Nirvana and Heart sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson received lifetime achievement awards on Saturday at the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Awards, joining a prestigious group of honorees that also included the Supremes, Chic’s Nile Rodgers and rapper Slick Rick.
Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear all attended the ceremony, which took place at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles. Novoselic took the lead in the acceptance speech, quoting a lyric from Nirvana’s 1993 In Utero song “Serve the Servants” and marveling at the band’s long-term impact on musicians and music fans. “They said that Kurt [Cobain] was witty or maybe he was a smartass,” Novoselic said. “And he said, ‘Teenage angst has paid off well.’ It has.”
“I do fan mail, old-fashioned fan mail, and I get letters from around the world, like Nirvana fans, just all around the world,” the bassist continued. “A lot of young people. There’s a new generation of Nirvana fans, and I’m just very grateful for that.”
Ann Wilson did not attend the ceremony; Hipgnosis Songs founder Merck Mercuriadis instead accepted the lifetime achievement award on her behalf. Nancy did attend, however, and reflected on an illustrious career that’s spanned nearly five decades.
“In 1974, I followed my calling, which pulled me out of my college dorm room to capture this dream I had with my sister since we were little kids,” she said. “The dream was to be the Beatles. We followed our muse through the decades. We blazed a few trails and broke a few glass ceilings along the way for both men and women. And Recording Academy, thank you forever for this. It’s gonna look super sweet on my grandma’s piano in my home studio.”
You can see the full list of Special Merit Awards honorees here and watch a recap video below.
Recording Academy Special Merit Awards Recap
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