Mixing It Up on a Night for Prizewinners

Presenting Metallica with the favorite heavy-metal artist honors at the 24th annual American Music Awards on Monday, a veteran rocker strutted onto the Shrine Auditorium’s bright stage with his bare chest stuck out like a peacock in full plumage. He wore dark shades, tight leather pants, a studded dog collar and numerous tattoos.

Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee? A member of KISS? Try Pat Boone. “Does this signify the death of heavy metal?” asked co-presenter Alice Cooper as he absorbed Boone’s new look, which the ‘50s pop star donned as a promotional gimmick for his new album, a collection of hard-rock songs done Pat-style.

It wasn’t just heavy metal that suffered at the Shrine. Good taste in general buckled under the weight of much of the overwrought show.

Despite spirited performances by the likes of Keith Sweat, Toni Braxton, LeAnn Rimes, Bush, Nas and others, viewers of the ABC telecast easily might have felt like Bill Murray’s character in the movie “Groundhog Day”--trapped in the same show from previous years, doomed to live it all over again until someone got it right.

It was a night that promised notable reunions by two groups from the ‘80s. But neither added up to much. New Edition gave a smooth rendition of its recent hit “I’m Still in Love With You” but key member Bobby Brown was missing, and the otherwise smooth performance lacked intensity.

Motley Crue banged out the show’s loudest set, but much of the audience stayed in their seats and seemed dumbfounded as the band played “Shout at the Devil,” a song that’s more than a decade old.

The most emotional moment of the evening came from Award of Merit winner Little Richard. Overwhelmed with emotion, the flamboyant performer stood at center stage, his hands covering his tear-stained face as he received the accolade.

He soon recovered from his reverie, bragging and wailing away in trademark form.

“I am the originator, I am the emancipator, I am the architect of rock ‘n’ roll, and [AMA executive producer Dick Clark] wanted you to know that I am the man who started it all,” he said. He then electrified the auditorium with a spirited turn at the piano, blasting his way through “Good Golly Miss Molly.” Here was one sixtysomething performer who didn’t need to put on leather and studs to grab the attention of younger listeners.

“Pat [Boone] has got on metal, and I got on feathers!” Little Richard said with a laugh, addressing the media backstage after his song. He then delivered one of his sermon-like history lessons:

“I started all of this. Some people think I’m lying. The Beatles were with me. James Brown was my vocalist. Jimi Hendrix was my guitar player, Otis Redding . . . I used to teach Tina Turner. . . . Nobody said nothing about me and I did all of these things. Now they know.”

The other noteworthy moment backstage came when Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland made his first public appearance since checking back into a drug treatment facility earlier this month.

“You got four people in a band and it’s like a family unit,” he said. “Each person within that family unit has individually . . . certain traumas. There have been other circumstances, besides my own, that have held us back in the past. When we’re running on all four cylinders, it’s an amazing thing to be a part of. I look forward to doing that with those . . . guys again.”

The awards themselves, determined by a national sampling of 20,000 listeners, were highlighted by a posthumous rap/hip-hop honor for slain rapper Tupac Shakur and by two awards each for Braxton and Alanis Morissette.