The Grammy Awards celebrate not only a given years recordings but the history of music in general.
Several Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are named each time by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and country-pop crossover star Glen Campbell will be one of them Sunday.
It tickles me, Campbell says of his latest Grammy honor, after winning two for Gentle on My Mind and another two for By the Time I Get to Phoenix – all in 1967. Theyve really been nice to me throughout my career. I just think you do your job, and you try to do it the best you can and try to think up some new things. Thats really what Ive done.
Now on a farewell concert tour as he deals with the early stages of Alzheimers disease, Campbell is part of a Lifetime Achievement class that includes George Jones, Diana Ross, the Allman Brothers Band, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gil Scott-Heron and the Memphis Horns.
I guess when you get old enough, they lay all those accolades on you, Campbell muses.
Regarding a song he agreed to do as a favor once, he notes, I dont remember which one it was, but it wasnt one that I really dug. From then on, I did songs I liked, and I sang them like Id want to hear them. Ive really been blessed to get songs from guys like (composer) Jimmy Webb.
With such other hits as Wichita Lineman, Galveston and Rhinestone Cowboy in his catalog, Campbell also made marks in television (The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour) and movies (the original True Grit). He deems country musics current state great. I dont know if Id call it country rock, but if you put a song out there, people know whether its good or not. Thats the way I always did it.