Beck Looks Back on 2015 Grammys Moment With Kanye: 'He's Making a Record With My Dad 4 Days Later'

Amid the heartbreak and turmoil of 2020Kanye West headlines, it's both comforting and a bit surreal to look back on a time when the conversation was still about the art.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe, Beck—who was famously upstaged by West at the Grammys back in 2015 when his album Morning Phase won the night's top honor—briefly reflected on that slice of awards show history that—as fans already know—occurred during West's pre-Pablo (and pre-Trump) era of Paul McCartney collaborations.

Beck revealed in his discussion with Lowe that he's seen West since then, most recently this year. He also said he was "a little confused" about the gesture, as West had a studio session booked with David Campbell—Beck's father—just four days after the ceremony.

"At the Grammys when he came up on the stage to kind of make that point about when I won the award... Yeah, he was disappointed about that, which I respected and I was fine with," Beck said. "Later on, I've run into him since, and I ran into him earlier this year, and he just turned around and pointed at me and said, 'I like your music' and smiled and then walked away."

Elaborating further, Beck mentioned his father—whose credits include tracks withBeyoncé, The 1975, Pharrell, U2, Linkin Park, and many more—as well as his belief that the music industry is much smaller than the average person may assume. This, he explained, inspires him to view his fellow artists as all being on the same team with similar goals.

"So, he came up on stage and made that point, and it was upsetting to a lot of people," he said. "To me, I was a little confused. I hold his music in high regard, but on the human side of it, he was doing a recording session four days later with my dad. My dad was doing all the strings. So, he can walk up on that stage, but then he's making a record with my dad four days later ... The music business, it's small, and so I think of us as a family. I don't really think of us as divided, and fair enough if he was disappointed that I won an award. I was just as surprised as anybody to win, and I've lost far more than I've won, and that's great, you know?"

And as for the importance of such ceremonies in the grander scheme, Beck doesn't sweat it. What really lasts, he said, is the work itself. 

"A lot of times people don't remember the awards," he said. "They'll remember the music. We're all doing the same thing, we're all in a room with a microphone trying to come up with something that articulates something that we feel inside and that maybe connects with a few other people. Maybe it connects with a lot of people. We're all kind of an army sort of fighting for the same thing."

The full interview, which is very much worth your time, also sees Beck chopping it up about his NASA collab and unreleased music he has in the vault featuring Jack White and Q-Tip. Catch it below via Apple Music.