Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Questlove

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

Legendary hip-hop musician Questlove feels fine with being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Questlove sits down with Conan to discuss his classical musical training, the improbable genesis of The Roots, how they “pulled a Hendrix” to come out on top, and curating experimental playlists for high-profile friends. For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com. This episode was recorded on 6/20/23.

Hi, my name is Questlove. I love that your name still cracks you up after all these years. Okay. Being as though this podcast saved my life during the pandemic. Oh. Um, hmm. I've heard every adjective used to describe how does one want to be friends with Conan. However, before I give the adjective, yes, I'm already going to break Jeff Goldblum's record.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Go for it. But as a creator and a creator that relies on an editor, I wanna know who's the person that has to extend Jack White's padding foot. Yeah.

So right now, was kicked out. So, no, you're gonna be skinned at 12 minutes. I'm just gonna loop it. Wait. You're gonna hear Jack's foot get tired and slow down and lose the beat. Keep going, Jack. We gotta get press love to the finish line. By the time, by the time I got to the gobbling episode, I was like, wait a minute, did he call up Jack to the custom mate, extra fee, and then I realized it's only when I became a nightmare.

It's my own editor that I realized that you're going to have to figure out how many measures of four are you going to end? I'm just going to put a kick drum mallet on a metronome next to a kick drum and then go take a nap. I love how we're talking how long it's going. As it's going. That's right.

Can we just do the inside of our podcast? This is gonna be... Oh my god! Go for it! That's a first. I had so many adjectives to use. I'm just gonna go simple, which of course none of this is simple. I'm fine with it.

However... Of course, none of this is simple. I'm fine with it. However, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it.

I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. No, but this is the thing. I'm fine with it. No, but this is the thing. I'm fine with it. No, but this is the thing.

I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. It gets the job done. I don't want it. But here's the thing. I was initially sugared. I was initially with it. It gets the job done. I don't want it. But here's the thing. I was initially surgrined and angered that you guys dared pitch me to do this podcast without Matt or it sounded like literally.

You're kind of like Charlie Brown. Not saying like you're not the star of your own Halloween special. it You know you want the full experience. Yes, and you want to make sure that Yes pig pen okay, the girl with red hair are there. I'm sorry Wait I'm out wait wanted to minimize them as much as I could the red hair Which one is she? No one knows her name. I want which Why not the red hair? Which one is she? Because no one knows her name. I want, which one's the one that always pushes? Is that Lucy?

Lucy, Lucy Van Pell? Yeah, you're very much Lucy to his, Charlie. Yeah, she has a last name. Lucy Van Pell. Oh my God, how do you know? Well, because she is the brother of Linus Van Pell. That's right. Yeah, Lucy Van Pell.

I have a knack for attracting a lot of Lucy Van Peltz in my life. Like proverbial football tugging. Roozer. Just real quick, are we still in the inside? Yeah, I'm fine with it. And cue music. Yeah, cue music. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Hey there. Welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend. I'm feeling good. That's be nice. It is nice.

It's nice to be good. Why you're not feeling good, man? I am, I'm feeling good. Really? No, I feel, but I still feel better than you. I know I do. How do you know you can't quantify that? You can't see in my brain.

Just, I can. I just feel like, fight, fight, fight, fight. You want us to fight? No, we're not gonna fight about this. I just feel very good. I feel like reaching some kind of peak in my life. I think you are feeling better than me

because you've got your collar open more than I have. And that's the sign of a happy person. I'm gonna even go down a button. Yeah. Look at that right there. We've got about the same amount of chest hair. I was gonna say, do you guys have chest hair? Well, I actually, I took care of my chest hair for a reason.

What? Yeah. Just the other day. You took care of it chest hair for a reason. What? Yeah. Just the other day. Oh, you took care of it. It did you like assassinated it. I shaved my chest hair. Why? Because I'm going to start doing porno. All right.

Because I found out that there's a strike going on right now and you're not supposed to be doing any writing. And it's some of that porno is not guild covered. That's the only thing you did to prepare for the porno you're about to shoot. Yeah. And then it turns out you need to like be able to function and stuff. Which I didn't know. So I shaved my chest and I walked in there and I went, I'm ready to go. And they said, well, Kenny, can you kind of work yourself up into a state of excitement? I went, well, I could have it was 1988.

You did shave your chest. Yeah, I did. Why? I'm gonna tell you why. I shaved my chest for biking. That's right, biking. What? Yeah, biking.

Did you shave any, your legs too? I shaved my entire body. But you have arm hair. Yeah, I didn't touch that part. But you just said you shaved your entire body. You shaved your whole body? To me, entire body means chest and then the whole stomach area. Okay. And then what do you mean? I call it my never regions. No, I didn't do that.

The icy delta. Yeah. I did. The full, fatched roof. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do.

I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I'm like, that's the only thing I can do. I well obviously, seems like one of a hyper cool person. Absolutely. And he's always curating music playlists for people and telling people what to listen to. And then it turns out he's, I'll use the word geeky fan for our podcast, which was nice to hear.

Really nice to hear. And he's a great guy. Love talking to him. He geeks out so much so that he was aware of how long Jeff Goldblum's Second appearance on this show his high my name is friend intro. Yes was because most people say hi my name is you know blank and I'll just throw in hi my name is Tommy Tuberville. He was a great interview and I feel is that a person?

Yes, he's the senator who's holding up the entire military appointments of our government just so that he can make some point about social justice. Okay. Something. I don't know who's. I don't know who's. I don't know who's. Yeah, you thought Tommy Tuberville was a children's cartoon character. Literally, literally a tuba.

Here comes Tommy Tumberfield. No, he doesn't, he's trying to make sure that no one can. You would care about this thing, women in the military. Time well spent. That's good. That's good. That's good. I'm sorry, I have to explain things to Sonia. He doesn't want social issues.

I'm not getting at you. Oh, you're mad at me. You brought him up. You brought him up talking about quest love. Do you want me to back up and not talk about Tommy Tuberville? No, it's too late now. No, we have to. Is it also Tuberville?

Well, I thought it was Chu, and then I listened to a podcast and they called him tuberville. What podcast did you listen to? It's called mispronunciation in my veins. I thought it was. No, apparently I was convinced it was tuberville and then I've heard several things where they call him tuberville. Now I'm part of this problem. Yeah, exactly.

So you guys, you're really helping, by the way. Anyway, very controversial Senator at the moment and irritating a lot of people. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is most people have a quick intro. Hi, my name is Harrison Ford, and I feel shitty about being a Konor-Briens friend. And then we move on.

Questlove came on and was aware that the record is held by... Jeff Goldblum's second appearance. Jeff Goldblum's second appearance where Jeff went on and on and on and on. Oh, and it was that for a long time. And then Queslov came in on a mission to defeat Jeff Goldblum's record.

The question is, did he know? Whoa, what? He went on forever. I agree, but I have it on good authority from our man in the engineering section, Eduardo, that he did not beat him, but that's reason to have Questlove back. Yes.

And so then he can beat it. Well, because Goldblum got to in fairness, Goldblum got to try one out, and then he came in and he mastered the whole thing. Yeah, but I'm still shocked because, as you know, Questlove really stretched it out. Yeah. To the point that I left.

And I did some welding on a 1966 Volkswagen Beetle. You also recorded another podcast episode with a totally different guest. Yeah. And I made a Margarita pizza from scratch and built the oven. And I cooked it in and then came back in and Questlove was still going. I got a great idea. What? Two podiums, two people, two intros. Yes, same time.

Go Bloom, Questlove. Yes, and third one, Tuberville. Yeah. I'm sorry. And it's just all him explaining how his name's pronounced. Yeah. And why he thinks women shouldn't be allowed to leave, get military leave,

to take care of their female health issues. Yes, sorry. And sorry, Tuberville, but. No, don't apologize to him. He can suck it. Exactly. Well, guess what? You can suck my dick.

You're an old, I was an old man. Oh, I'm sorry. Wow, we were just gone for three weeks and you have a cop. The thing's, and that comes up now. It just grew. I don't know how, but it's. Well, please tell me. I thought you're going to say like his shaved little baby arm.

Oh, nice. Please. Don't what's not that. What's not get that rumor out there? Good for a big. We all know. Getting fingers. Going as big dick energy like Conan O'Brien. You shave to get be more aerodynamic on a bike. I'm making, you're holding fingers. No one has big dick energy like Conan O'Brien. You shave to get be more aerodynamic on a bike?

I'm making this all up. Oh, okay. It was, it's that. And yeah, I wanted to be able to ride without a shirt and without pants and have no aerodynamic drag. That sounds dangerous. Wait, so you have no pants on, so you meaning your little guy guys flapping in the breeze.

First of all, not a little guy, quite average, to be plus. I get a solid B plus A minus. But isn't that going to cause some drag? I get a lot of compliments in the past from my girlfriend's with glaucoma. Anyway, no, I cut a hole in the seat. So it slides in there. Yeah. And then sometimes when I'm stopped at a light, I just sort of in the seat. So it slides in there. Yeah. And then sometimes when I'm stopped at a light,

I just sort of wiggle it around a little bit, and it feels fantastic. If you get aroused on the way, something like that's the whole point. You're a wheelie? Yeah. Woo! Let's start the episode.

I forgot my kickstand. No problem. Hi, it's. Oh my god. My name's Dick joke Johnson. That's the kind of stuff you can expect from the witty and urbane, Conan O'Brien. Let's get into this and let's hear,

you gotta check this out. Cause I do love this gentleman and you also have to hear his intro. They already have. Oh right, I forgot how the podcast was. You never knew how the podcast worked. I listened to it one day. I'm just not a fan of the host.

I get it. Anyway, I do love this guy. My guest today is a Grammy award winning musician, record producer and co-founder and drummer of the hip-hop group The Roots. Doesn't he also have an Oscar? I think he does. Who's doing the research around here?

What's mentioned is Grammy, but not his Oscar? God, I'm glad I'm on the ball. I'm very excited he's here today. What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up?

What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up?

What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? What's up? in New York, we've been wanting to talk to you for a long time. You were available and then, and this was pitched through someone else. And then I hear, no, he really wants to do it with the whole gang. And I thought, it's wonderful.

A mistake. No, but, no. B, fine. I'm fine with that. I think what you're saying is you're excused today, Conan. Yeah. We'll take it from here. Right.

I'll pipe down. No, man. It's, it's important, you know. Yeah. You're fine with being here. I have so many questions for them. And, you know, man, it's important. You know, you're fine with being here. I have so many questions for them. And, you know, but. This is nice.

Well, listen, this is you. When you're on this podcast, it's your podcast. So feel free to ask them anything you want. But are we really going to be friends? Yeah. Okay, because the one you want, do you want that? I honestly want it. Yes.

Okay. I'm in. Okay. So the transition week of you doing the last of late night, taking over the tonight show. Yeah. Before we came in, we as in the Fallon people came to do it. You were like walking the hallway, whatever. And instantly, you know, you know, when people feel like they knew someone, sort of like a poster on the wall, whatever,

like, you don't know them, but they feel like they knew you. And instantly I was like, oh, man, mean, mean, Connor, get along. Famously. This is going to be awesome. And then I turned to corner, even though I have been on your show, maybe three to four times, you've been on three times with the roots. Yeah. And, but I don't know why I'd never took into account that you're a giant. Or maybe because maybe I'm sitting behind a drum set. Yep. And I didn't take into account how tall you were.

And plus, you know, I'm on, that's when being on television was like really like a big deal. So I wasn't in my right mind. Now it's just like, okay, I'll show up. But I saw you walking down the hallway, and instantly I just started to shrink. Like, oh no, he's too tall to be. He's too tall to be my friend.

Oh. You know what's so funny that you say that is, when you've been with me, Sonia, it's the only thing people talk about when I walk around. Yeah. I do see, I get that all the time, and people act like I've lied to them. about when I walk around. Yeah. I get that all the time and people act like I've lied to them. So when I go through like, it's your prize points.

It's your prize points. People are like, hey man, fuck you. I didn't know you were this tall. I was like, what did I do? Well because you have approachable energy. I'll say that you and leader who should not be named 45 are probably the two of the most I'm glad you got there. Where's this going? You two have a common analogy.

How are we known? And it's not here. It's not here. It's a little bit here. Both of you are tall. Like, even I didn't know that he was tall. How tall is he? Yeah, he's a big guy. He's like six, four. Is he really? No, tall is he? Yeah, he's a big guy. He's like six four.

Is he really? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Dude, his son, oh, oh boy, he's like six eight already. He's like 12 years old. Yeah, he's fair and huge. No, no, no, no, no. Trump is not six four, but the thing is, what's that? Six three.

Yeah, and there's a big difference between six three and six four. Six three with love. It's an incalculable difference. When my afros out, when my afros out, people think I'm like six, three, six, four, I'm like six, two, maybe six, one, and half. So wait a minute. You say, I'm just keeping track here.

You're fine. Cool. Fine with being my friend. And you likened me to Donald Trump in my approach ability. And Charlie Brown. And Charlie Brown. You know what it is? Okay.

Um. We're going to wrap this up very soon. Right, it's gonna be, I told you guys, I'm warning you guys, what you're in for. No, I'm pretty much gonna be either the tricks rabbit or the cuckoo. What's the cuckoo pebbles for Cocoa Puff? Sunny, that's it, he has a name. Sonny, and Sonny.

Yeah, wait. Wait, how's his name Sonny? I don't think the cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs was he, he had a name? Sonny, yes. I know, because I take that as sugar cereal. Sonny, the cuckoo bird. Sonny, you know that. I don't know what to say.

I'm not proud. It's the same thing. It just lives there like Van Pelt. I was just thinking the same thing. Van Pelt, I respect. But no excuse me. I'm sorry, but you shouldn't know the name. Do you know? I didn't. Sonny's little side kicks. Sure. Smetley. The soggy's. Oh, the side. Well, I know. Smetley's the elephant. Oh, yes, there's right. Yeah. Well, Smetley was for peanut butter crunch. Wasn't he? Maybe. And then Jim Backus did Captain's voice, right? Okay.

Jim, wait, okay, am I ruining the show by rabbit holding you guys? No, no, no, no, in this is a good, and by the way, we're gonna play this for a neurologist later. Yeah. And we're gonna come back, we're gonna come back with your diagnosis, and then we're gonna get you on the right medicine.

Well, my whole point, my whole point was, my whole point was that each serial commercial starts the same. Like those guys try to be cool, common collective about it. And then midway in the plot, then they lose their excitement and suddenly you realize you have a crazy person on your hand. So that's exactly which is why I ask you are these guys into microdosing at all or edibles? Yeah, my answer was no, right? What your answer for yourself? No, my answer was I'm into it. Yeah, you're you're not into it I'm square that way. Yes. I burn myself out in my 30s. We talked about this on the way in today

All right. Yeah. Yeah. Well next all right appearance number for it I like the way that I'm already manifesting my I want want to be the son of your burn heart to your letterman. So trust me. Wait, and also in my alienating year demographic, with all these old experiences, no, no, let me quickly ask you, what is your go to kid serial? Peanut butter, captain crunch on it. It is fucking fantastic.

That stuff. It is amazing. Do you know about the history of serial? Do you know why cereal was invented? Was this the Kellogg don't masturbate stuff? Yeah, yes. Yes, I'm a little bit familiar with this story, but since you began, go ahead.

Well, that's all I basically know. Well, it was the seven day Kellogg's was a seven day of Venice guy. He had a wife and I guess even they slept in separate sleeping quarters. They adopted their children. Separate vaginas. Yeah.

Oh, God, am I going to get cancel abs in this appearance? No. Why? Being canceled during the appearance. So what happens is I guess he feels as though the whatever's used to make beef, whatever drugs are injected in the cow or the pig, whatever, that it's making America closer to that of Sodom and Gamora. And so he figures that a vegetarian diet will cause us to stop procreating and fucking. And so he invents a tasty counterpart

to stop us from masturbating, which is cornflakes. That's what the original slogan for cornflakes was now with 30% less fucking. That's an actual... And it was. But it's true. Can I work here? Yes, you can work here.

Wait, take my job. Higgins, listen, Steve Higgins. New to Steve Higgins, nor Michael's believes me when I tell them that I want to intern at SNL, the only other person that I know that interned at SNL as a figure. Do you know that Paul Thomas Anderson? Yeah. What? Like, like eight weeks or nine weeks or whatever?

I believe this is how him and Maya met, but after he hung out there, I didn't know, I heard it, they hung out there a lot, I don't know that he interned. He did. And my guess is they didn't really make him do anything that a real intern would have to do. Well, I mean, he didn't do much, so he interned. He did. And my guess is they didn't really make him do anything that a real intern would have to do. Well, I mean, he didn't do much. So he's caught somewhere between intern. I don't think he was getting lunch, but, right, right.

You know, he asked someone that knew someone's like, that the guy that did bookie nights who wants to work here and it's like, yeah, he does. And so he worked there for like half a year. And so I, me, my,, like I love working at 30 Rock. Or one, I love working there, and I love my job. But I just love watching the machinery, how things work. Well, this is what I want to ask you, because I swear to God, my band was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to work every day.

I think that all those years, and I'm not kidding, I kind of just wanted to be in the band. They had the better job. Do you sense that at all ever like, you know, because, okay, I don't, I think any other musician would see it as like, whatever. Like you guys reached a pinnacle or mount top, like you made it to, you know, America's living room or whatever. I'll say that at best, we as a unit, as a BANR best when we're working out in the gym. Now before the tonight show, I mean, the basic story of the roots is that, right out of high school,

we started busking on three corners, like around 91.92. Are you, you're playing like buckets, right? Literally, okay, so literally the fastest version of this like nine-hour story is, you know, my parents, my dad wanted me to go to either Curtis Institute. If you've seen, she just got nominated for a best actress, K-Planchen in Tarte. Tarte, yeah. So the institute that built that woman, That's what my dad wanted for me.

Good choice. Yeah, Curtis Institute is one like the the most hardest difficult Can I jump in one second and just say this is interesting to me because your dad famously is part of this do-op band. Yeah, my dad was like a Philadelphia do-op legend. Yeah, we ended up in the hearts and killer do-op band. It, we ended up in the hearts. And killer do-op, Ben. It's interesting to me that your dad is pushing you towards this classical thing when he's from do-op. So, okay, here's the thing about black people, especially we would traumatize black people. We will always, like, because we're in a constant

fight or flight situation, we're always gonna choose safety first. So in his mind, it was like, if you join a sort of like an institution that's like classical music, we're also big on like respectable politics, like, you know, we're a student type, that sort of thing, then you'll get a good job. So in his mind, like, hey, you, one day you two can make maybe a quarter of a million dollars. And, you know, that sort of thing. And in my mind, I'm like, well, wait a minute. I want to be the guy that thing. And in my mind, I'm like, well, wait a minute. I want to be the guy that owns the stadium that acts

play and like, why are you dreaming so small for me and not for myself? So that's a whole nother story. I get that though, they worry about us, they do. Yeah, and dude, I grew up in the crack 80s where literally every three seconds someone is dying. So it's also a Russian roulette game that I, you know, my future was written. So

that said, he wanted me to go to either Juilliard or Curtis. And so I trained this such, you know, for the first six years of my life, I went to one performing arts school and then they took me out doing like middle school to early high school to go to this like this college prep thing that would have instantly made me like Harvard material. See See we could have been friends there or whatever. So I didn't have friends there. And that's the episode. We're all laughing. Well, we're all laughing at you. We're ever, we're ever, we're ever Charlie Brown goes. He's still fucking Charlie Brown. Okay, so there was, there was a famous local dance show in Philadelphia called Dancing On Air. Kelly Ripper used to dance on the show.

So this was sort of like our local soul train. So my best friend in the high school and I really like, damn, I feel stupid to say fancy these two girls as if you fancy them. You know why you're fancy? Because it was 1882. And you had your, you put on your best celluloid collar and you bought her some poses and you fancied her. Did you have that bicycle with the giant front wheel?

And then I knew her on Broadway. No, no, no, sorry. No, you ate your cereal to keep yourself innocent. Yeah, the early season of being a social path. Um, I we wrote these girls You know, they you know, they would read like fan letters on the air whatnot and um, so we wrote our respective targets and My target got back to me. Uh-oh, right his tarp my best friend's target did not get back to him And I see I saw a moment where I could use this opportunity to my advantage. His target went to the high school creative

and performing arts, which was basically the public version of the fame score. Yep, yep. The Guaradi School, if you have younger listeners, high school musical. And so, dude, does he have younger listeners? Anyway. Dude, I have younger listeners? Yes, no. We've finally met a 48-year-old. Love the show. Can I just ask what he was on it? Her laughter, I think the

thing that attracts me to that makes her the star of the show. Yes. She has a Nelson like laughter. Yep. Like she's laughing with us, but she's also kind of laughing at us. Yeah. Yeah. I'm laughing with you. I'm laughing at him.

Yes. She laughs at me, but she laughs with the people who are on the show. I saw this as an opportunity, because I didn't want to go to the college prep school. Even though I've been playing professionally with my father, since I was a kid, my first gig was at Radio City Music Hall at the age of 12. I know this story because his drummer heard his arm. Motorcycle accident.

Yeah. And your dad said, hey, a kid, get up there. You know the show, right? Yeah, and you were like, all right. And it's Radio City musical. Right. I wasn't nervous at all, but the sort of antidote to that is that

the second I got off stage, I wasn't into, and I'm ban leading like adults, and I'm 12 years old, right? And I'm ban leading, but, you know, I could play like adults since I was five. I get off stage and I walk backstage and this black woman says, Oh my God, young man, that was awesome. That was right.

And I was like, I see your Susan from Sesame Street. She's like, Indeed, I am. My husband was playing keyboards and I was like, through a vasty. You know those Sesame Street people got that a lot. I would do that now if I saw someone from Sesame Street. I throw up. I've heard you correct me if I'm wrong, that your parents,

you were allowed to watch two shows, Sesame Street and Soul Train. Yeah, and I only watched PBS and Soul Train. Which was a pretty cool combination. Well, they were really strict on anti-television. I made the hard mistake once. It was to the point, you know, like it was post-modern times, and they were pretty much like, he might be impressionable. And this was the era of like, you know, Elmer Fud just taking a gun and blowing your face

off and then you put a new face on and that sort of thing. And they don't want me to be impressionable and there is another product placement. Here you go. There is a, an Hawaiian punch commercial. And which you remember, punchy is happening down the block with a bunch of fruit and then he goes up to the unsuspecting tourist and he's like, hey, how about an honest advice on punchy? He's like, sure, and he just, you know, hit some, so I went to my mother and was like, mom,

say sure when I ask you questions. Oh, no. And she's like, huh? I said, what is this? Okay, so I'm saying, how do I do? You say, okay, hey, how about, how about a little while plus? My mom said, sure. And let's just do the sitcom flip thing. We'll skip the, did you punch your mom? I beat the shit out my mom by accident. He's a kid. He's a little kid! How old were you? 38th.

I think I was two or three. Oh yeah. So then no more television. No more television. So but thankfully I grew up in a house with at least with about 3,000 albums. So and three very distinct record collectors. So, all I knew was music, and I was allowed to watch music programs. Which is also weird, because my parents are at nightclub entertainers, and they didn't believe in babysitters.

So, thus, I had to go to work with them. Even though my bedtime was like 830 as a kid, as a 3, 4, 5-year-old, they would wake me up at midnight or 12 30. And I'd watch like the second performance on SNL. In Philadelphia, Soul Train was not a 12 in the afternoon experience. It was a 1 a.m. Depending on the cultural sensitivity

of whoever the programming director was, put this on it one in the morning or two in the morning. So that's how Soul Train Demise a 1 a.m. after SNL experience. So back then, it's very hard to describe, but you watched what was on, but I remember like Soul Train would come on and be like, I'm watching this.

And you know, here I am, this little red-haired girl watching in Boston with a bowl haircut and you're free to have a little red-haired girl. I am, I'm not sure if we're in Curly. Yeah, right now it's not in Curly. But I was just watching Soul Train. And my brothers would come in and we're like, this is what's happening.

And, you know, man, Don Cornelius is cool. He looks like the coolest guy in the world. So, yeah, I was allowed to watch it. Anyway, let me, we rabbit hold. I told my parents, I want to play with musicians my own age. And, you know, I want to go to this school, which to them, to tell your parents you want to go to a public school and that sort of thing after they done invested in the best education to get you in this institution.

It was a hell of a merry throw but they fell for it. The plan was that I was going to find that girl for my best friend at our old school so that she could be his date for the junior prom. You're a good friend. I was a great friend. I still don't know why a high school student would occasionally work in the office. Like I don't know how that works, but it was her job to hand out school tokens. We would get like free bus tokens to get bet because we didn't have like a school bus

system. And so I was standing in line and and front of me was kind of like a dream weaver moment, like with a pretty girl in school. Like another girl totally unrelated was was talking about music, which instantly like my ears were pricked and she made a wrong Prince reference. And I'm the human version of hashtag. Well actually. Oh no. Oh no. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no. You remember on the Smurfs when a brainy would say, well, actually, but then it, and then it seconds later, they tossed them in the trash can. I was that guy. I was like, well, actually, that was a, a B side, a Japanese import B side, which is longer than the album version. And you're Linus.

Right, right. Like the four girls just looked at me like, no one asked you. a Japanese import B-side, which is longer than the album version. And you're Linus. Right. Like the four girls just looked at me like no one asked you. I was just trying my hardest to like impress them with anything that probably maybe two months later. I interjected to myself again in a conversation I shouldn't have. And I said, well, no, it was that song, you know, we we sampled that last night. And they're like sample warehouse, you know, at the studio. And it's like, who? I said, me, my group.

Who's in your group? And literally the way that's wreaking, I met like it's somewhere between like a tell-to cities and yeah, right. You know what? Can I just say something? This is a common sitcom plot. Yeah. Of, yeah, I got to impress the girl you're chatting.

You're getting over your head. You say, my group, your group. Yeah. Yeah. We're in the studio. We want to see you play. Sure. Next week. And then you run, you run down the hall. That is, we got to form a band. That is literally how I'm in this chair right now. So, now the thing was Tariq really had an insane gift for talking off the top of his head. I knew that he had a gift for doing that and he just happened to walk by and I was like, oh, with him.

So then I went to the next two periods of class like in Orchistra, and somewhere in Orchistra class, I thought about it. I said, nah, I gotta warn him. Put the, put like fly to the bumblebee in here like and the lunch room is on the a floor. I'm in the basement. So literally, like, just there. We're two guys carrying a plate of glass. Right. And you missed it. And then

someone else walked through it. It was a cafeteria. And I was like, if anyone asks, Yeah, if anyone asks Where a group and he's literally cool. Okay That is how the roots were born fantastic. We're also in school the same time that boys to men are becoming boys to men It's literally like they're in the bathroom harmonizing and you know They won every contest They would like cheat and put like glitter in their hands and do something like that and girls will be like I don't like no like Nate cheats and Calculus class like you're falling for that like all I have to do is have some glitter in my hand and do that Michael Jackson three-handed point thing. Yep. Yep.

Doing point to that. I did it for a while in my monologue on the late night show, killed every time. It works in comedy too. So we were, I mean, at that time, if you were an extra on a unmentionable Philadelphia comedy icons number one rated show, you went to the school. Right. Every person who's a jazz god you went to the school.

Right. Every person who's a jazz guy now went to the school. So we were like invisible. And even with the pedigree of like, yeah, I've been playing with my dad since I was five years old. My first gig was every. It's like, first day of school, Miles Davis is in my school, picking one of the kids to be his new keyboard player because one of his guys has a drug happen.

Has to go to rehab. So you'll, you'll in Joey DeFrancisco at the age of 16. Like that's just how it was. So we graduated and now it's like, well, okay, I guess I got to live my dad's dream and audition for Julliard. So I auditioned for the new school and for Julliard and around like 92 to reach just, you know, it's a free trip to New York. So he comes with me. We're on a train ride back home. And this is somewhere out of either a grape who pond commercial or that last scene in Dumb and Dumber.

The world's most beautiful woman. It's always a beautiful woman behind this thing. And it's a slow motion walk. Yep. To me. Now here's the thing. The previous year is when Boyzdomin started to blow up. They had it. They came out the box with a single call Motown Philly. And of course, they're, you know, calling up their high school friends, hey, be in the

video, whatever. So they asked me to play drums in that video. So I milked those one point. One second. Wait, let me rephrase it. To reek, milk those one point nine seconds. Because literally, like after the video became like heavy rotation on MTV,

we'd be ready to go out for whatever and he'd just look at me like, what are you doing? And I'm like, what? He's like, come on, man, put the shirt on. I was like, come on, dude, put the same shirt. Yes. That entire summer, I had to dress in the exact outfit that I... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no from one minute 32 seconds. The entire summer of 1991, I'd have to put on the hoodie that Dengie S T-shirt, those Oskosch baggash thing,

and walk up and down South Street. We would do like nine rotations. And, you know, wait. Ain't you there? Oh my God, that's a- And Tereek would take their numbers down and everything. And that's literally like our social, you know, the way your staff is holding their hearts right now. Yeah, I feel like such a dweeb anyway at all

Anyway, so it's a year later and nothing is more painful than the slow Dim fate of like you know Al Bundy's always brag about those like four touchdowns at Polkai Like I didn't want to become that guy, but suddenly I noticed like, oh, the match is not working anymore. Like, it's not working. There's no glitter in my hand anymore. Right. So the world's most beautiful warming walks up to me and Tareek and she's like, you're

the drummer and the swi-g and she's like, you're the drummer and the Spike Lee Levi's commercial, right? Now, there was a guy, there's a bucket drummer. The guy that pioneered the idea of when you see street musicians bucket drumming, his name is Chocley. He's from DC. He moved to New York and he was, you know, playing buckets and whatnot and Spike Lee saw him

and put him in a Levi. So now he's the new drummer of the moment. Like he's in the Mariah Carey video and I'm a little jealous. Like, oh damn. You're like, those are buckets. I got to find a new drummer. So she's like, are you the drummer and the Spike Lee, Levi's commercial?

And I was like, no, I'm not. That's where you and I are different. Yeah. And you, I just said, yes, I am. And you are a black thought of the roots. And just like that commercial in Dumb and Dumb and She's like, oh, okay. And she walks back and got off the next stop and Tereek was just looked like I felt the you asshole

I didn't any it. He kept right, he kept riding the whole time, calling my people and next day, we crashed from my parents crib, living room, next day, soul train soul trains on the commercials on and then that Becomes like our our doc brown flex capacitor sick comm sort of like you look at each other What do we do? Yes, literally a commercial came on. It's like well, why don't we do it and literally an hour later like we're Grabbing buckets and everything out, and we went on

South Street. If we didn't make $120, then it would have been a one-time only thing. But in like two hours, like we're rich. And our whole thing was like 60 for you, 60 for me. This is date night money. You can buy a quarter pound of turkey, some bread, steal some condiment packages, and that's a date, you know, make your own sale.

Yes, we go to like the park or whatever and here you have some. I want to meet. Oh my God. I never, that's why I never work for it. How do you say it? How'd you like some lunch? No, it never worked. If you're from Philadelphia, if you're from the tri-state,

Wawa is a religion. So, for five bucks, you can buy like a half gallon of lemonade, a whole bunch of turkey meat, some pepper texties, some bread, and still the condiments, and... I'm writing this down. Right. Right. Me now at my age.

Excuse me to our young lady. Yeah. And Questlove has given me the following lists, and I have all these items. Me now at my age excuse me to air young lady Quest love has given me the following lists and I have all these items Right, so you would you would you would do that No, and that was like romantic and movies were cheap back then if you see it before 6 p.m You can see the mat name for like you know whatever a 2015 that was date night money So we were like how you ever do it in again. Told my friend about it the next week and he's a bass player, my jazz class and he's like, well, you guys are gonna do it again.

I was like, yeah, he's like, well, can I join you guys? Sure, now he drives, I didn't drive. He drives with the station wagon, his dad station wagon shows up and he has his upright bass in the back and I'm getting my buckets. He's like, well, dude, I got the station wagon so get your real drums. And I was like, oh man, my dad will kill me, I can't do that. He's like, well, dude, I got the Stacey Wagon, so get your real drums. And I was like, oh man, my dad will kill me only.

I can't do that. He's like, well, he's not home. I said, yeah, you're right. So Snuck, you know, very stealth operation of putting, loading my drums in the Stacey Wagon and that's literally how the roots were born. This is your origin story. You know, I just want to comment on really quickly

because throughout the course of you telling that story, the range, variety of your references is mind blowing because. Forgot that they want to miss it. Yeah, well, clearly, clearly you did or something happened or. Or I made up for it. Yeah, you made up for it.

But, to me, what really speaks to is that you're, you're drawing on so much, you're drawing on so much, I feel like you have no boundaries in a great way. You're like, yeah, I was like, wait a minute. Don't send me the HR. Goes no boundaries. Trust me, you're in a safe space here. What I'm talking about is, are you picking, you guys picking up on the same thing, which is from flight of the bubblebee to Al Bundy.

Yeah, it's from the bubblebee Al Bundy, grapepupon, this guy from a serial commercial. Do you know this historical reference? It's all over the map, which I think is, I don't know, I just find it, I challenge our listeners to go back and listen to this again and plot it. And it's almost like there's no connection and also a thousand connections.

It's really cool. Yeah, rewind the three hours of that story. Wait a minute. I don't even think the origin story was what let me hear. Why? Who's the rabbit hole? Remember, I told the story. Okay, so here's a deal.

Here's a deal about late night. Yeah, damn, I'm good. Okay. where, okay, so here's the deal. Here's the deal, about late night. Yeah, damn, I'm good. Okay, so because 92 was kind of the, I ain't given biblical references, but I mean, that's kind of hip-hop's biting of the apple and they saw that they were naked. Pretty much Dr. J released the chronic, which was kind of the first time

that a credible person of pedigree in hip hop did big numbers. I'm gonna, you know, nothing against Hammer or Vanilla Ice or whoever was selling by the millions, but it was sort of like, okay, that's not what we listen to. You know, that sort of thing or he's not that good. Just saying Vanilla Ice didn't invent hip hop. No, he didn't. Wait a minute, I think they're all.

I think they're all so wrong. I think they're all good. We wanted to, we wanted to, we wanted to, I'm certain he did. I'm you're wrong. I'm gonna go a good team. We wanted to, we wanted to, I'm certain he did. I'm certain he did. You two would know. Matt and I, Yes, hey, Quesla, we're sorry.

Yes. But Matt and I are quite certain that ice ice baby was really the beginning of hip hop. I cannot believe and I say that with no contractions. I cannot believe that. Even Eduardo is horrified right now.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, my, my, my, my glad well in 10,000 hour thing is probably in the 7s now. I probably, DJ 7, so you say, so you say. But yeah, we now live in a post irony age where I can play ice ice baby right now and it's as if I played smells like teen spirit or like a song that you love. Like, this is my song, but, you know,

you could have get shot for that shit. Like, back in 93 at a house party. So anyway, so it's like because of that moment where hip hop realized, oh, commerce, we can make, and you know, every culture goes this. This is not just hip hop where it's like, do you do art from your heart or do you got to survive? And again, I already told you about fight or flight

and the needs to survive. So of course, everyone follows you and there was just a whole giant rush to make it. And so as a result, that leftist center, weirdo hip hop train left the station. The train that they lost all was on in a tribe called quest and rest of development and digible planets. They left the station. We had to wait there at the platform for another five years. It had we stayed in America. We wouldn't have made it. So thus we had to, we called it

pulling a Hendrix. So the way that we kind of pulled the Hendrix is is also an epic. I know it's even asked one question yet, so it might have taken over the center of the room. I have left the room three times. Okay, fun. And I got all those ingredients that you gave me. I went to the arouse. But let me just say to our listeners,

just pulling a Hendrix, Jimmy Hendrix, it wasn't making it here and went to London in like 66. And teamed up with two white guys with funny haircuts and became Jimmy Hendrix in the experience. And there he blew up. Came back a God. Right. Came back a God.

He went to the gym to work out and came back a God. So we signed the Geffen because they're a success with guns and roses, with Nirvana, and with Ar a gut. So we signed the Geffen because they're a success with Guns and Roses, with Nirvana, and with Arosmith. And by the time the top of 94 comes, Arosmith leaves Geffen to go back to Columbia. It's very obvious that Guns and Roses is not going to have a follow-up record in the next two or three decades. Yes. Axel had to take his time and really work it out. Right. And so April of 94, my manager calls me up and is like early in the morning and he's like, dude, we're fucked. And I was like, what? He's like, eat in your way happened. I was like, no,

it's like, turn on and literally Kurt Loader is announcing that Kurt Cobain killed himself. Yeah. And my manager, mine, he's like, wait, there's no more Guns and Roses or Aras Smith and now Nirvana, the three pillars that are financially holding that label up. And he's like, we're gonna get dropped from this label before it even starts because they didn't have a black department

or a rap department. And so, it's like, okay, what do we gotta do? What do we gotta do to survive? So we did something that's almost akin to, if you remember, you remember, and you remember in, in Ghost, when like, I never know what's going on. I never know.

It's so fascinating. Every time you say, okay, you know how, I don't know if it's gonna be a chocolate milk commercial and Eisenhower reference, but now we're in ghosts. Yes. And what happens? And what do you remember when Patrick's way he tells we'll be goberg to go to the bank and you're going to, you know, he's given instructions to, she's shutting the accounts

down. So we kind of had a similar situation. There is. So that's a scene from Ghost that nobody references. It's not the making of the pot with Demi Moore. It's, you know the part in Ghost? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're making the sexy scene.

No, no, no, no. The bank transaction. You know the bank transaction from Ghost? No. So no, I don't. What it was, what it was was that, so we were like, we're going to get dropped. So we have to make a move. We found a loft to live in at London.

And that's where we worked out at the gym. So we did this for 18 years. I mean, people will say like, oh, you guys were the fish of hip hop, the grateful dead of hip hop, but it's like, oh, you guys were the fish of hip hop with a grateful dead of hip hop, but it's like we were dependable and responsible. So our job was to stand by in the waiting room. And then it was good survival, but it really wasn't conducive for like having a steady relationship. Yeah. They're kids in the factor now. And, you know, so we around like 2009, it was sort of like, man, we wish like a Celine Dion situation would happen

that we're- A residency. Yeah, a residency. A residency. And so we just got to the mountaintop of like making good money. Like we finally made it. And it's like, do we just turn our back on this

and try something unproven? And we did it. I will say that for us, that was what we needed to actually bond and be friends again. There is a moment, I know I'm low-quacious. Give me a safe word, like pineapple or something, if I'm talking too much. Oh.

It's all like I see you're turning maroon right now. I know, I'm good. That's his normal color. Yeah, that's just me. When you see, I just, those are called veins in my head. Okay. That's how white I am. So there's a moment that happened around 2006,

made me three years before we did Fallon and war on tour with the chili peppers and it's the European tour. And they're playing soccer stadium, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, post'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm get into sort of a football, magic circle, huddle. And by the fourth time they do this, I'm thinking like, oh, they're gonna call an audible and change up the set list.

And then they go back to their instruments. And then I have the set list in my hand, I'm like, wait, they didn't change anything. They didn't change the arrangements, I'm waiting like days down the line. Like, why do they keep having these little meetings every like five songs, and nothing changes from what I know the show to be it's like muscle memory And so I see flea in the in the catering and I'm like, dude

What are you guys talking about when you go into that huddle and flea's like? Yo, man's like I don't know man. We're just we're so full of gratitude like we're just I don't know man, we're so full of gratitude. Like we're just four guys that, you know, we met each other when we were 13 and, you know, we're in the Dada Dada Stadium when 120,000 people and we're just showing gratitude to each other. Like guys, we really made it. So this is 2006, I'm not evolved yet as a human being. So I get on the tour bus and I'm like, yo, I'm just like, you're a hippie shit like, we're so happy. How much, you know, like I'm really just like being dismissive of it. Like, that's what they're doing. And my manager's like, yeah,

oh, makes sense. Like, you know, you can see that because they like each other. That's cool. That's like, yeah, you know, so I go back and start playing places. Wait, what do you mean they actually like each other. That's cool. That's like, yeah, you know, so I go back and start playing places. Wait, what do you mean they actually like each other? And he's like, I see that. They actually, I mean, it's not like a good fellow thing. Like, what do you mean I'm funny? But it was sort of like, well, what do you mean? They actually like each other. Like, why did you say actually? He's like, you see the chemistry like they actually, they fuck with each other. I can see that. And I was like, as opposed to what? He's like, come on, man. And I was was like as opposed to what he's like come on man

And I was like as opposed to what he's like come on man. Don't name me spell it out. That's a what he's a man Y'all fuck with each other. Y'all just show up at y'all show up Maybe y'all come to sound check y'all show up at backstage Y'all do it off memory You know you you're the one to name the tour buses Gryffindor and Slytherin like You're the one to name the tour buses Gryffindor of the slither and like You got your own sebertor buses y'all don't spend the night each other's houses. Yeah, my friends. Y'all just business partners He's like it's cool like Keep the funny that you didn't know you didn't know well. I thought look we

Bend by that point we had known it like we met in 87 and it's now 2007 like he was 20 years later like what do you mean we're not friends and Then I realized oh shit. We're really not friends like we're just like nine strangers that just Play the same songs every night and that's it. And so what wound up happening at Fallon is Jimmy has a way of disarming you. And I'll say at least for the first six years, we were perpetual, we were 13 year olds.

We were 13 year olds in adults bodies doing, we could do silly things and not feel like, you know, like, we're gonna lose our street cred because we're doing silly shit. And that helped, that really helped. There's a moment where when Jimmy officially pitched us, and we're doing like some spring fleeing at at UCLA or something. And I'm, I'm, I'm quasi spokesperson for the group. And so I had to do an interview like with a college paper or something and I'm I'm I'm quasi spokesperson for the group and so I had to do an interview like with the college

Papers something so when the trailer did my interview came back 20 minutes later and we're on UCLA's football field and Jimmy This is gonna be my worst reference and I'm in my head like please don't say this reference Can we just take a guess around the table what this is gonna be first? You go first. I'm gonna say, wait, I'll give you a hint.

No, I'll give you a hint. Okay, decandy. Will it be games? Oh, zapped or chargers is charged? God damn you're good. Zapped. This is why I met the man. Yeah, zapped the movie where Scott Baeau can make people's bras fly off. It's either is why I met the man. Yeah, zap the movie where Scott Beo can make people's bras fly off.

It's either Charles and Charter Bible man. How do you know where he first started, which was eight is okay. So Jimmy somehow has talked the roots into doing an eight man human period. Period. Period. A human period. A period. A human period. I don't know as much about.

Anyone want to weigh in? Oh god. I guess stick with pyramid. I have to. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, they're doing a human pyramid and it wouldn't have phased me more, but Tareek and I are such polar opposites of each other by this point.

Tareek is one of those like, you know, $5,000 Japanese denim wearing fascinets of which I was like, yo, he's really on the bottom row on his knee like he's ruining his denim He would never do this. He's one of those Jesus Christ like not spot nor wrinkle Meanwhile, I will go to the White House with like mustard stains on or my on my tux and I look at my manager and I was just like We're not we're not getting rid of this guy any time soon, right? And my manager was like, we're stuck with him.

Like literally Jimmy would not let up until we committed to him. And he just ticked like, just did it. And so what I'll say is now the amount of being in the gym on that show has actually made us friends again. Yeah. And so now I feel like even though this is our 30th year as a band, I really feel like it's like our seventh year. We're probably the only people in history that got sent to HR on our first day on the gig. All right.

So, if your listeners are everyone knows what HR is, I know what your demographics are. I don't. I have no idea. Who's listening? I have no idea what, yeah. I know none of this one of the one of the funniest stories that came from The the ghost of of Conan's late night show

was they brought all the roots to HR so I don't be a long guys you didn't do anything But you know, we kind of want to get in front of the train so They said to me. I don't even know if I should be saying this. So I guess the thing that they wanted to stop was, I guess Weinberg was world famous for making interns do his shopping for him. Okay. Am I lightly putting it? Sure. I didn't know that.

You know, I was insulated like Nixon. No, it was like it was for committed. It compared yourself to Nixon in a good way. In the way he insulated himself. No, I meant Cynthia Nixon. Not Richard Nixon. The way she insulated herself from some of the problems they had on sex in the city. No, it was like it went from, first it was like super, you know, like take our lunch order

to, I need you to, you know, I guess his wife lived in Jersey, like drive out to Jersey, go with my wife to do shopping, supermarket shopping, and then it went to mowing his lawn. And eventually it went to light construction. No, that was next. Then, no, no, I'm not lying. It went to painting. So literally by the end of the run, Max had like six interns that were just like staff at

his house. Should I not be clipping Conan's toenails then? Again, please. So they just said, look guys, just please keep it to lunch orders only. Well listen, that major Degan Expressway got built. And I thank Max and those 35 interns. The, the, uh, well, you were there, play you want to weigh in on anything? Because you know me like Cynthia Nixon I was insulated. That's enough.

Thank you. Good point. I think we put that to bed. Well, I'm glad that you love him. I'm not throwing you under the bus. No, no, no, the construction they did was fantastic. It's infrastructure and we need an infrastructure. But you don't know anything about it.

It's insulated like Cynthia Nixon on Sex and the City. Yes. Um, all right. Now can we start the theme to the know for you? Okay. Can I just ask you and then we probably have to wrap it up. What do we have to do at them at some point?

Um, and I at least ensure that I can come back again. Oh, no, no. Oh, you have no idea. I want to work here, man. Yeah. You have no idea. Quess love. This is so nice. Quess love. You are, you are coming back. You're chill, too. Yeah. And also, I, uh, we can microdose next time. Yeah, we can add for dose and you could bring some other people and, um, great. I have a driveway that I need paid. Wait a minute, I do have to wrap up something about, like, or people actually your friends on the show. So the thing is, is that my new New York Times

Crossword puzzle is actually wordle. But, oh, me too. Oh, I do world two, yeah. Are you on a group? No, I don't get it. Again, I'm insulated. Yeah, I, Oh, yeah, it's your choice. I feel like you and I should keep in shut up, son. Shut up. Let's pretend it's my choice that I'm insulated. Anyway, go ahead. You

You and I should campaign to fight to get into Bateman's illustrious Word of Club like oh, it's like Jason Bateman and um, wait, you want you want more time with Jason Bateman's illustrious word of club. Like, oh, it's like Jason Papeman and um, wait, you want more time with Jason Bateman? Wait, we have a different agenda. We mean that I can't help you here. We mean that open up another rabbit hole.

No, but what I do is, um, I make playlists for my friends. This is crazy because this is what I wanted to ask you about, which is you make these playlists, and you make them for your friends, but you make them for some of the most famous people in the world. You like Barack Obama- Is that what the old man was? Asked you to make a playlist for him.

Yeah. Do you ever throw something in there, like the theme from Gilligan's Island, just something that's gonna freak him out? Oh, I'm sorry. I said all the, like the amount of, he doesn't, he doesn't question much. There's a few people like, did you really mean to put this version of that song on there? Like I will lightly troll, I'm not trying to troll more than I'm just trying to expand

the palette. Yep. Because I think oftentimes when it comes to streaming, there are billions of songs out there, but we're only going to go to the 32 songs that we know. Yes. And I'm willing to do the musical, metaphorical equivalent of the Shaw Sank shitt crawl and go through, I go through about 500 songs a week of which maybe seven or cool and add that to the database. And these are songs that I believe in, like not like Desert Island this, but like I co-sign the song. And every part of the song has to be like

something that yeah, this is a great song. And yeah, it started with the Obamas and then I added the carters. I wanted to add people that just had kids. And so in my mind, when Blue Ivy was born, I was like, okay, I'm gonna want you to play this like in her crib or in her nursery, whatever. And then, because if you can reach a kid before six, you can really determine their creativity.

What I love about this is that when you do this, you are in a very intimate way in the year of a Barack Obama. You're like creating new neural pathways by throwing in a trickster for kids commercial really quickly. You're fucking with... Full circle. You're screwing with the mind of a of a of a president of the United States, which is fascinating. I believe that music is

sort of nourishing like food and the right song could inspire you to. So I do two types of playlists. I do an afternoon playlist that should be played between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and then I do an evening playlist between 6 and that doesn't mean like maybe maybe quite storm music. It's not that but I do an evening set. So it started with them and then it was 10 and then it was the 50 so I think right about now I am oh my god that's a lot of scrolling. I text 700 there there's the list of people. You might know some of the names. That's right.

Oh my god. There's no Robbie Vamon for. Okay. I'm adding vanilla ice. I can't believe I'm holding your list. And this is the most impressive list of names. I don't wanna respect people's privacy. No, I mean, there, you know, it's, it's,

Let's hear it. Yeah, I just see it. No, well, I, there's just, I mean, Spike Lee isn't here. Yeah. Which is, and you got Bill Hader. Yeah, Bill is a music head. I'll say that of my top 30 like,

responding people, like people that actually like give feedback, like, wow, this song really changed my life in 1932 And I'll be like I'm on the tour later something like that, but no he's Keenan Thompson's in here. Yep, Rashida Jones Nora Jones is amazing Martha Stewart Jesus. Yeah Martha is come a long way. Yeah, no she's amazing That's my love language. So my question is, will you be 342? That I will. I would be honored. I would be honored to be on this list.

This is such a cool list of people. There you go. This is absolutely, wow. Ron DeSantis. No. No. Oh no. Oh no.

Yeah. I'm surprised to see this name, but I'm glad you're working on the guy. For like two, four, three seconds. I was like, wait, how did he get on the toilet? I would love it. I would love it if Ron to Santa's was like, you know, when I'm shipping, unsuspecting immigrants to Nantucket, I like to calm down. In case, leave it.

Quest loves. Quest loves playlist. This is so cool. So please put me on this. Right. Please. This means that we're going to have to actually be friends now. Yeah.

So all right. So does he know what to do? I know what to do. Does he? He's going to check with me to make sure his phone number is right. Yeah. He'll know. I changed my phone number a lot constantly.

No, he doesn't. I don't trust people that change their numbers that much. I don't change it a lot. That's my first. Do you have that one professional in which you have to have like blah, blah, blah, new, blah, blah, blah, three, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah your number away. I don't know. And I would say, yeah, I would be me. No, no, they would give my number away. And then they would call me and I'd hear cheering in the background. And I had some pretty good conversations. I'm not using it.

Well, it's someone writing your name like in a bathroom stall or something like that. Or they are now for good time. For a land time. This is, you know, I am by law, I must end this at some point, but this has been absolutely a treat. This is really, no, seriously, you have been, you are hilarious and, uh, and also this has been like a thrill ride of where are we going next? And it's been so much fun. No, I got, I'm not, it's not hyperbole or anything. Like when I say that this podcast literally

of all the podcast I listen to, like during the pandemic, and especially during that period in which like, you didn't know if you were coming or going, you know, some of us had a lot of safety, got like me, had safety, but I still had like a death every two weeks, and I mean real death, like I got to pay for the funeral. I got to pay for the hospital card. That sort of thing. The level of escapism that this podcast brought me.

Like if one day when when 10 years passed and you talk about like my pivot especially doing a whole new medium directed movies and all that stuff like what kept you saying in the mirror, like the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, exaggerating. So I thank you for it. Listen, two things before we go. Thank you for saying that.

We were glad to be there for you. All three of us. Oh God, I hate saying that. You want to say this in the heart of one of those guys, but also, yes. Oh, no, no. But there's something else. You're whether you want to or not,

you're coming back. Yes. And I'm going to ask you, I think I asked one question this time, and I'll ask you one question next time and by over time, well you know everything so we're really friends now You're on the playlist you're on the playlist. Yes. Yes. Yes. You made it you made it and but the thing is is that when you travel Like come on dog you got it

Thank you when you man, like the Harlem Go Trotter-esque magic circle way that you guys operate. Yep. That's needed. Like I want a Barack Obama episode. Yeah, where? Thank you. Guess what? Secret Service, they don't clear it.

No, no. They do not clear it. You have a criminal record. I've never been caught with my stealing. You have a criminal record. I don't have a criminal record. You've been just caught with my stealing. You have a criminal record. You've been just stealing. You're trying to get into a room with Barack Obama.

That's not going to happen. I've been in a room but just far from him. Yes. I haven't been able to touch him. Trust me, that was not my call. You don't understand that people kept us from when you went back to New York. Yeah. It was almost going to be you.

Thank God you never did. It's not me. It's not me. It is. Yes, it is. Oh really and who's gonna pay for these flights with all your demands I need seven hotel rooms for the 35 Armenian Greeks that are coming with me Oh, dear. How dare you true or not true true Questlove, thank you so much. I didn't put my hand up to say silent so now. I put it up. I put it up and say

Shut up. Which is different than silence. Shut up. You didn't so as to talk to the hand and shut up to the hand. Shut up to the hand. We got to wrap this thing up. Quesslove, please come back soon and come back often. Yeah, because we have a lot to talk about and get me that music. Yes I will I will bombard you with the best music and then I'm gonna send you my playlist and you will never stop throwing up Thank you guys When the wind blows free take on cat of yourself you all belong to me

I'm gonna be the one who doesn't have a free day. Did y'all work today? Did it work? Did it work? You know what I love? My question, my, my, my listening to Cinda Questlove is that song. And then rain drops keep on. And then again, butt not build up our coat. No busy time is lander.

All right, peace out. Thank you. Conan O'Brien needs a friend. With Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Nick Leow, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Your Wolf. Themesong by the White Stripes, incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy.

Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our Associate Talent Producer is Jennifer Samples, engineering by Eduardo Perez, additional production support by Mars Melnick, talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Khan. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the team Coco Hotline at 3- at 323-451-2821 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. And if you haven't already,

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