When it comes to awards shows, not everyone in Hollywood enjoys the glitz and glamour. In fact, many celebrities have boycotted and downright refused to attend for various reasons — whether personal or political.
Take Toby Keith, for example. The country music star has been nominated for a CMA Award dozens of times, but you won’t find him in the audience — and it’s by choice.
Keith took home Music Video of the Year in 2005 and 2012 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 2001, but for more than a decade, the singer-songwriter has not attended Country Music’s Biggest Night.
“I just, years ago, decided that it wasn’t my bag,” Keith told Taste of Country Nights in 2015. “I think in three years, I had 24 nominations. I was 0 for 24, and I went, ‘I can’t beat the politics of this deal.'”
“I was a No. 1 ticket seller, a No. 1 album seller and I spent 51 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard in a four-year span, and I went 0 for 24?” the “How Do You Like Me Now?!” singer added. “I was like, ‘This isn’t worth my time.'”
As for Frank Ocean, he hit back at two members of the Grammys‘ creative team who publicly criticized his 2013 performance at the ceremony and his decision to not submit his album Blonde for consideration.
Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich and writer David Wild discussed Ocean’s history with the awards during an interview with Rolling Stone, specifically referring to the artist’s appearance at the 2013 ceremony where he won Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Wild recalled that, after Ocean pitched his idea for his live performance of Forest Gump, Ehrlich replied, “That’s not great TV.” The producer then allegedly called the resulting performance “rigid” and “faulty.”
“Yea yea my 2013 performance at the Grammys was absolute s–t. Technical difficulties, blah blah. Thanks for the reminder,” he responded via Tumblr at the time. “Very much appreciated. F–k that performance, though. You think that’s why I kept my work out of the Grammy process this year? Don’t you think I would’ve wanted to play the show to ‘redeem’ myself if I felt that way?”
The “Godspeed” singer continued, “In reality, I actually wanted to participate in honoring Prince on the show, but then I figured my best tribute to that man’s legacy would be to continue to be myself out here and to be successful. Winning a TV award doesn’t christen me successful. It took me some time to learn that,” he admitted. “I bought all my masters back last year in the prime of my career, that’s successful. Blonde sold a million plus without a label, that’s successful. I am young, Black, gifted and independent … that’s my tribute.”
As his closing remarks, Ocean fumed, “I’ve actually been tuning into CBS around this time of year for a while to see who gets the top honor, and you know what’s really not ‘great TV,’ guys? [Taylor Swift‘s] 1989 getting album of the year over [Kendrick Lamar‘s] To Pimp a Butterfly. Hands down one of the most ‘faulty’ TV moments I’ve seen.”
Keep scrolling to see celebrities who slammed awards shows over the years.