Beck watches Kanye West, who pretended to take the stage after Beck won album of the year for "Morning Phase," at the 57th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 8, 2015LUCY NICHOLSON/Reuters
Kanye West made light of his own stage-crashing ways at last night's Grammy Awards, but he saved his real rage for the backstage interview.
The Daily Mail reports that the fiery-tempered rapper came very close to disrupting live TV coverage of the annual awards fete by rushing the stage after Beck was named the winner in the coveted category of album of the year – beating out Beyoncé, among other nominees.
To viewers and music-industry heavyweights in attendance – including Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z – West appeared to be heading for a repeat of his infamous rush-the-stage rant at the MTV Video Music Awards a few years ago.
If you recall, way back in 2009, West made headlines by storming the stage at the Video Music Awards moments after Taylor Swift was named winner in the category of video of the year.
On that occasion, West even took the microphone from the stunned Swift to announce, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you. I'm-a let you finish but Beyoncé had one of the best music videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!"
Feel free to relive that uncomfortable TV moment here.
On this occasion, however, West did an about-face and walked back to his seat, while Beck looked on slightly befuddled.
But as it turns out, West was simply holding his anger in reserve for a post-show interview with E! News correspondent Khloe Kardashian, the sister of his wife and occasional musical muse Kim Kardashian.
And by that point of the evening, West was on fire.
"I just know that the Grammys, if they want real artists to keep coming back, they need to stop playing with us," said West. "We ain't going to play with them no more…And Beck needs to respect artistry and he should have given his award to Beyoncé."
And West went on:
"We, as musicians, have to inspire people who go to work every day and they listen to that Beyoncé album and they feel like it takes them to another place. Then they do this promotional event, and they'll run the music over somebody's speech, the artist, because they want commercial space. No. We not playing with them no more."
And even though he wasn't asked, West helpfully explained why he chose to leave the Grammys stage and let Beck have his moment.
"By the way, I got my wife, my daughter and I got my clothing line, so I'm not going to do nothing that would put my daughter at risk, but I am here to fight for creativity. That's the reason why I didn't say anything tonight."
You can watch West's post-show E! interview with his sister-in-law here.
Meanwhile, what did Beck think about his near-brush with the infamous Kanye temper? Incredibly, the 44-year-old artist expressed solidarity with West's belief that Beyoncé should have received the award for album of the year.
"Absolutely, I thought she was going to win," Beck told People at a post-Grammys soiree.
And in what may be this week's most diplomatic overture, Beck even said he wasn't displeased with West taking the stage.
"I was so excited he was coming up," said the laid back singer-songwriter. "He deserves to be on that stage!"
Added Beck: "You can't please everybody. I still love him and think he's genius. I aspire to what he does. How many great records has he put out in the last five years, right?"