Fiona Apple has won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album for her revelatory 2020 record, Fetch The Bolt Cutters. Apple is also up for Best Rock Performance, though she isn’t attending the ceremony.

In an Instagram post shared by her friend Zelda Hallman, Fiona Apple delved into why she won’t be attending this year’s ceremony.

“It’s not because I’m trying to protest, even though I have problems with the Grammys, it’s not because of that,” she explained.

“It’s just really because I don’t want to be on national television. I’m just not made for that kind of stuff anymore. I want to stay sober and I can’t do that sober. It doesn’t feel safe to me, to be in that kind of exposure, scrutiny, comparison to people.”

Elsewhere in the video, Fiona Apple weighed in on the current discourse surrounding The Grammys transparency, pivoting the conversation to the lack of transparency in the judicial system.

“There’s been lots of questions about the transparency of the Grammys, and I feel like that’s important but it’s not important. I care but I don’t care,” she said. “What really, really is undeniably important is the transparency in actual court rooms.”

Apple went on to urge her fans to sign a petition to keep virtual access to court rooms open to viewers, specifically for PG County in Maryland.

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“And for that reason, I want to ask anybody who’s looking at this to please sign this petition to keep the virtual access to courts open for court watchers,” she adds. “They’re trying to shut us out, and you gotta question it.”

In an interview with The Guardian back in December, Fiona Apple acknowledged that she was considering boycotting The Grammy Awards over disgraced producer Dr. Luke being nominated for Record of the Year for his work on Doja Cat’s ‘Say So.’

“I keep going back to them putting Kesha on stage like, “We believe you”—and I believe her—then two years later, fucking Tyson Trax,” she said. “Not to go back to that word, but it’s bullshit. The feeling of wanting to celebrate with these women was genuine. But I should have that feeling anyway.”

She then went on to claim that if she were to win a Grammy, she’d smash it on stage with a sledgehammer.

“What would I do If I won? My vision was that I would just get up there with a sledgehammer and I wouldn’t say anything, I would take the Grammy and smash it into enough pieces to share and I would invite all the ladies up.

“My second thought was I wonder if I can get all these ladies to boycott this shit because of Dr Luke.”

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