THE 35TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS : Clapton Gets His Due, New Bloods Too : BACKSTAGE : The Antics, Escapades and Pop-arazzi: What the Winners Had to Say

In spite of the Grammy show’s stellar live performance lineup, the behind-the-scenes antics of the Red Hot Chili Peppers made for some of the night’s best entertainment.

The foursome, which beat out Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Faith No More for the hard rock Grammy, offered the backstage press a heartfelt, a cappella performance of the evening’s big winner, Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” as well as impromptu samples of X’s “Los Angeles” and Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman.”

But the rowdy L.A. group struck a dissenting note on the value of the awards.

“Music is a beautiful, spiritual thing, and we got this thing here,” said bass player Flea, holding up his trophy, “which is plastic or ceramic or wood or whatever the deal is. So let’s be real.”

Flea also questioned their winning song’s placement in the hard rock competition. “ ‘Give It Away’ is by no stretch of the imagination a hard rock song. It’s a funk song. The only reason it was even nominated for hard rock was because of the color of our skin.”

But, not to sound totally ungrateful, he added, “We’ll take it. . . . They probably just felt sorry for us.”

Speech, the leader of Arrested Development, laughed when told that some reporters had been laying bets on whether his group or Billy Ray Cyrus would win best new artist, but resisted the temptation to make light of the unlikely pitting.

“We sort of look at the commonalities, as opposed to the differences, of people. And the commonality was, his is good music, ours is good music, and people just had to choose between the two--and I’m glad they chose us.”

Arrested Development’s wins (for best new artist and rap duo or group) struck a blow against the generation gap, with both the oldest and youngest pop Grammy winners of the night among the group. “Baba is 61 and Ishe-E is 18,” Speech noted. “I think we might’ve got the age category hooked.”

The Billy Ray Cyrus-Travis Tritt showdown--anticipated since Cyrus, offended by Tritt’s negative comments about “Achy Breaky Heart,” launched verbal volleys at Tritt at the American Music Awards last month--never materialized. A certain amount of care was taken to keep the warring country singers apart. Their rehearsal performances were on different days before the Grammys, though one observer noted that they nearly ran into each other in a hallway at the Shrine on Grammy day.

And ultimately, each offered the other an olive branch--indirectly anyway. Tritt, speaking backstage after being awarded the country vocal collaboration Grammy for his duet with Marty Stuart on “The Whiskey Ain’t Workin,’ ” said of the attention Cyrus’ remarks had gotten, “As many albums as he’s selling these days, I’m just glad for the plug.”

Later, according to an onlooker, Cyrus was seen pulling Stuart into a mens’ room, where he asked the singer to take a message to Tritt. “Tell Travis I don’t want this to turn into a feud,” he said.

Stuart responded, “Look, you play your music, Travis plays his and it’s all fine.”

Michael Jackson came backstage for a session with the photographers, but remained silent throughout. Still, the photo crews were thrilled.

Said Scott Downie of the Celebrity Photo firm on getting Jackson and sister Janet posed together: “It’s one of the shots of the decade. Getting the two of them together, getting them hugging and kissing and the fact that it symbolized a healing in the Jackson family.”

In a related incident, the biggest laugh in the photographers’ room came when Brooke Shields, seated next to Michael Jackson in the Shrine audience, pulled a small camera from her purse and snapped a shot of her date as he took the stage to receive his Legends Award. Said photographer Vinnie Zuffante, “We’re wondering who she’s selling it to. Like it’ll appear in the Star next week as ‘Brooke Shields’ Night at the Grammys.’ ”

Past Grammy shows have seen rappers boycott the ceremony for what they called a lack of rap representation in the awards. This time there was a suggestion that rap has outgrown the Grammys.

Sir Mix-A-Lot, who won the solo rap Grammy for “Baby Got Back,” told the media backstage that he’d like to see new categories for hard-core rap, Afro-centric rap and other sub-genres, and even suggested that rappers get together and put on their own awards show. “If we’re making more money collectively than anyone else in the record industry, maybe we should do our own awards,” he said.

Later, Speech of Arrested Development supported both suggestions. “There are so many different types of hip-hop, and there should be a special awards ceremony.”

Vanessa Williams joined the recent parade of very visible pregnant singers--Whitney Houston and Annie Lennox among them--with her appearance on the telecast, but downplayed its significance. “I’ve done it before, darling,” she said backstage. “This is my third time. I had a video three years ago with me seven months pregnant, so it’s not a trend to me.”

Williams said that while she was on stage, she “had visions of going into labor--the recurring nightmare. The baby is so high up, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get breath support, but I held up.”

James Brown got one of the biggest laughs of the night by announcing the winner of the first award--Eric Clapton for pop male vocal--without even reading the nominees. “I wish it hadn’t been me,” he confessed afterward, but added, “Everybody loved it. They want me to go back and do the same thing next year.”

Free-lance writers Chris Willman and Bill Higgins contributed to this story.