The Meters now join an eye-popping list of Louisiana artists—Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Mahalia Jackson, Jelly Roll Morton, Clifton Chenier and Buddy Guy—who have been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy, the folks who present the annual Grammys.

“It’s such a shock, it hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Meters drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste a few days after the January 9, 2018 announcement was made by the Academy. “I was looking at the roster of some of the pas...