Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of the 2026 Grammys with Exec Producer Ben Winston

February 2, 2026·1 hr 6 min·5 clips

Tyler the Creator's entire Grammy performance nearly collapsed in the dress rehearsal when his car battery went flat and there was no time to recharge it.

The mood is measured. Brian Hyatt frames the conversation as Rolling Stone Music Now's annual post-Grammys breakdown with executive producer Ben Winston, built around what viewers missed from the couch. Winston sounds calm on purpose. He calls the show a beast, then walks through a night where big moments kept coming from different angles instead of orbiting one obvious center. Lady Gaga is one marker. Justin Bieber, Bad Bunny, Kendrick, and Loli Young are others, each with its own kind of live-TV pressure. Winston avoids the victory lap. He says he never gets too high or too low after a show, so his satisfaction comes off more like a producer checking the board than a publicist selling the night. The best part is technical. When a performer's in-ear pack fails, Winston does not turn it into drama. He patiently works through distance, signal, crowd density, and live risk. Empty rehearsals can fool people. A room with 20,000 phones, the back of an arena, no roof overhead, and a performer far from the audio feed can turn a clean plan into a signal problem fast. He keeps calling it an educated guess, not fact, which keeps the story grounded instead of turning it into instant backstage lore. The upside is musical. To Winston, the breakdown proves the singer was live, because the performer still had to remember where the band should be while hearing almost nothing. That is the pulse of the episode. Under the celebrity names sits a clear case for live pop spectacle as a fragile machine, impressive because it can wobble in public and still keep moving. Hyatt lets Winston stay with that. The conversation has the usual Rolling Stone Music Now patience, treating production trouble less like gossip than proof of craft, professionalism, and pressure. The close looks ahead, with Winston thanked for walking listeners through an exciting show as ABC and Disney Plus enter the next broadcast chapter.

As heard by us

A sharp, insider look at how the Grammys hold together in real time.

Rolling Stone Music Now returns to its annual post-Grammys breakdown with executive producer Ben Winston, and the draw is familiar: a close look at how a live awards show holds together when Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Bad Bunny, Kendrick, and Loli Young all have to fit into one…

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You want the Grammys from the control room, not the red carpet.

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