shared backstage at the 2019 GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends, where the awards were given to a handful of music icons.
"As for the future generations, we've already influenced a lot of bands, a lot of bands that are out now and starting out now and citing us as their main influence," Butler added when asked about their hope to influence the next group of hard rockers.
During the show, Rival Sons, who toured as main support for Sabbath's The End Tour, paid tribute with a medley sampling a few of their big songs.
Read: GRAMMY Facts: Black Sabbath's GRAMMY-winning "God Is Dead"
Black Sabbath were part of a handful of artists presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award during this year's show. George Clinton & the Parliament-Funkadelic, Donny Hathaway, Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Julio Iglesias, Sam & Dave and Dionne Warwick are the other 2019 recipients.
The other honors bestowed to life-long music industry influencers included the Trustees Awards, given to Lou Adler, Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, and Johnny Mandel this year, celebrated exemplary contributors to music, outside of performance. Additionally, the Technical GRAMMY Award was presented (posthumously) to API Audio Co-Founder Saul Walker and Florida high school choir director Jeffery Redding was celebrated with the Music Educator Award.
Watch GRAMMY Salute To Music Legends on Fri. Oct. 18 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check your local listings).
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