Eminem Says Grammys Are a Go

February 6, 2001 -- While he's still maintaining his stance that he doesn't "give a damn about a Grammy," as he rapped in "The Real Slim Shady," Eminem says he's planning on showing up at the Feb. 21 music industry awards show.

"It's hilarious, you know what, and that's why I'm going to go," he told MTV Europe while on the road overseas. "It's because everyone doesn't want my ass there, so I'm going to sit my stinking ass down next to 'N Sync and flick pennies at them and fucking just stand in everybody's face and say, 'Kiss my ass.'"

He received four nominations for awards — including an Album of the Year nod for The Marshall Mathers LP — and was also asked to perform during the show, though he hasn't yet accepted that invitation.

Last year, the rapper won two Grammys but wasn't around to collect them. At the time, his manager, Paul Rosenberg, told Wall of Sound, "He thought his time would be better spent [working on his new album]. There was no protest or anything."

Eminem also told MTV Europe that his indifference to awards and nominations isn't out of disrespect.

"I guess it's an accomplishment," he said, "and it's not that I don't appreciate it, but I don't focus on it. I just kind of keep going with my music. [Awards are] great, but that doesn't mean for me to stop or that I can lay back and say, 'I've accomplished this, I'm straight, I don't need to keep working.' It's just, 'OK, that happened.' Good or bad, I take the good with the bad."

Eminem's attendance at the show — which is held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles — means he will face crowds who plan to protest his Grammy nominations.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, along with a coalition of other female and family activist groups, plans to host a Rally Against Hate outside of the Shrine Auditorium, beginning at 3 p.m. on the day of the Grammys. The show begins at 5 p.m. PST and will be broadcast live at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.