In an interview with ‘Rolling Stone,’ the Roots frontman recalled how the legendary band landed their gig as Jimmy Fallon’s house band.
Jimmy Fallon and Tariq Trotter attend an evening with “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” at The Paley Center for Media on June 7, 2017 in New York City.Noam Galai
The Roots have been Jimmy Fallon’s house band ever since the funnyman began hosting Late Night in 2009. They remained alongside Fallon when he transitioned to hosting The Tonight Show in 2014. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Black Thought recalled how Fallon pursued the legendary Philadelphia crew for the gig. Let’s just say the Saturday Night Live alum was very persistent.
“Man, the way we got the gig, Jimmy was always a huge music nerd,” Thought explained. “He’s a huge, huge Beastie Boys fan. That’s the first band that took the Roots on tour. We learned the ropes from them.”
A year prior to landing the gig on Late Night, Fallon had been told by SNL head honcho that he was going to be hosting the show. That’s when Fallon started coming around The Roots.
“Jimmy came around and said, ‘I’m thinking about doing the Late Night show, and I need a band. Would you guys be interested in doing it?’” Black Thought recalled. “We thought it was bullshit until he kept coming around.”
Fallon started showing up at random Roots shows, and eventually, they started taking him seriously.
Jimmy Fallon and Tariq Trotter attend an evening with “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” at The Paley Center for Media on June 7, 2017 in New York City.
“We would show up at a gig, and he’d be in our dressing room, like, ‘Hey, hey, what’s up? I was serious about what we talked about.’ He was dedicated,” Black Thought shared. “He showed up a bunch of times pitching it.”
He also added that there was an element of instability in the music industry at the time, and having a “side gig” on late night television seemed like it could be a smart move.
“This was around the time that we had just got done working on Dave Chappelle’s show,” he remembered. “It was so much uncertainty at that time that it sounded good to have a day job. But we didn’t want it to mean the end of the Roots.”
Needless to say, things worked out for all involved. Jimmy Fallon and The Roots have been jamming on late night for more than 15 years now.
