Here is a fact you probably don't know about Ridgeway, Colorado. The Gramaphone award is made by hand in this tiny town located on Highway 550 with a population of about 712.

John Billings is the man who creates each award.

"It’s overwhelming," says John Billings, who has made every Grammy for the past 40 years, totaling 8,000 awards by one count. "It takes the better part of a year." Before Billings took on the business, it was owned by his teacher, Bob Graves, who was tasked with making the very first Grammy in 1959. Based in Van Nuys, California, where Billings grew up, Graves passed on the business to his apprentice in the 1980s, around the time Billings moved to the small town of Ridgway.

And Ridgeway is a town that almost stopped existing after World War II because the valley was going to be flooded to make a larger reservoir.

So when you are watching the Grammy Awards show next Monday, remember that the awards were designed and created here in Western Colorado.

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