True to his reputation as a man of principle, Peter Gabriel has shown his true musical colors by putting art before commerce and refusing to perform on the upcoming Academy Awards telecast. Gabriel was all set to play "Down to Earth" on the Oscars, that being the song he'd contributed to the soundtrack of Wall-E. Unfortunately, the powers that be apparently informed Gabriel that he'd only be allowed to play one minute of the six-minute tune, as part of a medley of Oscar-nominated songs. A more publicity-hungry artist might have simply swallowed his pride and allowed the sonic fruit of his loins to be chopped up and grievously de-contextualized, but Gabriel packed up his marbles and left the playground instead. He stated that "songwriters are a very small part of the filmmaking process but we still work bloody hard." Gabriel still plans to attend the ceremony, though, so see if you can catch him giving the stink-eye when the cameras pan the audience on the big night.

[Variety]