Music Notes: ESPN Sports and Music Awards

April 9 -- Not everyone thinks Eminem is a positive influence, but that didn't stop ESPN from giving the rapper an award for his ability to inspire athletes.

The Grammy winner picked up an ESPN Action Sports and Music Award. The new ceremony honors both extreme athletes and the music that gets them revved up. (ESPN, like ABCNEWS, is owned by the Walt Disney Co.)

Eminem's award was in the Skateboarding category, while the mellower techno artist Moby was honored as the Skiing Musical Artist of the Year.

In the BMX category, the Deftones were honored, which was a special thrill for singer Chino Moreno. "I grew up skateboarding since I was 10 years old, and I would always skate with music on, or with music around," said Moreno. "[Music] just kind of gives you motivation … So I think it's pretty cool that we got recognized for that."

Crazy Town, Black Sabbath, De La Soul, Incubus and Ben Harper were among the performers at the event, which was held over the weekend in Los Angeles and airs tonight on ESPN.

Metallica's Future Plans

Hard rockers Metallica were unusually chatty with the press over the weekend. The band was honored at the ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards for their overall contributions to music, and fielded questions backstage.

This was their first Q&A session since bassist Jason Newsted left the band, and member James Hetfield joked they had found a replacement among the athletes at the awards ceremony.

"Johnny Mosley's the new bass player because he's wearing blue leather tonight," said Hetfield.

Even though they still need to hire a new musician, drummer Lars Ulrich said Metallica is gearing up for their next recording.

"We've started thinking about it. And when we start thinking about it, then we're not far from actually acting on it. So — definitely next year," said Ulrich. "We want to get back to it, just the three of us, make some music together the three of us. We want to take our time finding the right person to fill in Jason's spots. We've talked about potentially playing a couple of live shows at some point."