February 4, 2012 17:53

Bon Iver turned down offer to perform at the Grammys Bon Iver Tickets

Justin Vernon says organisers tried to force the band into collaborating with another artist

Photo: Press

Bon Iver turned down the chance to perform at next week's Grammy Awards after organisers demanded the band team up with a more well-known act.

The band, fronted by Justin Vernon, are nominated for four Grammys at the ceremony, which takes place on February 12. They were asked to perform, but told they would have to agree to a collaboration if they wanted to play at the awards.

Frontman Justin Vernon said:

We kind of said 'F**k you' a little bit, and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don't think they wanted us to play.

In an interview with Billboard.com, he added: "We wanted to play our music, but were told that we couldn't play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage - we're getting nominated for this record that we made... We were given accolades for it, and all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that.

Vernon, who has previously recorded with Kanye West, admits the potential collaborators put forward were "awesome people" but he turned down the offer on principle.

He added: "The suggested collaborators were people that I would love to play a song with. But you know what? F**kin' rock 'n' roll should not be decided by people that have that job. Rock 'n' roll should be the f**king people with guitars around their backs. And their friends. And their managers."