The Recording Academy to honour Black Sabbath with Lifetime Achievement Grammy

Black Sabbath in 1971
(Image credit: Chris Walter/WireImage - Getty)

The Recording Academy has revealed the names of the artists who will be given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2019.

And among the names revealed today are Black Sabbath (opens in new tab), who will be honoured at a ceremony in Los Angeles on May 11.

The annual award is given to artists who have "made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.”

Sabbath have been named alongside George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Billy Eckstine, Donny Hathaway, Julio Iglesias, Sam & Dave and Dionne Warwick.

Lou Adler, Ashford And Simpson, and Johnny Mandel have been named Trustees Award honourees, while Saul Walker will be the Technical Grammy Award recipient.

President and CEO of the Recording Academy, Neil Portnow, says: “Each year, the Recording Academy has the distinct privilege of celebrating music industry giants who have greatly contributed to our cultural heritage.

“This year, we have a gifted and brilliant group of honourees and their exceptional accomplishments, contributions, and artistry will continue to influence and inspire generations to come.”

The Recording Academy praise Black Sabbath (opens in new tab) for inventing “the heavy metal signposts" that "influenced every heavy rock band that followed.”

Sabbath wrapped up their last-ever tour in their home town of Birmingham in February last year (opens in new tab), with both Ozzy Osbourne (opens in new tab) and Tony Iommi (opens in new tab) later saying that it might be possible for them to get back together to play at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.