Tonight Show
André 3000 stopped by The Tonight Show on Monday night (Dec. 16) to chat with host Jimmy Fallon about his right-turn into the world of jazz and perform a rendition of one of the songs from his Grammy-nominated solo album New Blue Sun.
Three Stacks stressed to Jimmy that despite his name being on the cover and the LP being tagged as a “solo” project, it was truly a “collective effort.” Asked to describe the vibe of the all-instrumental, no rapping album that came out in November 2023, André said it’s definitely a “very open, trusting free-form exploration.”
Though some fans were bummed that the man widely consider to be one of the greatest MCs of all time put down the mic and picked up woodwinds, André revealed that the title of the first song on the album — “I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time” — wasn’t a joke.
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He said that though for years he’s been “producing, making beats and still trying to do a vocal, rap kind of situation. Because I’m still a fan of rap. But that wasn’t on tap right now and that just happened to be what I was doing at the time. So I was like, ‘I enjoy this. Let me share it.’”
During a 17-year hiatus from releasing music as a lead artist, André dabbled in acting and became a kind of traveling minstrel meme among fans who delighted in posting videos of the MC strolling around coffee shops and airports playing one of his many flutes. “You know how when you have your phone you’re usually just scrolling and looking, I’ll play my flute,” he said. In fact, while in Philadelphia shooting a movie years ago, he would be spotted around town playing and people would come up to him and say, “‘you know it’s a game now. People are trying to find you and we’ll tweet and we’ll say, ‘Well, he’s at this park.’”
He also said that before each performance with his band they huddle and pump each other up with the phrase “fly free… that’s what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to really fly free with it. The reward is different, because you have to listen to every second to know what’s happening. It’s just a different muscle, a different exercise than going and performing verses and choruses that you’ve written. Both are rewarding in their own ways.”
Dré then came back later in the show to perform an edited version of the originally 13-minute song “BuyPoloDisorder’s Daughter Wears a 3000® Shirt Embroidered.”
Watch André 3000 on The Tonight Show below.
Ice-T is a multi-hyphenate already, but the gangsta rap legend might want to consider adding diplomat to his extensive resumé. On The Tonight Show on Wednesday (Dec. 4), Ice sat down with Jimmy Fallon to explain how he managed to get two of the most bitterly divided men in rock to finally agree on something.
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Falllon noted that the new Body Count album features a cover of Pink Floyd’s iconic 1979 song “Comfortably Numb,” which Ice-T somehow got clearance to record despite the rock band never granting such clearance due to the long-running animosity between former singer/lyricist/bassist Roger Waters and singer/guitarist David Gilmour.
“Not only David Gilmour, but David Gilmour and Roger Waters,” Ice-T confirmed. “Who haven’t agreed on anything in 20 years!” Explaining that rappers are always listening to old tracks to find something they can sample or rap over, Ice-T said he always loved Waters’ rumbling bass part on the original, so he wrote new lyrics to rap over the song from the landmark The Wall album.
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“We lay it out and then I just don’t think about the politics. So they go, ‘Okay, you gotta send this to Pink Floyd to get it approved,’ and everybody’s like, ‘That’s not gonna happen,’” he said. So, he sent it to the band’s publishers, who immediately said no, explaining that Pink Floyd doesn’t allow samples or covers. “So it was dead in the water, I was ready to trash the song,” he said of the update that features his new narrative about his fears for humanity’s future amid perpetual war and strife.
But then his manager found a way to reach Gilmour’s manager, who sent it along to his client, who was “blown away” by the new lyrics. “He said, ‘I totally approve it’” Ice-T told Fallon of the unexpected thumbs-up. Then, they had to get Waters’ approval, with Ice-T admitting that he had no idea what the origin is of the decades long beef between the two men.
So, Waters listened and asked who was singing on the track, and when he heard it was the rapper, he approved it as well. “So now you’ve got two people on opposites sides that approved the song, which made me feel really good, ’cause that means that the song is honest and real,” Ice-T said. Then came the cherry on top: Gilmour said he wanted to perform on the cover and appear in the video as well.
“Body Count’s version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ is quite radical, but the words really struck me,” said Gilmour, 78, in a statement about the new version featuring his guitar work when the single was released in September. “It astonishes me that a tune I wrote almost 50 years ago is back with this great new approach. They’ve made it relevant again. The initial contact from Ice-T was for permission to use the song, but I thought I might offer to play on it as well. I like the new lyrics, they’re talking about the world we’re living in now, which is quite scary.”
The rapper also told Fallon about celebrating daughter Chanel’s ninth birthday on Thanksgiving and described how his wife Coco “does all” the planning for the Christmas holiday. “If it wasn’t for her there wouldn’t be no holidays as far as Ice-T is concerned,” he said. Ice then dropped a stone cold fact that might get him in trouble with the Recording Academy.
“I won a Grammy recently and I’m like, ‘It didn’t come with no money, right? It’s just a Grammy,” he said of his 2021 best metal performance award for “Bum-Rush” from Body Count’s Carnivore album. “And then all my boys were like, ‘I want a Grammy!’ So I had to actually go make duplicate Grammys — I don’t even know if that’s okay, but I did it — and it cost me money to win the Grammy!”
The long-running Law & Order: Special Victims Unit co-star later returned for a performance of Body Count’s metal-edged cover of “Comfortably Numb,” filling the Tonight Show studio with the strains of their ominous take on the Pink Floyd classic. Bathed in green light, his eyes obscured behind black wrap-around shades, Ice sang/spoke the iconic “hello, hello, is anybody out there/ can anybody hear me?” over pealing guitars and down-tuned, rumbling bass.
Body Count’s cover appears on their eighth studio album, Merciless, which features collaborations with death metal howler Corpsegrinder, Light the Torch singer Howard Jones and Soulfly vocalist/guitarist Max Cavalera.
Watch Ice-T talk “Comfortably Numb” and perform on The Tonight Show below.
Gwen Stefani jumped in the wayback machine on The Tonight Show on Tuesday night (Nov. 26) when she joined host Jimmy Fallon and house band The Roots for a run through one of her most beloved solo hits on classroom instruments. With Fallon pounding on a drum and shaking tinsel-decked percussion instruments, Stefani sang the […]
Keke Palmer had a moment on the red carpet at this year’s Met Gala. And while she looked fabulous and enjoyed the evening, it wasn’t without its stressors. Chief among them was being called out by none other than Nicki Minaj on the red carpet. The Nope star stopped by The Tonight Show on Tuesday […]
Jimmy Fallon is the latest guest to take on the Hot Ones challenge, eating increasingly spicy wings as host Sean Evans asks questions. However, it’s hardly Fallon’s first rodeo. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news He often incorporates a Hot Ones segment with Evans on his Tonight Show, […]
Jelly Roll capped off an epic weekend with a stirring performance of his collaborative single with MGK, “Lonely Road,” on The Tonight Show on Monday night (Sept. 30). After headlining Madison Square Garden, then performing on Saturday Night Live‘s 50th season opener and headlining the Global Citizen Festival, Jelly put a button on a career quadfecta by teaming up with Machine Gun and the song’s producer, Travis Barker, for an inspired run through the song that interpolates John Denver’s beloved 1971 “Take Me Home, Country Roads” single.
KellyRoll (as the duo have dubbed themselves) began the performance singing the song’s aching refrain a cappella while standing on either side of a flaming garbage can backed by three soulful back-up singers. “Lonely road, take me home/ To the place that we went wrong/ Where’d you go now, it’s been a ghost town/ And I’m still here, all alone,” they sang in unison before Kelly called Barker to the stage and busted into his rap verse.
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The Blink-182 drummer tapped out the song’s clip-clop rhythm on the lip of the can before scooting over to a proper drum kit as Jelly and Kelly meandered to host Jimmy Fallon’s desk set to make themselves comfortable. Seated in the guest spot on the couch, Jelly Roll crooned, “I use alcohol to fill that hole/ Will our home ever be the same?,” as MGK tapped out the rhythm on Fallon’s desk.
The performance ended with the two men standing on either side of Barker, with always humble Jelly thanking Fallon and the viewers at home for “allowing us into your living rooms tonight.”
Before the set, Jelly made his first visit to the Tonight Show couch, admitting that he was so nervous that he may have “tinkled” himself a bit. “I won’t know until I do a full assessment,” he joked. He then admitted that he likely “double-tinkled” himself being in a sketch on SNL, the sadly cut-for-time hilarious House of the Dragon spoof “Blonde Dragon People,” where he played Lord of the Rings‘ Samwise Gamgee to Andy Samberg’s Legolas, for some reason.
“I was more nervous for the sketch, obviously,” he told Fallon. “Because I’m already a fish out of water in the music business. And I’m a double-fish out of water when I was there… I’m just whaled out!” And, just days after Machine Gun addressed his former beef with Jelly at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards — where he said, “Jelly, I love you. We went from 10 years ago, hating each other, to elevating each other” — Jelly Roll told Fallon, “I just love him to death. We’ve known each other a long time and we started on rocky roads and made amends.”
Jelly Roll’s upcoming album, Beautifully Broken, is due out on Oct. 11.
Watch Jelly Roll on the Tonight Show below.
Keith Urban proved he’s a man of many talents on Tuesday night’s (Sept. 24) Tonight Show, when host Jimmy Fallon asked him to do an impromptu cover of any pop song that came to mind. After recalling how he got a ukulele as a kid from his parents before switching to guitar at 6, Urban recounted his youthful talent show adventures — including a very embarrassing picture of one of his award-winning performances — as well as a short teenage stint in the metal band Fractured Mirror. Given his eclectic musical background and his penchant for reimagining chart-topping hits during shows, Fallon questioned how Urban chooses which pop songs to cover during his concerts.
“Just [a] well-written song,” Urban said of how he chose his live takes on songs by Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. “Taylor songs are well-written, the bones are good, they’re well written, so you can do them in any form. You can do any well-written song in almost any style,” he added. When Fallon asked if any song was stuck in Urban’d head that moment, the singer suggested Sabrina Carpenter’s summer smash “Espresso,” but do it on banjo.
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So, of course, despite seemingly not having tried that combo before, Fallon surprised Urban by pulling a beautiful six-string banjo out from behind his desk, which Urban proceeded to expertly pick as he sang the song’s indelible chorus while the studio audience clapped along in time.
Urban also had a chuckle with Fallon over a prank they pulled on the singer’s wife, actress Nicole Kidman, at the Met Gala in May.
“I was sitting next to Nic, and she had her hand on mine, and she was talking to somebody,” Urban explained. “And Jimmy came over and talked to me, and I say, ‘Jump in the seat, Jimmy, and just, like, slide your hand in under mine, so she’s holding your hand. She won’t know.’” So Fallon — who will never forget that time Kidman revealed in 2015 that she used to have a crush on him and that he missed his shot at a date with her — slid into Urban’s spot for the switcheroo that totally caught The Perfect Couple star off her game.
“So Jimmy slides in, so Nic’s got his hand like this,” Urban said as the host put his hand over the singer’s hand. “This is Nic and him.” Urban then described walking around to the other side of the table and waving at his surprised wife. “And she was like, ‘What’s going on?!’” Fallon said in his best shocked Kidman voice. “She’s like ‘What?! Jimmy, don’t do that!’”
During the chat, Urban also talked about his new record, High, and said he made a completely different LP called 615 that he had ready to go last year before scrapping it entirely because it didn’t feel quite right before returning later in the show to play the High single “Chuck Taylors.”
Watch Urban on the Tonight Show below.
Linkin Park stormed back onto late-night on Tuesday (Sept. 17) with the TV debut of their intense single “The Emptiness Machine,” marking their first Tonight Show performance with new singer Emily Armstrong. The song from the band’s upcoming first album in seven years, From Zero (Nov. 15), blasted off with singer/guitarist Mike Shinoda on the mic on a set that looked like an ice station on a frozen planet thanks to moodily lit plastic draping surrounding them.
With new drummer Colin Brittain keeping the steady beat, Shinoda urgently sang the song’s pleading chorus, “I let you cut me open/ Just to watch me bleed/ Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be/ Don’t know why I’m holding what I won’t receive/ Falling for the promise of the emptiness machine.”
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While the performance exploded into a driving dual-guitar grind, Armstrong took center stage and unleashed her howling vocal attack as the stage flickered with colored effects. Trading vocals with Shinoda, Armstrong gripped the mic with both hands, screaming out the chorus amid the strobing lights.
“The Emptiness Machine” debuts at No. 21 on this week’s Hot 100 (dated Sept. 21), marking the nu-metal group’s highest-peaking Hot 100 song in 15 years; their previous highest placement on the chart was the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen soundtrack single “New Divide,” which reached No. 9 in 2009.
Shinoda also sat down with host Jimmy Fallon to discuss the “euphoric” feeling the band had after the rebooted lineup’s debut performance at the Kia Forum in their native Los Angeles on Sept. 11, which marked the kick-off of their first tour since the death of singer Chester Bennington in 2017. “To be this many years in and to feel, like that genuine adrenaline and excitement and happiness was… there’s nothing like it, man,” said Shinoda of the first date of a six-show arena tune-up for what is expected to be a much larger 2025 tour.
Shinoda also had to laugh at Fallon cueing up an embarrassing video from the comeback L.A. show in which the singer had a major malfunction while performing “Remember the Name” from his side band, Fort Minor. Right after Shinoda sang the line about “50% pain,” he ran into the mic stand and bonked his head.
He also talked about what it’s felt like to put the band back together after the tragic loss of his longtime friend and bandmate Bennington.
“I think the important thing for us is that we never set out to, like, ‘Let’s bring the band back’ or ‘Let’s find a singer,’” Shinoda said of the surprise announcement earlier this month that former Dead Sara vocalist Armstrong would be taking her place on stage next to him for the band’s new iteration. “That was never our intention or our goal… It was almost like this new record… we wrote it, we came up with the music while we were creating the new band. When we started the music we didn’t have a band and it just came together while the music came together.”
Watch Linkin Park on the Tonight Show below.
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Justin Timberlake was back in comfortable confines on Monday night (Sept. 16) when he visited The Tonight Show to hang with his good pal and frequent sketch partner host Jimmy Fallon. After a lengthy, laudatory pre-interview wind-up running down the multi-hyphenate singer’s resumé, Timberlake took a seat as Fallon assured his friend “you’re well-liked here.”
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The visit was Timberlake’s first public appearance since pleading guilty to impaired driving in New York’s Sag Harbor Village Court on Friday, where he was sentenced to 25 hours of community service and hit with $760 in fines and court fees. “I did not live up to the standards that I try to hold for myself,” he told the court, before addressing the judge, “I should’ve had better judgment. I understand the seriousness of this.”
Timberlake did not address the plea deal or the DWI incident during the visit, which focused on the singer’s Forget Tomorrow world tour; on Tuesday morning (Sept. 17), JT announced a string of 10 new 2025 dates for the outing (see below).
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The friends mostly joked around, with Fallon demurring when Timberlake repeatedly suggested that the host would come out and do a mandatory warm-up set before Justin’s upcoming Barclays Center show in New York on Oct. 7. “I’m not doing anything,” Fallon assured him. “I’m going as a fan… screaming.”
“Shouldn’t Jimmy come out and do a 15-minute set?” JT baited Fallon as the studio audience howled at the idea.
Fallon also noted that he’s always giving Timberlake advice about touring, for example, suggesting he sit on a stool and play for 45 minutes. Instead, Timberlake plays for more than two hours and as Fallon noted, does a dramatic bit during “Mirrors” where he flies out over the crowd on a giant robotic arm that looks cool, but has led to some regrets from the singer.
“I’m going to say that was my idea… After 53-54 shows,” Timberlake said haltingly before standing up and getting into an arms wide open, leaning forward pose, “I was up there one time, just, like, suspended over everyone. I was like, ‘I could be on a stool right now.’”
“Yes! I told you that!” Fallon said enthusiastically, requesting that when he comes to the show he would like to not be able to see Timberlake that well. Clarifying, Jimmy said he doesn’t want such good seats next time, getting up from his desk and standing within a foot of JT to demonstrate his usual VIP status.
“I don’t know what to do with myself,” Fallon admitted of being so up-close-and-personal. “I don’t dance… and so I just stand there and I bore your wife (actress Jessica Biel), so she leaves me [and] I’m by myself. It’s too much pressure for me.”
“Do you not want to come to the show?” Timberlake wondered. Amid the giggles and the inside jokes, Fallon teased a new holiday song the pair recorded for the host’s upcoming Christmas album, tracked at New York’s Electric Lady studio. “You’ll Be There,” described as a a “holiday bromance” tune, mixes sleigh bells and ukulele for a chilled-out island vibe, with JT singing, “The only thing on my wish list/ Is that you’ll be home for Christmas.”
The pair also played a round of “Playlist Playoff,” in which Fallon and Timberlake competed to pick the perfect song for different scenarios, including a pre-workout jam and the track they’d want on repeat if stuck in an elevator together, which prompted Justin to pay tribute to recently deceased R&B icon Maze frontman Frankie Beverly.
Check out Timberlake on The Tonight Show below.
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Timberlake’s new 2025 North American Forget Tomorrow world tour dates:
Jan. 13 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center
Jan. 15 – Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
Jan. 18 – Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
Jan. 20 – Palm Springs, CA @ Acrisure Arena
Jan. 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
Jan. 25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center
Jan. 28 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
Feb. 3 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center
Sabrina Carpenter contains multitudes. The former Disney Channel star showed off her child actress chops, and then some, on Thursday night (August 22) on The Tonight Show when she performed a jazzy version of her inescapable Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Please Please Please” after joining Jimmy Fallon and fellow guest Zoë Kravitz in the basement for the host’s very silly signature “EW!” bit.
Channeling Michelle Pfeiffer’s iconic sultry piano-top performance from 1989’s The Fabulous Baker Boys, Carpenter kicked-off her performance of the strong contender for song of the summer seated atop a white grand piano. Looking over her left shoulder while singing into a bejeweled microphone, the singer revamped the pop bop into a swoony torch song with the help of three back-up singers, as well as a string and horn section.
Barefoot in a glittering black gown with a daringly plunging neckline, Carpenter crawled, then stood on the piano while emoting her way through the song with the NSFW chorus that she thankfully amended for NBC censors. The performance came on the night Carpenter dropped the anticipated follow-up to 2022’s Emails I Can’t Send, Short n’ Sweet, which in addition to chart-topper “Please” also gave the singer her first top 10 hit in April, the equally inescapable “Espresso.”
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Carpenter also showed up earlier in the episode alongside actress and Blink Twice director Zoë Kravitz for a trip to the basement for Fallon’s long-running sketch “EW!” Joining brace-face Sara on the couch, Kravitz and Carpenter, as Lucy and Hailey, bounded down the steps in colorful outfits bursting with cute as Kravitz — chomping on a gigantic wad of gum like her life depended on it — lamented being “so not ready” for school to start.
The summer camp chums also showed off their friendship bracelets, which the pals noted were, ahem, “very mindful, very demure,” to shouts of approval from the studio audience who clearly are on board with the viral phrase’s creator, TikToker Jools Lebron. Kravitz’s read “nightowl” because she stayed up “sooooo late,” while Carpenter’s was “Sweetie Pie,” because she ate “soooo much candy” and Fallon’s read “Splash,” because, she shouted, “I’m like a mermaid!”
As usual, the guests could barely contain their laughter at Fallon’s over-the-top ridiculousness, especially when they jumped up to do their “Espresso” dance, only to be interrupted, ugh, by Sara’s super annoying, dorky step dad, Gary. He then ruined the fun by busting out the most cringey version of the only song of the summer he acknowledges, “Kumbaya.”
The bit ended with the obligatory EW! speed round. In short: mullets (EW!), PopSockets (EW!), Hokas (EW!), Love Island (EW!), Stanley Tucci (cute) and pink drink (love!).
Watch Carpenter on The Tonight Show below.
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