Questlove, drummer and frontman for the Grammy award-winning band The Roots, is back with âa new jump-off,â he laughs, âlike itâs 2008,â called Questlove Supreme, a fun, irreverent interview podcast where âlegends and legends in the making,â including Usher, Michelle Obama, Weird Al Yankovic, Chaka Khan and more bring âtheir legacies to life in their own words.â On this episode, he sits down with late-night legend Jimmy Fallon to talk about their top five performances on The Tonight Show, the time Jimmy played ping-pong with Prince, the first mixtape he ever made, and a truly incredible story when Jimmy got to sing with Stevie Wonder. âI hate you for that, man,â Questlove groans.
The Roots has been Jimmy's house band since Late Night, so Questlove and Jimmy are far from strangers. They talk about their mutual fondness for doo-wop music (Questlove blows Jimmyâs mind by pointing out that legendary guitar player Jimi Hendrix originally played for Joey Dee and the Starliters) and loving sleep (Jimmy discovered that Grace Jones still goes out to clubs until five in the morning; âI would have no clue,â he laughs). Questlove has helpful pointers for Jimmy on parenting; when Jimmy shares that his first-grade daughter canât dance, Questlove tells him to show her Soul Train. âTrust me, a good Soul Train clip...thatâs how everyone in America learns how to dance.âÂ
Both of them are music lovers and talk extensively about their childhood growing up with cassette tapes and Columbia House memberships. âEvery album back then, I loved it, even if it was bad,â Jimmy says. âI tried every type of genre...like oh, maybe Iâm into metal...maybe I should, like, worship the devil.â He laughs. âWhat was I talking about? Iâm an altar boy.â Quest was the master of the mixtape, he says, but though Jimmy made mixtapes, he wouldnât let anyone keep them. âI thought it would affect the record industry,â he admits, as Quest snort-laughs. âI would have to take my music to the party, I play my mixtape, then I take the tape home. I would own my mixtapes...my sister was like youâre the worst! Youâre the weirdest kid!â Sometimes heâd record songs off the radio, especially the novelty comedy songs on Dr. Demento. He remembers writing his own âManic Mondayâ parody that was âjust awful,â thinking heâd become the next Weird Al.Â
They share some great memories of hijinks on The Tonight Show and off, like the time Quest messed up the drum solo for Phil Collinsâ âIn the Air Tonightâ because his cymbal fell off (âit, like, broke in pieces,â Jimmy remembers). They also have incredible and somewhat surreal stories about Prince: once, he tricked Jimmy into going onstage during his concert in Madison Square Garden; another time Quest was charged with planning an after-party for him. He scrambled around and secured a club for the venue, loaded in a pool table ("it was a five-story walkup," he says), and was DJing Fela tunes when Princeâs manager told him to put on a Finding Nemo DVD instead. Jimmy once squared off with him over a ping-pong table, not knowing what a big fan of ping-pong Prince was (he owned âa gold paddle,â Quest reveals), and lost. âI go, âyou won! You won!â...and I turn around, and heâs gone...like Batman,â Jimmy says. Questlove actually ran into him after the match and asked what happened. âAnd seriously, he's like, âAsk your boy,â andâŚthe [car] window goes slowly up, just like the Grey Poupon commercials...and just takes off."
Get more details about Princeâs ping-pong game, Jimmyâs ridiculous high school rap name, and tons of other great stories from both of these menâs wild lives, on this episode of Questlove Supreme.
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