Kings of Leon, Coldplay Celebrate Grammy Wins at Star-Packed Afterparties

When the pageantry of the 51st Annual Grammy Awards wrapped at Los Angeles' Staples Center, the stars headed off into the night to party — or enjoy a nice quiet dinner, as Dave Grohl described his post-show plan. Radiohead took off for their Hollywood Hills house party, where members of Maroon 5 gathered, while Jason Mraz dropped off his mom (his Grammy date) and headed to the Sunset Marquis for what he described as a more mellow hang.

At the private Kings of Leon post-Grammy party at the exclusive Teddy's in the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, Kid Rock held court in a roped off area reserved for his crew, which included ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. Before the end of the night, the bearded legend had made Kings bassist Jared Followill's day: "Billy Gibbons gave me his slide!" he excitedly told us. When asked about the Kings' Grammy win, Nathan sarcastically replied, "Finally, after nine long years!"

The Kings' bash also drew out Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. Katy Perry arrived in a silver sparkly flapper dress at 12:45 a.m. with a massive posse and headed to the back to smoke cigarettes with Johansson, while Suge Knight chatted with Kid Rock and Slash made his way over to Timberlake. The party cleared out at 1:45 a.m., and rumor had it Prince was hosting his annual post-Grammy house party.

EMI threw a more private bash at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills for the company's artists and executives. Coldplay, fresh off their three wins, were in attendance, though Chris Martin (sans wife Gwyneth Paltrow) didn't stay long. Katy Perry made an appearance, as did Keith Urban with Nicole Kidman and presenter Kate Beckinsdale. And SonyBMG's unofficial artist soiree was held at the bar in the Beverly Hills Hotel, where John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston, Clive Davis, Carrie Underwood, T-Pain, Adele, Anthony Hamilton and Sara Bareilles gathered to toast the label's big Grammy victories.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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