“Best Alternative Music Album” category has been a head scratcher since its 1991 inception, regarded as a slot for respected artists whose work defies labels. Tom Waits’ first Grammy, for the avant garde industrial 1992 album, Bone Machine, was the second album to be awarded in the category. The jubilant reinvented blues and roots rocking album, Bad As Me is fitting tribute to this genre defying artist.
 
As the New York Times’ Jon Pareles said in his review of Bad As Me: “At 61 Mr. Waits is acclaimed as an American marvel: a songwriter who can be smart and primal, raucous and meticulous, ethereal and earthy, bleak and comical…Waits is cherished by his generation of musicians as skillful songwriter and uncompromising outsider…Now indie- rockers study him, emulating not only his rasp and growl vocals and spiky arrangements, but also his self-guided career path.”
 
Waits reunited with veteran guitarists Keith Richards, Marc Ribot, David Hidalgo, and bassist Larry Taylor and his son, drummer Casey Waits for Bad As Me. The album also featured his first studio recording with bass player Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and legendary Texan keyboardist Augie Meyers, member of Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados.