DISTURBED Singer Says Competing With BEYONCÉ For 'Rock' GRAMMY Is 'Strange'

According to The Pulse Of Radio, DISTURBED frontman David Draiman said in a new interview with Billboard.com that it's "strange" to be competing against Beyoncé in the "Best Rock Performance" category at this year's Grammy Awards. DISTURBED is nominated for its live performance of "The Sound Of Silence", while Beyoncé is up for her track "Don't Hurt Yourself", which features Jack White.

Draiman remarked: "I have mad respect for all the artists in this category, including and especially Jack White. Is it strange [to be up against Beyoncé]? I think the reason you asked the question is because it is. It definitely stands out — like, one of these things is not like the other, you know? But what are you going to do?"

The other nominees in the category include TWENTY ONE PILOTS for "Heathens", David Bowie for the title track from his "Blackstar" album and ALABAMA SHAKES for a live rendition of their song "Joe".

Draiman added that the relative lack of rock categories at the Grammys, as compared to the pop, rap and country genres, is what has led to such a varied group of nominees. He explained: "If you look at every other genre, there are so many categories and sub-categories. For rock, this is all we've got, so everything ends up being jammed into these four categories."

He added: "Is it diverse? Absolutely. It's too diverse! When you can have, with all due respect, a Beyoncé and a DISTURBED in the same category, something has gone wrong. Not taking anything away from her whatsoever, we're just very different from each other."

Draiman told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he wasn't even sure where his band fit into the modern metal scene. "I don't know that the metal that we were spawned from really exists anymore," he said. "Bands like IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, METALLICA, BLACK SABBATH, none of the bands which are called metal, or which are really referred to nowadays as metalcore, are really anything like these bands. So I don't even know that we fit in what is called metal today."

"The Sound Of Silence", a cover of the SIMON & GARFUNKEL classic, appears on DISTURBED's 2015 album "Immortalized" — although their Grammy nomination is for the band's performance of the song on "Conan".

DISTURBED's last Grammy nomination was in 2009, when it was up in the now-retired "Best Hard Rock Performance" category for "Inside The Fire".