Those of you who’ve accused me of working too much will be pleased to know that I spent this evening at the Pro Bowl in Miami rather than working the Grammys tonight. But I’ve followed along with the results, and with all due respect for however impartial someone in my position is supposed to be, I want to offer my congratulations to the three winners that I’ve personally had the opportunity to interview. While the interviews speak for themselves, everyone has something different come to mind when an artist’s name comes up. Here’s what comes to my mind when I see any of them on television or hear them on the radio:

When her label asked me to take a look at Lady GaGa’s yet-to-be-released debut album in 2008, it took me way longer to get around to listening than it should have. But I don’t think I got more than about ten minutes into the album before I realized two things: 1) for the first time in my life someone had made an album of dance music that I actually really liked, and 2) she was clearly going to take over the world. When I interviewed GaGa over the phone she was still opening for New Kids On The Block (believe it or not), and in what now seems like an almost impossibly absurd scenario, I initially had to postpone on her because I had woken up that morning with no voice whatsoever (she was gracious enough to reschedule with me). In fact everything I learned about her during that interview could have been described in terms of graciousness, from her kind words for her tour mates to her kind words for my interviewing skills – and she’s come off as every bit as gracious in every interview I’ve seen her give since. I still don’t know how we managed to pull off being the first magazine to ever put Lady GaGa on the cover, but for a fun look back, here’s the original cover story interview in its entirety.

A few years ago I went to see the Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse in concert, and the opening act was a pop singer named Colbie Caillat who, despite fighting through some obvious stage fright, was clearly going places. When we decided to put her on the cover of our 6th issue after arranging an email-based interview with her (those were the days), she was actually the first person to appear on our cover who hadn’t yet sold a million albums. A year and a half later we had the good fortune to put Colbie on our cover again, this time the cover of our 46th issue) on the day her sophomore album debuted at #1 on the charts), this time an in depth phone interview. What struck me was that unlike nearly every other pop star of her stature, instead of using a publicist to patch the phone call, she simply pulled out her phone and called me when the time came for the interview, with no pretense. Same story a few months later, when we did a followup interview about her Christmas album.

While I never got the chance to get to the Black Eyed Peas early in their career, what blew my mind were the circumstances in which they did make themselves available to us. On the day that Taboo spoke with me on the phone, I had already watched him and his fellow Peas perform on two different network television morning shows so far that day. Obviously they didn’t need the extra exposure, but they were willing to carve out time for us anyway, on what was probably already one of the crazier days they’ve ever had. Taboo has a solo album coming out eventually (just a Fergie’s came out between the last two Peas records), our interview was all about the Peas.

Those personal stories may not be of interest to anyone but me, but there they are. I’ve also had the fortune to interview six more of tonight’s Grammy nominees including Katy Perry, LMFAO, Steve Vai, The Crystal Method, and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, but those stories will have to wait for another time, as I’m guessing most of you are as tired at this point in the evening as I am.

Oh, and I only named five nominees above. The sixth? Rosanne Cash, who will be on the cover of iProng Magazine’s 60th issue, which will be published this Tuesday.

That’s all for me, for now. I hope you all enjoyed watching the Grammys tonight. And to the three of you who watched the Pro Bowl tonight instead, I hope you enjoyed it as well.