Questlove

[0] Hi, my name is Questlove.

[1] I love that your name still cracks you up after all these years.

[2] Okay.

[3] Being as though this podcast saved my life during the pandemic.

[4] Oh.

[5] Hmm.

[6] I've heard every adjective used to describe how does one want to be friends with Conan.

[7] However, before I give the adjective, yes, I'm already going to break Jeff Goldblum's record.

[8] Yeah!

[9] Yes!

[10] Go for it.

[11] But as a creator and a creator that relies on an editor, I want to know who's the person that has to extend Jack White's padding foot.

[12] Yeah.

[13] So right now...

[14] That's an addict drum.

[15] So, no, no, you're going to be extended 12 -inch.

[16] I'm just going to loop it.

[17] Wait You're going to hear Jack's foot get tired And slow down And lose the beat Keep going, Jake We got to get Cresloff to the finish line By the time By the time I got to the Gold Boom episode I was like, wait a minute Did he call up Jack To custom make Extra Feet And then I realize It's only when I became a nightmare To 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?

[18] I'm just going to put a kick drum mallet on a metronome next to a kick drum and then go take a nap.

[19] I love how we're talking how long it's going.

[20] As it's going.

[21] As it's going.

[22] That's right.

[23] Can we just do the entire podcast?

[24] This is going to be go for it.

[25] That's a first?

[26] I had so many adjectives to use.

[27] I'm just going to go simple, which of course none of this is simple.

[28] I'm fine with it.

[29] However, I'm fucking fine with it?

[30] No, but this is the thing.

[31] That's how I feel about a colonoscopy.

[32] Like, I'm fine with it.

[33] It gets the job done.

[34] I don't want it.

[35] But here's the thing.

[36] I was initially chagrined and angered that you guys dared pitch me to do this podcast without Matt or something.

[37] Like, literally.

[38] Oh.

[39] You're kind of like Charlie Brown.

[40] Like, not saying like you're not the star of your own Halloween special.

[41] Got it.

[42] You know.

[43] You want full experience.

[44] Yes.

[45] And you want to make sure that, um, yes.

[46] Pig pen.

[47] Okay.

[48] And, uh, the girl with red hair are there.

[49] I'm sorry.

[50] Frida?

[51] I think what he's saying is.

[52] Wait, you're Frida?

[53] Am I free to, wait, wait, wait, time out.

[54] Wait, wait.

[55] I wanted to minimize them as much as I could.

[56] Why did I have the red hair?

[57] Which one is she?

[58] Because no one knows her name.

[59] I want, which one's the one that always pushes?

[60] Is that Lucy?

[61] Lucy Van Pelt?

[62] Yeah.

[63] You're very much Lucy to his.

[64] She has a last name, Lucy Van Pelt.

[65] Oh, my God, how do you know that?

[66] Well, because she is the brother of Linus Van Pelt.

[67] That's right.

[68] Yeah, Lucy Van Pelt.

[69] I have a knack for attracting a lot of Lucy Van Peltz in my life.

[70] Oh.

[71] Like proverbial football tugging, bruiser.

[72] Just real quick, are we still in the entrance?

[73] Yeah, I was going to say, okay, okay, I'm fine with it and...

[74] Cue music.

[75] Yeah, cue music.

[76] Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking loose, climb the fence, books and pens, I can tell that we are going to be friends.

[77] I can tell that we are going to be friends.

[78] Hey there, welcome to Conan O 'Brien needs a friend.

[79] I'm feeling good.

[80] Must be nice.

[81] It is nice.

[82] It's nice to feel good.

[83] Why, you're not feeling good, man?

[84] No, I am.

[85] I am feeling good.

[86] Really?

[87] No, I feel, but I still feel better than you.

[88] I know I do.

[89] How do you know?

[90] You can't quantify that.

[91] You can't see in my brain?

[92] I can.

[93] I just feel like...

[94] Fight, fight, fight, fight.

[95] You want us to fight?

[96] No, we're not going to fight about this.

[97] I just feel very good.

[98] I feel like I'm reaching some kind of peak in my life.

[99] 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.

[100] I'm going to even go down a button.

[101] Oh, no. Yeah.

[102] Look at that right there.

[103] We've got about the same amount of chest air.

[104] I was going to say, do you guys have chest hair?

[105] Well, I actually, I took care of my chest hair for a reason.

[106] What?

[107] Yeah.

[108] Just the other day.

[109] You mean took care of it?

[110] You, like, assassinated it?

[111] I shaved my chest hair.

[112] Why?

[113] Because I'm going to start doing porno.

[114] Oh, right.

[115] Because I found out that, you know, there's a strike going on right now, and you're not supposed to be doing any writing.

[116] And some of that porno is not guild covered.

[117] That's the only thing you did to prepare for the porn you're about to shoot?

[118] Yeah.

[119] And then it turns out you need to, like, be able to function and stuff.

[120] Which I didn't know.

[121] So I shaved my chest and I walked in there and I went, I'm ready to go.

[122] And they said, well, can you kind of work yourself up into a state of excitement?

[123] I went, well, I could if it was 1988.

[124] You did shave your chest.

[125] Yeah, I did.

[126] Why?

[127] I'm going to tell you why.

[128] I shave my chest for biking.

[129] That's right, biking.

[130] What?

[131] Yeah, biking.

[132] Did you shave any, your legs too?

[133] I shaved my entire body.

[134] But you have arm hair.

[135] Yeah, I didn't touch that part.

[136] But you just said you shaved your entire body.

[137] To me, entire body means chest and then the whole stomach area.

[138] What's below that?

[139] What do you mean?

[140] I call it my nether regions.

[141] No, I didn't do that.

[142] The icy delta.

[143] Yeah.

[144] We did.

[145] The full fatched roof.

[146] Look, we got to talk about some business here.

[147] This is the episode where we have Questlove on.

[148] Yes, we do have to talk about this.

[149] Questlove, is it fair to say, a devotee of this podcast?

[150] I didn't know that.

[151] And that's quite humbling, I think.

[152] He's one of those connoisseurs of, well, obviously, seems like one of a hyper -cooled person.

[153] Absolutely.

[154] And he's always curating music playlists for people and telling people what to listen to.

[155] 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 hi 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 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.

[156] Okay.

[157] I didn't explain that well.

[158] You thought Tommy Tuberville was a children's cartoon character.

[159] Literally a, literally he is.

[160] Yeah, literally a tuba.

[161] Here comes Tommy.

[162] Topperville.

[163] No, he doesn't, he's trying to make sure that no one can.

[164] You would care about this.

[165] Women in the military.

[166] Time well spent.

[167] That's good.

[168] That's good.

[169] Well, I'm sorry.

[170] I'd have to explain things to Sona.

[171] He doesn't want any social issues.

[172] I'm not getting at you.

[173] Okay.

[174] Oh, you're mad at me. You brought him up.

[175] You brought him up talking about Questlove.

[176] Do you want me to back up and not talk about Tommy Tuberville?

[177] No, it's too late now.

[178] Isn't it also Tuberville?

[179] Well, I thought it was too.

[180] And then I listened to a podcast and they called him Tuberville.

[181] What?

[182] podcast did you listen to?

[183] It's called mispronunciations.

[184] I thought it might be.

[185] No, apparently I was convinced it was tuberville and then I've heard several things where they call him Tuberville.

[186] How I'm part of this problem.

[187] Yeah, exactly.

[188] So you guys, you're really helping, by the way.

[189] Anyway, very controversial senator at the moment and irritating a lot of people.

[190] Anyway, that's not the point.

[191] The point is most people have a quick intro.

[192] Hi, my name is Harrison Ford and I feel shitty about being Conan O 'Brien's friend.

[193] And then we move on.

[194] Questlove came on and was aware that the record is held by Jeff Goldblum's second appearance.

[195] Jeff Goldblum's second appearance where Jeff went on and on and on and on.

[196] And it was it was that for a long time.

[197] And then Questlove came in on a mission to defeat Jeff Goldblum's record.

[198] And the question is, did he?

[199] No. Wow.

[200] He went on forever.

[201] I agree.

[202] 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.

[203] Yes.

[204] So that he can beat it.

[205] Well, because Goldblum got to, in fairness, Goldblum got to try one out, and then he came in and he mastered the whole thing.

[206] Yeah, but I'm still shocked because, as you know, Questlove really stretched it out to the point that I left and I did some welding on a 1966 Volkswagen Beetle.

[207] You also recorded another podcast episode with a totally different guest.

[208] Yeah, and I made a margarita pizza from scratch.

[209] And built the oven that I cooked it in and then came back in and Questlove was still going.

[210] I got a great idea.

[211] What?

[212] Two podiums, two people, two intros.

[213] Yes.

[214] Same time.

[215] Goldblum, Questlove.

[216] Yes.

[217] And third one, Tuberville.

[218] I'm sorry.

[219] And it's just all him explaining how his name's pronounced.

[220] Yeah.

[221] And why he thinks women shouldn't be allowed to leave, get military leave to take care of their female health issues.

[222] Yes, sorry.

[223] And sorry, Tuberville, but...

[224] No, don't apologize to him.

[225] He can suck it.

[226] Exactly.

[227] Well, guess what?

[228] He could suck my dick.

[229] Oh, I wasn't expecting that.

[230] Oh, I'm sorry.

[231] Wow, we were just gone for three weeks and you have a cock?

[232] The things...

[233] And that comes up now?

[234] It just grew.

[235] I don't know how, but it just grew.

[236] Oh, please tell me. I thought you were going to say, like, his shaved little baby arm.

[237] Oh, nice.

[238] Please.

[239] Don't, let's not that, let's not get that rumor out there.

[240] Good Lord, we all know.

[241] Full articulating fingers.

[242] No one has big dick energy like Conan O 'Brien.

[243] You shave to get, be more aerodynamic on a bike?

[244] I'm making this all up.

[245] Oh, okay.

[246] It was, it's that.

[247] And, yeah, I wanted to be able to ride without a shirt and without pants and have no aerodynamic drag.

[248] Okay.

[249] That sounds dangerous.

[250] Wait, so you have no pants on, so, meaning your little guy is flapping in the Well, first of all, not a little guy, quite average to B -plus.

[251] I get a solid B -plus A -minus.

[252] But isn't that going to cause some drag?

[253] I get a lot of compliments in the past from my girlfriends with glaucoma.

[254] Anyway, no, I cut a hole in the seat.

[255] So it slides in there, yeah.

[256] And then sometimes when I'm stopped at a light, I just sort of wiggle it around a little bit.

[257] And it feels fantastic.

[258] What if you get aroused on the way?

[259] Why?

[260] That's the whole point.

[261] Do you a wheelie?

[262] Yeah.

[263] Yeah.

[264] Let's start the episode.

[265] I forgot my kickstand.

[266] No problem.

[267] Hi.

[268] It's...

[269] Oh, my God.

[270] My name's Dick Joke Johnson.

[271] That's the kind of stuff you can expect from the witty and urbane, Conan O 'Brien.

[272] Let's get into this and let's hear, you got to check this out, because I do love this gentleman and you also have to hear his intro.

[273] They already have.

[274] Oh, right.

[275] I forgot how the podcast works.

[276] You never knew how the podcast worked.

[277] I'll listen to it one day.

[278] I'm just not a fan of it.

[279] the host.

[280] I get it.

[281] Yeah.

[282] Anyway, I do love this guy.

[283] My guest today is a Grammy award -winning musician, record producer, and co -founder and drummer of the hip -hop group The Roots.

[284] Doesn't he also have an Oscar?

[285] Yeah, I think he does.

[286] Who's doing the research around here?

[287] What's mentioned is Grammy but not his Oscar?

[288] God, I'm glad I'm on the ball.

[289] I'm very excited he's here today.

[290] Questlo, welcome.

[291] I go to New York occasionally, and when I'm in New York, we get whoever's available in New York.

[292] We've been wanting to talk.

[293] you for a long time you were available and then uh 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 a mistake no what but b fine i'm fine with that i'm glad you're saying is your excuse today conan yeah we'll handle it from here all right i'll pipe down no man it's it's it's important you know yeah you're fine with being here i have so many questions for them and you know but this is nice well yeah i like this is this This is, when you're on this podcast, it's your podcast.

[294] So feel free to ask them anything you want.

[295] But are we really going to be friends?

[296] Yeah.

[297] Do you want that?

[298] I honestly want it, yes.

[299] Okay.

[300] I'm in.

[301] If, okay, so the transition week of you doing the last of late night.

[302] Yep.

[303] Taking over the Tonight Show.

[304] Yeah, before we came in, we as in the Fallon people.

[305] Yep.

[306] Came to do it.

[307] You were like walking in the hall.

[308] way and whatever.

[309] And instantly, you know, you know, like when people feel like they know someone, sort of like a poster on the wall, whatever, like, you don't know them, but they feel like they knew you.

[310] And instantly, I was like, oh, man, me and me and Conner got to get along famously.

[311] This is going to be awesome.

[312] And then I turned a corner, even though I've been on your show maybe three to four times.

[313] You've been on three times with the roots.

[314] Yeah.

[315] And, but I don't know why I never took into account that you're a giant.

[316] Or maybe.

[317] Or maybe.

[318] You've been on three times with the roots.

[319] Yeah.

[320] And, and, but I don't know, but I don't know why I never Maybe because maybe I'm sitting behind a drum set.

[321] Yep.

[322] And I didn't take into account how tall you were.

[323] And plus, you know, I'm on, that's when being on television was like really like a big deal.

[324] So I wasn't in my right mind.

[325] Now it's just like, okay, I'll show up.

[326] But I saw you walking down the hallway and instantly I just started to shrink.

[327] Like, oh, no, he's too tall to be, he's too tall to be my friend.

[328] You know what's so funny that you say that is, well, you've been with me, Sona.

[329] it's the only thing people talk about when I walk around I do see I get that all the time and people act like I've lied to them so when I go through like security checkpoints people people are like hey man fuck you I didn't know you were this tall it's like I didn't 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 that where is this going You two have a common analogy.

[330] And it's not hair.

[331] It's not hair.

[332] It's your...

[333] It's a little bit hair.

[334] Both of you are tall.

[335] Like, even he, I didn't know that he was tall.

[336] How tall is he?

[337] Yeah, he's a big guy.

[338] He was like 6 -4?

[339] Is he really?

[340] No, no, no, no, no, no. Dude, his son, old boy is like 6 -8 already.

[341] He's like, what, 12 years old?

[342] He's parents, huge.

[343] No, no, but no, but no, Trump is not 6 -4, but the thing is...

[344] What's that?

[345] 6 -3.

[346] Yeah, and there's a big difference between 6 -3 and 6 -6 -4.

[347] It's an incalculable difference.

[348] When my aphros out, when my afros out, people think I'm like six three, six four.

[349] I'm like six two, maybe six one and a half.

[350] You say, I'm just keeping track here.

[351] You're fine.

[352] Quote, fine with being my friend.

[353] And you likened me to Donald Trump in my approachability.

[354] And Charlie Brown.

[355] And Charlie Brown.

[356] You know what it is?

[357] Okay.

[358] We're going to wrap this up very soon.

[359] Right.

[360] I told you guys.

[361] I'm warning you guys what you're in for.

[362] No, I'm pretty much going to be either the Tricks Rabbit or the cuckoo.

[363] What's the Coco Pell's?

[364] Cuckoo for Cucopuffs.

[365] Sonny?

[366] He has a name.

[367] Wow, Van Pelt and Sunny.

[368] Wait, how is his name Sunny?

[369] I don't think the cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

[370] Was he a name?

[371] Sonny.

[372] I know because I take my sugar cereals.

[373] Sonny, the cuckoo bird.

[374] That's insane that you know that.

[375] I don't know what to say.

[376] not proud.

[377] It's the same thing.

[378] It just lives there like Van Pelt.

[379] I was just thinking the same thing when you said Lucey.

[380] Uh, but no excuse me. I'm sorry, but you shouldn't know the name.

[381] Do you know Captain Crunch's little sidekicks?

[382] Sure.

[383] Smetley.

[384] The soggy's.

[385] Oh, the side.

[386] Well, I know Smetley's the elephant.

[387] Oh, yes.

[388] There's right.

[389] Yeah.

[390] Well, Smetley was for peanut butter crunch, wasn't he?

[391] Maybe.

[392] And then Jim Bacchis did Captain's voice, right?

[393] Okay.

[394] Jim, wait.

[395] Okay.

[396] Am I ruining this show by rabbit holeing you guys?

[397] No, no, no, no. And this is a good, and by the way, we're going to play this for a neurologist later.

[398] Yeah.

[399] And we're going to come back.

[400] We're going to come back with your diagnosis, and then we're going to get you on the right medicine.

[401] Well, my whole point, my whole point was, my whole point was that each, each serial commercial starts the same.

[402] Like, those guys try to be cool, common collective about it.

[403] And then midway in the plot, then they lose their excitement and suddenly you realize you have a crazy person on you.

[404] your hand.

[405] So that's exactly, which is why I ask you, are these guys into microdosing at all or edibles?

[406] Yeah.

[407] My answer was no, right?

[408] What?

[409] Your answer for yourself?

[410] No. My answer was, I'm into it.

[411] You're, you're not into it.

[412] I'm square that way, yes.

[413] I burned myself out in my 30s.

[414] We talked about this on the way in today.

[415] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[416] Well, next, all right, appearance number four, I like the way that I'm already manifesting my, I want to be the Sanger -Bernhardt to your letterman.

[417] So, trust me. Wait, and also, in my house, alienating your demographic with all these old -ass references.

[418] No, no, let me quickly ask you, what is your go -to kid cereal?

[419] Peanut Butter Captain Crunch all day.

[420] It is fucking fantastic, that stuff.

[421] It is amazing.

[422] Do you know about the history of cereal?

[423] Do you know why cereal was invented?

[424] Was this the Kellogg don't masturbate stuff?

[425] Yes.

[426] Yes.

[427] I'm a little bit familiar with this story, but since you began, go ahead.

[428] Oh, that's all I basically know.

[429] Well, he was the seven -day Kellogg's was a seven -day eventist guy, He had a wife, and I guess even they slept in separate sleeping quarters.

[430] They adopted their children.

[431] Separate vaginas.

[432] Yeah.

[433] Oh, God, am I going to get canceled after this appearance?

[434] No. You're being canceled during the appearance.

[435] So what happens is I guess he feels as though the whatever is used to make beef, whatever drugs are injected in the cow or the pig.

[436] whatever, that it's making America closer to that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[437] Yep.

[438] And so he figures that a vegetarian diet will cause us to stop procreating and fucking.

[439] And so he invents a tasty counterpart to stop us from masturbating, which is cornflakes.

[440] Yeah.

[441] Well, the original slogan for cornflakes was now with 30 % less fucking.

[442] 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 neither Steve Higgins nor Lauren Michaels believes me when I tell them that I want to intern at S &L the only other person that I know that interned at SNL as a figure do you know that Paul Thomas Anderson and yeah what like what like eight weeks or nine weeks or whatever i believe this is how him and Maya met but i've heard that he hung out there i didn't know i heard the young 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'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 and wants to work here and it's like yeah he does and so he Work there for like half a year.

[443] And so I, me, myself, like, I love working at 30 Rock.

[444] Yep.

[445] Well, one, I love working there.

[446] And I love my job.

[447] But I just love watching the machinery how things work.

[448] 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.

[449] I think that all those years, and I'm not kidding, I kind of just wanted to be in the band.

[450] They had the better job.

[451] Do you sense that at all ever, like, you know?

[452] Absolutely, because, okay, I don't, I think any other musician would see it as like, whatever, like, you guys reached a pinnacle or a mountaintop, like you made it to, you know, America's living room or whatever.

[453] I'll say that at best, we as a unit, as a band are our best when we're working out in the gym.

[454] Now, before the tonight show, I mean, the basic story of the roots is, is that, you know, right out of high school, we started busking on street corners.

[455] like around 91, 92.

[456] You're playing like buckets, right?

[457] 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.

[458] If you've seen, she just got nominated for Best Actors, Cape Blanchett and Tar.

[459] Oh, Tarra, yeah.

[460] So the Institute that built that woman, that's what my dad wanted for me. Good choice.

[461] Yeah, Curtis Institute is one like the most hardest difficult musical.

[462] Can I jump in one second and just say, this is interesting to me because your dad, famously, is part of this doo -op band.

[463] Yeah, my dad was like a Philadelphia do -op legend back in the 50s.

[464] Yeah, Lee Andrews in the hearts and killer, do -up, Ben.

[465] It's interesting to me that your dad is pushing you towards this classical thing when he's from du -up.

[466] So, okay, here's the thing about black people, especially we would traumatize black people.

[467] we will always like because we're in a constant fight or flight situation we're always going to choose safety first right so in his mind it was like if you join uh sort of like an institution that's like classical music and we're also big on like respectable politics like you know wear a suit and tie that sort of thing then you'll get a good job so in his mind like hey you one day you too 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 owns the stadium that acts playing like why are you dreaming so small for me and not for myself so that's a whole other 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's 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 um either juliar or curtis and so i trained as such you know for the first six years of my life I went to one performing art school, and then they took me out during, like, middle school to early high school to go to this, like, this college prep thing that would instantly make me, like, Harvard material.

[468] See, we could have been friends there, or whatever.

[469] So, I didn't have friends there.

[470] And that's the episode.

[471] We're all laughing.

[472] Yeah, well.

[473] We're all laughing at you.

[474] Look, wherever Charlie Brown goes, he's still fucking Charlie Brown.

[475] Okay, so there was a famous local dance show in Philadelphia called Dancing on Air.

[476] Kelly Roper used to dance on the show.

[477] So this was sort of like our local soul tree.

[478] So my best friend in the high school and I really like, damn, I feel stupid to say and fancied these two girls as if you fancied them.

[479] You know why you fancied him?

[480] Because it was 1882.

[481] and you had your you put on your best celluloid collar and you bought her some posies and you fancied her did you have that bicycle with the giant front wheel?

[482] And then I knew her on prom night no no no sorry no you ate your cereal to keep yourself innocent yeah the early season of being a sociopath we wrote these girls you know they you know they would read like fan letters on the air and whatnot And so we wrote our respective targets, and my target got back to me, right?

[483] My best friend's target did not get back to him, and I saw a moment where I could use this opportunity to my advantage.

[484] His target went to the high school creative and performing arts, which was basically the public version of the fame school.

[485] Yep, yep.

[486] The LaGuardi School, if you have younger listeners, high school musical.

[487] and so dude does he have younger listeners anyway do I have younger listeners yes we finally met a 48 year old who loves the show can I just ask one thing about her laughter I think the thing that attracts me to that makes her the star of the show yes oh she has a Nelson like yes laughter like she's laughing with us but she's also kind of laughing at us?

[488] Yeah.

[489] I'm laughing with you.

[490] I'm laughing at him.

[491] Yes.

[492] She laughs at me, but she laughs with the people who are on the show.

[493] Um, I saw this as an app because I didn't want to go to the college prep school.

[494] Right.

[495] Even though I've been playing, uh, professionally with my father since I was a kid.

[496] My first gig was at Radio City musical like at the age of 12.

[497] I know this story because he, his drummer like hurt his arm.

[498] Motorcycle accent.

[499] Yeah.

[500] And, and, and, and your dad, said, hey, a kid, get up there.

[501] You know the show, right.

[502] Yeah, and you were like, all right, and it's Radio City Musical.

[503] Right.

[504] I wasn't nervous at all, but the sort of antidote to that is that the second I got offstage, I wasn't into, and I'm band leading, like, adults, and I'm 12 years old.

[505] Right.

[506] And I'm band leading, but, you know, I could play like adult since I was five.

[507] I get off stage and I walk backstage, and this black woman says, oh, my God, young man, that was awesome.

[508] That was right.

[509] I said, you're Susan from Sesame Street.

[510] She's like, indeed I am.

[511] My husband was playing keyboards.

[512] And I was like, yeah.

[513] And I threw a vest.

[514] You know, those Sesame Street people got that a lot.

[515] I would do that now if I saw someone from Sesame Street.

[516] I'd throw up.

[517] Freak out.

[518] I've heard, you correct me if I'm wrong, that you were.

[519] your parents, you were allowed to watch two shows, Sesame Street and Soul Train.

[520] Yeah, I can only watch PBS and Soul Train.

[521] Which is a pretty cool combination.

[522] Well, they were really strict on anti -television.

[523] I made the hard mistake once.

[524] It was to the point, you know, like, it was postmodern times, and they were pretty much like, he might be impressionable.

[525] And this was the era of, like, you know, Elmer Fudd, just taking a gun and blowing your face off, and then you put a new face on and that sort of thing.

[526] And they didn't want me to be impressionable.

[527] and there is another product placement.

[528] Here you go.

[529] There is an Hawaiian Punch commercial, which you remember, punchy.

[530] Sure.

[531] Is hopping down the block with a bunch of fruit.

[532] And then he goes up to the unsuspecting tourists.

[533] And he's like, hey, how about an honest Hawaiian Punch?

[534] He's like, sure.

[535] And he just, you know, hits him.

[536] So I went to my mother and was like, mom, say sure.

[537] when I ask you a question.

[538] Oh, no. And she's like, huh?

[539] I said, well, is this?

[540] Okay.

[541] So I'm saying, how do you say, show, right?

[542] Okay.

[543] Hey, how about, how about it?

[544] Why I'm punched?

[545] My mom said, sure.

[546] And let's just do the sitcom flip thing.

[547] We'll skip the.

[548] Did you punch your mom?

[549] I beat the shit out.

[550] My mom by accident.

[551] Is that.

[552] He's a kid.

[553] He's a little kid.

[554] How old were you?

[555] 38.

[556] Three.

[557] I think I was two or three.

[558] Oh, yeah.

[559] So then no more television.

[560] No more television.

[561] But thankfully, I grew up in a house with about 3 ,000 albums.

[562] And three very distinct record collectors.

[563] So all I knew was music.

[564] And I was allowed to watch music programs, which is also weird because my parents are nightclub entertainers.

[565] And they didn't believe in babysitters.

[566] So thus, I had to go to work with them.

[567] Even though my bedtime was like 8 .30 as a kid, as a 3, 4, 5 year old.

[568] They would wake me up at midnight or at 12 .30 and I'd watch like the second performance on SNL.

[569] In Philadelphia, Soul Train was not a 12 in the afternoon experience.

[570] It was a 1 a .m. Depending on the cultural sensitivity of whoever the programming director was, put this on at 1 in the morning or 2 in the morning.

[571] So that's how Soul Train to me is a 1am after SNL experience.

[572] So back then, it's very hard to describe.

[573] but you watched what was on.

[574] But I remember, like, Soul Train would come on and be like, I'm watching this.

[575] And, you know, here I am, this little red -haired girl watching in Boston with a bowl haircut.

[576] Wait, your freedom is a little red -haired girl.

[577] I am.

[578] Her natural born curly hair.

[579] Yeah, it wasn't curly.

[580] But I would just watch Soul Train, and my brothers would come in and we're like, this is what's happening.

[581] And, you know, man, Don Cornelius is cool.

[582] He looks like the coolest guy in the world.

[583] So, yeah, I was allowed to watch it.

[584] Anyway, let me, we rabbit hole.

[585] 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, you know, to tell your parents you want to go to a public school and that sort of thing after they've done invested in like the best education to get you in, you know, this institution.

[586] You know, it was a hell merry throw, but they fell for it.

[587] 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.

[588] prom.

[589] You're a good friend.

[590] I was a great friend.

[591] I still don't know why a high school student would occasionally work in the office.

[592] Like, I don't know how that works, but it was her job to hand out school tokens.

[593] We would get like free bus tokens to get back because we didn't have like a school bus system.

[594] And so I was standing in line and in front of me was kind of like a dream weaver moment like with a prettiest 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.

[595] And I'm the human version of hashtag, well, actually...

[596] Oh, no. You remember when the Smurfs when Brainy would say, well, actually, but then seconds later, they tossed him in the trash cave.

[597] I was that guy.

[598] I was like, well, actually, that was a B -side, a Japanese import B -side, which is longer than the album version.

[599] No, no, no, no, no. You're Linus.

[600] Right, right.

[601] Like, the four girls just looked at me like, no one asked you.

[602] I was just trying my heart as to, like, impress them with anything that probably maybe two months later, I interjected myself again in a conversation I shouldn't have.

[603] And I said, well, no, no, it was that song because, you know, we sampled that last night.

[604] And they were, like, sample where?

[605] I was, you know, at the studio.

[606] And it was like, who?

[607] I said, me and my group.

[608] Who's in your group?

[609] And literally, the way that Tarik and I met, like, it's somewhere between, like, a tale of two cities and...

[610] You know what?

[611] Can I just say something?

[612] This is a common sitcom plot of, I got to impress the girl, you're chatting, you get in over your head, you say, my group, your group, yeah.

[613] We're in the studio.

[614] We want to see you play.

[615] Sure, next week.

[616] And then you run, you run down the hall.

[617] Guys, we got to form a band.

[618] That is literally how I'm in this chair right now.

[619] Oh, my God.

[620] Now, the thing was, Tariq really had an insane gift for talking off the top of his head.

[621] I knew that he had a gift for doing that, and he just happened to walk by, and I was like, oh, with him.

[622] So then I went to the next two periods of class, like an orchestra, and somewhere in orchestra class, I thought about it.

[623] I said, nah, I got to warn him.

[624] Put, like, fly to the bumble being here, like, and the lunch room is on the eighth floor.

[625] I'm in the basement, so literally, sorry, lady.

[626] And there's no, excuse me. Like, watch it there.

[627] We're two guys carrying a plate of glass.

[628] Right.

[629] And you missed it.

[630] And then someone else walked through it.

[631] I ran to the cafeteria.

[632] And I was like, yeah, if anyone ask, we're a group.

[633] And he was literally, cool him.

[634] I'm going.

[635] And that is how the roots were born.

[636] That's fantastic.

[637] We're also in school the same time that boys to men.

[638] are becoming boisterment.

[639] It's literally like they're in the bathroom harmonizing and, you know, they won every contest.

[640] They would, like, cheat and put, like, glitter in their hands and do something like that.

[641] And girls would be like, and I'm like, no. Like, Nate cheats in calculus class.

[642] Like, you're falling for that.

[643] Like, all I have to do is have some glitter in my hand and do that Michael Jackson three -handed point thing.

[644] Yep, yep.

[645] Do a bunch of that.

[646] I did it for a while in my monologue on the late -night show.

[647] 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 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 at radio like 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.

[648] It has to go to rehab.

[649] So you'll fill in Joey D. Francesco at the age of 16.

[650] Like, that's just how it was.

[651] So we graduated and now it's like, well, okay, I guess I got to live my dad's dream and audition for Juilliard.

[652] So I auditioned for the new school and for Juilliard in around like 92.

[653] Tarek 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 gray Poupon commercial or that last scene in Dumb and Dumber.

[654] The world's most beautiful woman.

[655] It's always a beautiful woman behind this thing.

[656] And it's a slow motion walk to me. Now, here's the thing.

[657] The previous year is when boys to men started to blow up.

[658] They came out in the box with a single called Motown, Philly.

[659] And, of course, they're, you know, calling up their high school friends.

[660] Hey, be in the video, whatever.

[661] So they asked me to play drums in that video.

[662] So I milked those 1 .9 seconds.

[663] Wait, let me rephrase it.

[664] Tarik milk those 1 .9 seconds because literally, like, after the video became like heavy rotation on MTV, we'd be ready to go out for whatever.

[665] And he just look at me like, what are you doing?

[666] And I'm like, what?

[667] He's like, come on, man, put the shirt on.

[668] I was like, come on, dude.

[669] Oh, like the same shirt?

[670] Yes.

[671] That entire summer, I had to dress in the exact outfit that I...

[672] Of course she did.

[673] The way of your stay was wearing.

[674] No, it's true.

[675] I'd have had a t -shirt made that would say, or I'd wear a hat that say, yes, I'm that guy from one minute, 32 seconds.

[676] The entire summer of 1991, I'd have to put on the hoodie, that dingy -ass t -shirt, those Ash -Kosh -Bogash thing, and walk up and down, South Street, we would do like nine rotations and, you know, wait, ain't you there?

[677] Oh my God, that's a little, and Tariq would take their numbers down and everything.

[678] And that's literally like our social, you know, the way your staff is holding their hearts right now.

[679] Yeah.

[680] I feel like such a dweeb.

[681] Not at all.

[682] 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.

[683] like I didn't want to become that guy but suddenly I noticed like oh the magic's not working anymore like it's not working there's no clitter in my hand anymore right so the world's most beautiful woman walks up to me and Tariq and she's like you're the drummer and the Spike Lee Levi's commercial right now there's a guy there's a bucket drummer the guy that pioneered the idea when you see street musicians bucket drumming.

[684] His name is Chocley.

[685] He's from D .C. He moved to New York and he was, you know, playing buckets and whatnot.

[686] And Spike Lee saw him and put him in a Levi.

[687] So now he's the new drummer of the moment.

[688] Like, he's in the Mariah Carey video and I'm a little jealous.

[689] Like, oh, damn.

[690] You're like, those are buckets.

[691] I got to find a new drummer.

[692] So she's like, are you the drummer in the Spike Lee Levi's commercial?

[693] And I was like, no, I'm not.

[694] That's where you and I are different.

[695] And you...

[696] I just said, yes, I am.

[697] And you are a black thought of the roots.

[698] I am Tariq.

[699] And just like that commercial in Dumb and Dumber, she's like, oh, okay.

[700] And she walks back and got off the next stop.

[701] And Tariq was just looked like, I felt the you asshole.

[702] riding an idiot he kept right he kept riding the whole time calling them up people and next day we're uh we crashed in my parents crib living room next day soul train's on the commercials on and then that becomes like our our doc brown flex capacitor sitcom sort of like you look at each other and why don't we do that literally that commercial came on it's like well why don't we do that and literally an hour later like we're grabbing buckets and everything sneaking out and we went on south street if we didn't make a hundred and twenty dollars 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 uh condiment packages and that's a date you know make your own see on yes we we go to like the park or whatever and here you have some Lunch meat.

[703] Oh, my God.

[704] That line never worked for me. It's the way you say it.

[705] How'd you like some lunch meat?

[706] No, no. It never worked.

[707] The way you see.

[708] If you're from Philadelphia, if you're from the tri -state, Wawa is a religion.

[709] So for five bucks, you can buy like a half gallon of lemonade, a whole bunch of turkey meat, some pepper jack cheese, some bread, and steal the condiments.

[710] And I'm writing this down.

[711] Right.

[712] Me now at my age Excuse me there, young lady Questlove has given me the following lists And I have all these items Right, so you would You would do that No, and that was like romantic And movies were cheap back then If you see it before 6pm You can see the mat name for like, you know, whatever That was date night money So we were like, hell yeah, we're doing this again Told my friend about it the next week And he's a bass player in my jazz class and he's like, well, you guys are going to do it again?

[713] I was like, yeah.

[714] He's like, well, can I join you guys?

[715] Sure.

[716] Now, he drives.

[717] I didn't drive.

[718] He drives with the station wagon.

[719] His dad's station wagon.

[720] He shows up, and he has his upright base in the back, and I'm getting my buckets.

[721] He's like, well, dude, I got the station wagon, so get your real drums.

[722] And I was like, oh, man, my dad will kill me. I can't do that.

[723] He's like, well, he's not home.

[724] I said, yeah, you're right.

[725] So I snuck, you know, very stealth operation of loading my drums in the station wagon.

[726] and that's literally how the roots were born.

[727] This is your origin story.

[728] 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...

[729] For a guy that didn't watch television.

[730] Clearly, you did.

[731] Or something happened.

[732] Oh, I made up for it.

[733] Yeah, you made up for it.

[734] But I'm, you know, to me, what really speaks to is that you're drawing on so much you're drawing on so much I feel like you have no boundaries in a great way you'll like yeah I was like wait a minute don't send me to HR not 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 bumblebee to Al Bundy yeah it's flight of the bumblebee Al Bundy gray Poupon this guy from a from a cereal commercial do you know this historical reference it's all over the 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.

[735] And it's almost like there's no connection and also a thousand connections.

[736] It's really cool.

[737] Yeah, rewind the three hours of that story.

[738] Wait a minute.

[739] I don't even think the origin story was what let me hear.

[740] Who's the rabbit hole remember?

[741] I told the story.

[742] Okay, so here's a deal.

[743] Here's a deal.

[744] About late night.

[745] Yeah.

[746] Damn, I'm good.

[747] Okay.

[748] So because 92 was kind of the, I hate giving biblical references, but I mean, that's kind of hip -hop's biting of the apple when they saw that they were naked.

[749] Pretty much Dr. J. released the chronic, which was kind of the first time that a credible person of pedigree and hip -hop did big numbers.

[750] Yep.

[751] I mean, 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.

[752] you know, that sort of thing, or he's not that good.

[753] You're saying Vanilla Ice didn't invent hip hop.

[754] No, he didn't.

[755] Wait a minute.

[756] I've been told of, I think you're wrong.

[757] Rewin the tape.

[758] Rewind the tape.

[759] Let's see.

[760] I'm certain he did.

[761] I'm certain he did.

[762] You two would know.

[763] Matt and I, yes.

[764] Hey, Questlove, we're sorry.

[765] Yes.

[766] But Matt and I are quite certain that Ice Ice Baby was really the beginning of hip hop.

[767] I cannot believe, and I say that with no contractions.

[768] I cannot believe.

[769] Even Eduardo is horrified right now.

[770] He's just so embarrassed.

[771] No, no, no, no, I'm going to tell you.

[772] you something.

[773] There are two Ices in his name.

[774] It's a thing.

[775] It's a legal thing.

[776] If you have two ices, you're the inventor of hip -hop.

[777] It's like 007.

[778] He earned those kills.

[779] Look, I'm going to tell you something as a DJ that is definitely logged in, probably, you know, my, my Gladwellian 10 ,000 hour thing is probably in the sevens now.

[780] I probably DJ 70 hours.

[781] So you say.

[782] So you say.

[783] 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 got shot for that shit like back in yeah 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 to this is not just hip hop where it's like do you do you do art from your heart or do you got to survive?

[784] And again, I already told you about fight or flight and the needs to survive.

[785] So, of course, everyone followed suit and there was just a whole giant rush to make it.

[786] And so as a result, that left the center weirdo hip hop train left the station.

[787] The train that de la soul was on in a tribe called Quest and the rest of development and digible planets.

[788] They left the station.

[789] We had to wait there at the platform for another five years.

[790] If we stayed in America, we wouldn't have made it.

[791] So thus, we had to, we called it pulling a Hendricks.

[792] So the way that we kind of pulled the Hendricks is also an epic.

[793] I know he's even to ask one question yet.

[794] So am I taking over this interview?

[795] I haven't, I've left the room three times.

[796] Okay, fine.

[797] And I got all those ingredients that you gave me. I went to the, a Ralph's.

[798] But let me just say to our listeners, just pulling a Hendricks, Jimmy Hendricks, it wasn't making it here.

[799] and went to London in like 66 and teamed up with two white guys with funny haircuts and became Jimmy Hendricks in the experience and there he blew up.

[800] Came back a god, right.

[801] Came back a god.

[802] He went to the gym to work out and came back a god.

[803] So we signed the Geffen because they're success with Guns and Roses, with Nirvana, and with Aerosmith.

[804] and by the time the top of 94 comes, Arrowsmith leaves Geffen to go back to Columbia.

[805] It's very obvious that Guns and Roses is not going to have a follow -up record in the next two or three decades.

[806] Yes.

[807] Axel had to take his time and really work it out.

[808] Right.

[809] And so, April of 94, my manager calls me up.

[810] And this is like early in the morning.

[811] And he's like, dude, we're fucked.

[812] And I was like, what?

[813] He's like, you didn't hear what happened?

[814] I was like, no. He's like, turn on it.

[815] And literally, Kurt Loder is announcing that Kirk Cobain killed himself.

[816] Yeah.

[817] And my manager of mine, he's like, wait, there's no more Guns and Roses or Aerosmith and now Nirvana, the three pillars that are financially holding that label up.

[818] Right.

[819] And he's like, we're going to get dropped from this label before it even starts because they didn't have a black department or a rap department.

[820] And so it's like, okay, what do we got to do?

[821] What are we got to do to survive?

[822] So we did something that's almost akin to.

[823] to, if you remember, um, you remember in, um, in ghost when, like, Wolpy Goldberg.

[824] I never know what's coming.

[825] No, me, yeah.

[826] It's so fascinating.

[827] Every time you say, okay, you know how, I don't know if it's going to be a chocolate milk commercial, an Eisenhower reference, but now we're in ghost.

[828] Yes.

[829] And what happens in what be goldberg?

[830] You remember when Patrick Shwayze tells Wolfie Goldberg to go to the bank and you're going to, you know, he's given her instructions.

[831] She's shutting the.

[832] counts down.

[833] So we kind of had a similar situation.

[834] There is...

[835] Also, that's a scene from Ghost that nobody references.

[836] It's not the making of the pot with Demi Moore.

[837] It's, you know the part in Ghost?

[838] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[839] The sexy scene.

[840] No, no, no, no. The bank transaction.

[841] You know the bank transaction from Ghost?

[842] No. So...

[843] No, I don't.

[844] What it was...

[845] What it was was that, um, So we were like, we're going to get dropped.

[846] So we have to make a move.

[847] We found a loft to living at London.

[848] Yep.

[849] And that's where we worked out at the gym.

[850] So we did this for 18 years.

[851] I mean, people will say like, oh, you guys were the fish of hip -hop with a grateful dead of hip -hop.

[852] But it's like we were dependable and responsible.

[853] So our job was to stand by in the waiting room.

[854] And then it was good survival, but it really wasn't conducive for like having, a steady relationship.

[855] Yeah.

[856] They're kids in the factor now and, you know.

[857] So we, around like 2009, it was sort of like, man, we wish like a Celine Dion situation would happen that with...

[858] A residency.

[859] Yeah, a residency.

[860] And so we just got to the mountain top of, like, making good money, like, we finally made it.

[861] And it's like, do we just turn our back on this and try something unproven?

[862] And we did it.

[863] I will say that for us, that was what was.

[864] we need it to actually bond and be friends again.

[865] There's a moment, I know I'm loquacious.

[866] Give me a safe word, like pineapple or something if I'm talking too much.

[867] Like, I see you're turning maroon right now.

[868] No, I'm good.

[869] That says normal color.

[870] That's just me. When you see, I just, those are called veins in my head.

[871] Okay.

[872] That's how white I am.

[873] So there's a moment that happened around 2006, maybe three years before we did Fallon.

[874] And we're on tour with the Chili Peppers.

[875] And it's the European tour.

[876] And they're playing like soccer stadium.

[877] I'm sorry, post -lasso football stadiums.

[878] Right.

[879] And, you know, it's like 80 ,000 to 120 ,000 a night.

[880] And every three to four songs, those guys get into sort of a football magic circle huddle.

[881] And by the fourth time they do this, I'm thinking like, oh, they're going to call an audible and change up the set list.

[882] And then they go back to their instruments.

[883] And then I have the set list in my hand.

[884] I'm like, wait, they didn't change anything.

[885] They didn't change the arrangement.

[886] So I'm waiting like days down the line.

[887] Like, why do they keep having these little meetings every like five songs and nothing changes from what I know the show to be?

[888] It's like muscle memory.

[889] And so I see Flea in the and catering.

[890] And I'm like, dude, what are you guys talking about when you go into that huddle?

[891] And Flea's like, yo, man, it's like, I don't know, man, we're just, we're so full of gratitude.

[892] Like, we're just four guys that, you know, we met each other when we were 13 and, you know, we're, we're in the da -da -da -da stadium with 120 ,000 people.

[893] And we're just, we're just showing gratitude to each other.

[894] Like, guys, we really made it.

[895] So this is 2006.

[896] I'm not evolved yet as a human being.

[897] So I get on the tour bus and I'm like, yo, man, the motherfucker is just like, you know, hippie shit like, oh, we're so.

[898] happy to be amongst, you know, like, I'm really just like, ah, being dismissive of it.

[899] Like, oh, yeah, that's what they're doing.

[900] And my manager's like, yeah, well, makes sense.

[901] Like, yeah, I can see that because they like each other.

[902] That's cool.

[903] That's like, yeah, you know.

[904] So I go back and start playing in place.

[905] Wait, what do you mean they actually like each other?

[906] And he's like, I see that.

[907] They actually, I mean, it's not like a good fellow thing.

[908] Like, what do you mean I'm funny?

[909] But it was sort of like, well, what do you mean they actually like each other?

[910] Like, why did you say actually?

[911] He's like, you see the chemistry.

[912] Like, they actually, they fuck with each other.

[913] I could see that.

[914] And I was like, as opposed to what?

[915] He's like, come on, man. And I was like, as opposed to what?

[916] He's like, come on, man, don't make me spell that out.

[917] So what?

[918] He's a man, y 'all don't fuck with each other.

[919] Y 'all just show up.

[920] Y 'all show up.

[921] Maybe y 'all come to sound check.

[922] Y 'all show up at backstage.

[923] Y 'all do it off memory.

[924] You know, you, you're the one to name the tour buses is Gryffindorf and Slytherin.

[925] Like, you.

[926] It was like, you got your own separator buses.

[927] Y 'all don't spend on each other's houses.

[928] Y 'all ain't friends.

[929] Y 'all just business partners.

[930] He's like, it's cool.

[931] Like, keep the peace.

[932] That's funny that you didn't know.

[933] You didn't know.

[934] Well, I thought, look, we been, by that point, we had known, like, we met in 87.

[935] And it's now 2007.

[936] Like, it was 20 years later.

[937] Like, what do you mean we're not friends?

[938] And then I realized.

[939] 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 phallon is jimmy has a way of disarming you and i'll say at least for the first six years like we were perpetual we were 13 year olds we were 13 year olds in adults bodies doing we we could do silly things and not feel like you know like oh we're going to lose our street credit 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 mean i'm quasi spokesperson for the group and so i had to do an interview like with a college paper or something so i went to trail I did my interview.

[940] He came back 20 minutes later.

[941] And we're on UCLA's football field.

[942] And Jimmy, this is going to be my worst reference.

[943] And I'm in my head like, please don't say this reference.

[944] Can we just take a guess around the table what this is going to be first?

[945] You go first.

[946] I'm going to say, save by the bell.

[947] No, I'll give you a hint.

[948] Okay.

[949] The candy.

[950] Willie Ames.

[951] Oh, zapped?

[952] or Charles is chapped God damn you're good Zapped This is why I'm mad's the man Yeah Zapped the movie where Scott Beow can make people's bras fly off It's either that or Charles in charge or Bible man Well no where he first started Which was eight as eight as enough Okay So Jimmy somehow Has talked the roots Into doing An eight man Human period Pyramid A period A human period I don't know as much about Anyone want to weigh in?

[953] Oh God I can 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 Tarique and I are such polar opposites Of each other by this point Tarique is one of those like You know $5 ,000 Japanese dental wearing fascinises, of which I was like, yo, he's really on the bottom row on his knee.

[954] Like, he's ruining his denim.

[955] He would never do this.

[956] He's one of those Jesus Christ, like, not spot nor wrinkle.

[957] Meanwhile, I will go to the White House with, like, mustard stains on my tux.

[958] And I looked at my manager, and I was just like, we're not getting rid of this guy anytime.

[959] and my manager's like we're stuck with him like literally jimmy would not let up until we we committed to him and he just like just did it and so what i'll say is now the amount of uh 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.

[960] All right.

[961] So if your listeners are, everyone knows what HR is.

[962] I know what your demographics are.

[963] I don't.

[964] I have no idea who's listening.

[965] I have no idea what, yeah, I know none of this.

[966] One of the funniest stories that came from the ghost of Conan's late night show.

[967] was they brought all the roots to HR.

[968] So I don't be alarmed, guys.

[969] You didn't do anything.

[970] But, you know, we kind of want to get in front of the train.

[971] So they said to me, I don't even know if I should be saying this.

[972] 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.

[973] Okay.

[974] Am I lightly lightly putting it?

[975] Sure.

[976] I didn't know that.

[977] You know, I was insulated like Nixon.

[978] Crimes were committed.

[979] Compared yourself to Nixon.

[980] In a good way.

[981] Of all people.

[982] In the way he insulated himself.

[983] No, I meant Cynthia Nixon.

[984] Not Richard Nixon.

[985] The way she insulated herself from some of the problems they had on sex in the city.

[986] No, it was like, it went from, first it was like, super you know like take our lunch order to i need you to i guess his wife lived in jersey like drive out to jersey um go with my wife to to do um shopping like supermarket shopping and then it went to like mowing his lawn then eventually it went to light construction no that that was next then no no i'm not lying it went to painting so literally by the end of 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 oh please and so they just said look guys just please keep it to lunch orders only well listen that Major Deegan Expressway got built and I thank Max and those 35 interns the the uh the uh uh well you were there blay you want to weigh in on anything because you know me like Cynthia Nixon I was insulated uh um you know that's enough thank you good point good point I think we put that to bed uh well I'm glad that you I love you Max I'm not throwing you under the bus no no no the construction they did was fantastic we I mean, it's infrastructure, and we need infrastructure.

[987] But you don't know anything about it.

[988] Insulated, like Cynthia Nixon on Sex and the City.

[989] Yes.

[990] All right, now can we start the theme to the...

[991] No, wait.

[992] Can I just ask you, and then we probably have to wrap it up.

[993] What do we have to do, Adam, at some point?

[994] And I at least ensured that I can come back again.

[995] Oh, no, no. Oh, you have no idea.

[996] I want to work here, man. You have no idea.

[997] This is so nice.

[998] Questlove, you are coming back.

[999] You're Chilchum.

[1000] Yeah.

[1001] And also, I...

[1002] We can microdose next time.

[1003] Yeah, we can microdose and you could bring some other people and, um...

[1004] Great.

[1005] I have a driveway that I need paved.

[1006] Great day, man. I'm on it.

[1007] Well, wait a minute.

[1008] I do have to wrap up something about, like, are people actually your friends on the show?

[1009] So the thing is, is that my new New York Times crossword puzzle is actually wordle.

[1010] But...

[1011] Oh, me too.

[1012] world too yeah are you on a group no i don't get i get again i'm insulated i yeah i oh yeah it's your choice i feel like you and i should campaign shut up sona 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 uh uh bateman's uh illustrious uh whirdle club like what they oh j it's like jason baitman and um wait you want you want more time with jason baitman We have a different agenda So I can't help you here Let me not open up another rabbit hole No, but what I do is I make playlists Yes For my friends This is crazy because this is what I wanted to ask you about Okay 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 It started with the Obamas 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 going to freak him out?

[1013] Oh, I do that all the time.

[1014] Like the amount of, he doesn't, he doesn't question much.

[1015] There's a few people are like, did you really mean to put this version of that song on there?

[1016] Like I will lightly troll.

[1017] I'm not trying to troll more than I'm just trying to expand the palate.

[1018] Yep.

[1019] 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.

[1020] Yes.

[1021] And I'm willing to do the musical, metaphorical equivalent of the Shawshank shit crawl and go through, I go through about 500 songs a week, of which maybe seven are cool and add that to the database.

[1022] And these are songs that I believe in, like not like Desert Island disc, but like, Like, I co -sign the song.

[1023] And every part of the song has to be like something that, yeah, this is a great song.

[1024] And yeah, it started with the Obamas.

[1025] And then I added the Carter's.

[1026] I wanted to add people that just had kids.

[1027] So in my mind, when Blue Ivy was born, I was like, okay, I'm going to want you to play this, like, in her crib or in her nursery, whatever.

[1028] And then because if you can reach a kid before six, you can really determine their creativity.

[1029] What I love about this is that when you do this, you do this.

[1030] you were in a very intimate way in the ear of a Barack Obama.

[1031] You're like creating new neural pathways by throwing in a trickser for kids commercial really quickly.

[1032] You're fucking with...

[1033] Whole circle.

[1034] You're screwing with the mind of a president of the United States, which is fascinating to me. I believe that music is sort of nourishing like food and the right song could inspire you to...

[1035] So I do two types of playlist.

[1036] 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.

[1037] And that doesn't mean like, Hey, baby, baby, quiet storm music.

[1038] It's not that.

[1039] But I do an evening set.

[1040] So it started with them.

[1041] And then it was 10.

[1042] And then it was the 50.

[1043] So I think right about now I am.

[1044] Oh, my God.

[1045] That's a lot of scrolling.

[1046] I text 700.

[1047] There's the list of people.

[1048] You might know some of the names.

[1049] Vanilla ice on there?

[1050] Oh, my God.

[1051] There is no Robbie Van Winkle.

[1052] Okay.

[1053] I'm adding vanilla ice.

[1054] I can't believe I'm holding your list, and this is the most impressive lists of names.

[1055] I don't want to, I want to respect people's privacy.

[1056] No, they, I mean, they're, you know, it's.

[1057] Let's hear it.

[1058] Yeah, I just see it.

[1059] Well, I, there's just, I mean, Spike Lee is in here.

[1060] Yeah.

[1061] Which is, uh, and you got Bill Hader.

[1062] Yeah.

[1063] Bill, Bill is a music head.

[1064] 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.

[1065] And I'll be like, I'm on the tour later or something like that.

[1066] But, no, he's.

[1067] Keenan Thompson's in here.

[1068] Rashida Jones.

[1069] Martha Stewart.

[1070] Jesus.

[1071] Yeah.

[1072] Martha is.

[1073] She's come a long way.

[1074] Yeah, no. She's amazing.

[1075] That's my love language.

[1076] So, my question is, will you be 342?

[1077] You bet I will.

[1078] I would be honored.

[1079] I would be honored to be on this list.

[1080] This is such a cool list of people.

[1081] There you go.

[1082] This is absolutely, wow.

[1083] Ron DeSantis.

[1084] I'm surprised to see that name, but I'm glad you're working on the guy.

[1085] For like 2 .3 seconds, I was like, wait.

[1086] How did he get on?

[1087] I would love it.

[1088] I would love it if Ron.

[1089] to Sanis was like, you know, when I'm shipping unsuspecting immigrants to Nantucket, I like to calm down occasionally with Questlove's playlist.

[1090] This is so cool.

[1091] So great.

[1092] Please put me on this.

[1093] Right.

[1094] This means that we're going to have to actually be friends now.

[1095] Yeah.

[1096] So, all right.

[1097] So does he know what to do?

[1098] I know what to do.

[1099] Does he own an iPhone?

[1100] He's going to check with me to make sure his phone number is right.

[1101] Yeah.

[1102] I change my.

[1103] He'll know.

[1104] I change my phone number a lot, constantly.

[1105] No, he doesn't.

[1106] I don't trust people that change their numbers that much.

[1107] I don't.

[1108] I don't change it a lot.

[1109] That's my excuse for...

[1110] Do you have that one professional in which you have to have, like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, three, blah, blah, four?

[1111] There was an era in my life in the 90s when I had like a regular, you know, before these phones, like a flip phone, where my number kept getting out there and fraternities would call me. Oh.

[1112] But it was always, they were always upbeat.

[1113] I was like, dude, he's just calling to New Bride.

[1114] Who would give your number away?

[1115] I don't know.

[1116] And I would say, yeah, it would be me. No, no, they would give my number away.

[1117] And then they would call me, and I'd hear cheering in the background.

[1118] And I had some pretty good conversations.

[1119] I'll bet you did.

[1120] Is someone writing your name, like, in a bathroom stall or something like that?

[1121] They are now.

[1122] For a good time.

[1123] For a lame time.

[1124] This is, you know, I am by law, I must end this at some point.

[1125] But this has been absolutely a treat.

[1126] This is really, no, seriously, you have been, you are hilarious and, and also this has been like a thrill ride of where are we going next and it's been so much fun.

[1127] No, I got, I'm not, it's not hyperbole or anything.

[1128] Like, when I say that this podcast literally, of all the podcast I listen to, like, during the pandemic and especially doing that period in which like, you didn't know if you were coming or going.

[1129] Yeah.

[1130] You know, some of us had a lot of safety.

[1131] Guy like me had safety, but I still had, like, a death every two weeks.

[1132] And I mean, real death, like, I got to pay for the funeral.

[1133] I got to pay for the hospital car, that sort of thing.

[1134] The level of escapism that this podcast brought me. Like, if one day, when 10 years passed and you talk about, like, my pivot, especially doing a whole new medium, directing movies, and all that stuff, like, what kept you saying in a mirror?

[1135] like the the the the the the the the the the ferell uh the will ferell podcast oh god the rabbit whole that episode led to but no literally just the things that i learned on every episode is right this is one of my well that makes me it makes me one of my life achievement moments and i'm not even uh exaggerating so i thank you for it listen uh 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 you going to take that's in there, Eduardo, guys.

[1136] But also, yes, I am.

[1137] But there's something else.

[1138] Whether you want to or not, you're coming back.

[1139] Yes.

[1140] And I'm going to ask you, I think I asked one question this time, and I'll ask you one question next time.

[1141] And by over time, if you come.

[1142] Well, you know everything.

[1143] So we're really friends now.

[1144] So we can.

[1145] You're on the playlist.

[1146] You're on the playlist.

[1147] Yes.

[1148] I'm on the playlist.

[1149] You've made it.

[1150] And, but the thing is, is that when you travel, like, come on dog, you, you You got to.

[1151] Thank you.

[1152] When you travel, man, 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, that's magic circle way that you guys operate.

[1153] That's needed.

[1154] Like, I want a Barack Obama episode.

[1155] Where, guess what?

[1156] Secret service, don't, they don't clear it.

[1157] They do not clear it.

[1158] You have a criminal record.

[1159] I've never been caught with my stealing.

[1160] You have a criminal record.

[1161] I don't have a criminal record.

[1162] That just because I made it.

[1163] You try and get into a room with Barack Obama.

[1164] And that's not going to happen.

[1165] I've been in a criminal.

[1166] room, but just far from him.

[1167] I haven't been able to touch him.

[1168] Trust me, that was not my call.

[1169] You don't understand the people he kept us from when he went back to New York.

[1170] It was almost going to be you.

[1171] Thank God.

[1172] It was angry.

[1173] Yes.

[1174] It's not me. Yes, it is.

[1175] Oh, really?

[1176] And who's going to pay for these flights with all your demands?

[1177] I need seven hotel rooms for the 35 Armenian Greeks that are coming with me. How dare you?

[1178] How dare you?

[1179] True or not true?

[1180] True.

[1181] Yeah.

[1182] Questlove, thank you so much.

[1183] I didn't put my hand up to say, silence, Sona.

[1184] Yes, you did.

[1185] I put it up to say, shut up!

[1186] Which is different than silence.

[1187] Shut up!

[1188] You didn't so much, dude, talk to the hand as shut up to the hand.

[1189] Shut up to the hand.

[1190] We got to wrap this thing up.

[1191] Questlove, please come back soon and come back often.

[1192] Because we have a lot to talk about and get me that music.

[1193] Yes, I will bombard you with the best music.

[1194] And then I'm going to send you my playlist and you will never stop throwing up.

[1195] It was all.

[1196] Thank you guys.

[1197] Put up your overcoat.

[1198] When the wind blows free, take a good.

[1199] Care of yourself.

[1200] You all belong to me. Ode, oh, de, oh, de, oh, eat it up all every day.

[1201] Does it work this way?

[1202] Does it work the other way?

[1203] You know what I love?

[1204] My list I'm going to send to Questlove is that song, and then raindrops keep on.

[1205] And then again, button up your overcoat.

[1206] No BJ Thomas Lander.

[1207] All right, peace out.

[1208] Thank you.

[1209] Conan O 'Brien needs a friend.

[1210] with Conan O 'Brien, Sonam O 'Sessian, and Matt Gourley.

[1211] Produced by me, Matt Gourley.

[1212] Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Nick Liao, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf.

[1213] Theme song by The White Stripes.

[1214] Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.

[1215] Take it away, Jimmy.

[1216] Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples.

[1217] Engineering by Eduardo Perez.

[1218] Additional production support by Mars Melnik.

[1219] talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Brick Conn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode.

[1220] Got a question for Conan?

[1221] Call the Team Coco hotline at 323 -451 -2821 and leave a message.

[1222] It too could be featured on a future episode.

[1223] And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O 'Brien needs a friend on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.