Grammys for the Win? Art vs. Sport and Why Awards Matter (Episode 174)

You learned how to make music. Nobody taught you how to make a living making music.

Do the Grammys matter to a working musician? In Episode 174 of The Career Musician, Nomad records from his truck on the Monday after the 2025 Grammy Awards, on his commute to teach at Los Angeles College of Music. Good time management, he jokes. Then he gets honest about art versus sport, the history of the Grammy Awards, and why he has never been an awards guy.

He is clear it is his opinion, and he wants yours. But the question he lands on is one every career musician should ask: are you in it for the right reasons?

Art is not a sport

Nomad wasn't athletic growing up, and he admits he wishes he had been. Athletes learn community and a healthy relationship with competition. But sports have metrics. Shooting percentages, serving stats, times. Art doesn't.

"I don't believe that music and the arts should be quantifiable with awards, because I wholeheartedly believe that the arts are extremely subjective."

Nomad, 2:57

How do you prove Van Gogh is better than Monet? How do you pick between two songs you love? He says he would be terrible on a voting panel because he likes elements of both. And unlike a sport, the Grammys judge countless genres, styles and cultures in one show. That is why, he says, the people deciding need to truly represent every corner of music.

A level playing field, and a lot of noise

Nomad was born in 1972, graduated high school in 1990 and hit the ground running as a career musician with no internet and no social media. Today everyone has the tools and the access, with no gatekeepers and no quality control. That is great for making music, and it makes it much harder for skilled players with 10, 15 or 20 years of craft to break through the noise.

He points to Jacob Collier as someone he would call a genius, a word he never uses, and to legends like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, who pour lived experience into every note. Chops alone, without that story and soul, aren't the same thing.

Methods change, principles remain

Then a quick history lesson. The Grammys were established in 1957 by NARAS, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, now the Recording Academy. The first broadcast came in 1959 with 28 categories, and the first album of the year was Henry Mancini's The Music from Peter Gunn. Nomad walks through the criticism that the show was out of touch with rock, Michael Jackson's eight wins in one night for Thriller, and hip-hop's fight to be recognized.

He loves the word "sciences" in the name. Recording used to require serious engineering chops. The tools are easier now, but the science still matters: signal flow, gain structure, good mics, good acoustics.

"I always say as a career musician, methods change, principles remain."

Nomad, 13:20

He also gives credit to his colleague Harvey Mason Jr., president of the Recording Academy, for addressing past controversies head on during the broadcast. (Harvey's own conversation with Nomad is in Episode 99.)

The award on the shelf

Here is the story that shows where his priorities sit. Years ago in Nashville, during a break in a session with TobyMac, Nomad started playing a riff. Record that, he was told. That chord progression became the foundation of "Lose My Soul," featuring Kirk Franklin. He is a writer on it and still gets royalties.

Years later, ASCAP Nashville called. An award plaque for the song had been sitting on their shelf for years. Did he want it mailed? Sure. It sat in his studio, fell over, broke, and got super glued back together.

Then, the night of this Grammys, two friends texted congratulations. Cowboy Carter had won album of the year, and Nomad played guitar on Beyonce's "Jolene." His wife reminded him he has played on many Grammy-winning records. He has played on plenty of gold and platinum records too, and never collected them.

What is your motive?

That is the crux. When Nomad set out in the 90s, he didn't say he wanted to win a Grammy.

"I said I want to support myself and eventually my family doing what I love. Music."

Nomad, 32:30

He has done that for more than three decades. To him, that is the award. He mentions a pianist friend from another episode who won a Grammy and then said, in effect: so what, now hire me. A trophy doesn't book the next gig. Work begets work. And Humility from the ETHOS code keeps the focus where it belongs: on the music and the people you make it with.

The takeaway

Awards are nice. Sustainability is the goal. Decide what success means for you, then build toward it every day. To start building, grab the free Get the Gig guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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