Quest Loft Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Ladies and gentlemen.
We promised you all freaking summer that we'd be back, and I told you I was told to never ever make a promise I can't keep. Yet still we're back and we're better than ever. I've gotten rid of the deadweight, no more Boss Bill and unpaid Bill and sure Steve and like I'm kidding, of course, the family's still here, but we're gonna do a little bit different right now. This is officially the return of Quest Loft Supreme. Shout
out to our new family on iHeart Radio. Hello to our new listeners on YouTube, title, Apple, Spotify, wherever you peep your podcast anchor. I will say that right now we are worldwide for the first time a lot of you. We've heard your criest. Yes, we are officially worldwide. We're
not just US and Canada anymore. Another cost for celebration is our guest today, five time Emmy Winner, People's Choice, Webby Writer's Guild, Critics Choice and Grammy Award winning which I tried to make a word out of it, but it was just too many, how many continents exactly more found most importantly our guest today.
Is a comic student.
He is a Saturday Night Live legend, still the coolest late night talk show host, and a New York Times bestselling author. My bud please welcome back to the return of Pestlef Supreme.
James t Coming, Jimmy coming, just coming, Jimmy, Wait, time out? What the hell's tea stand for? T? Here's your middle name, right, Tiberius? No, I was like, what Captain krekn ta is Thomas James Thomas found.
I never knew that we shared a root Thompson Thomas. I did not know you were Thomas. Okay, do you have a middle lip?
You ready?
All right? So it's the pronounced the way that you say it is. Khalib Khalib k h a l i b Amir Khalib Khalib collebib.
Wow.
Yeah. My parents were on some next next when when I was born Khalib Khaleb Thompson Yes, wow, which made me all the more just wanting to have a question mark for my name.
All my life. That's the exactly. But we went through your names once before, like you've had was it always brother, brother quest?
All right? So when we first when the group first started. I was, oh god.
Yeah, you have to dude, that's we all came for somewhere.
I don't want to miss all right, Okay, so oh man, just say it, dude.
Man, it kills me. This is like therapy when you first first my first name.
Was deaf dough money. I want to do something that I normally don't. I never I never do like rapid fire questions on this show. Like it's always like, you know, the conversation yeah, like, oh so you were born in Yes, I know you're born in I'm pretty sure that everyone pretty much knows your backstory. So this is a question. I always wanted to start with. What did you have for breakfast this morning?
I had U pancakes you have in syrup you cook them more, you know, I had. I had a meeting this morning. What time do you wake up? Man? I don't want to wake up, but the kids wake me up. They it's insane right now. I have a six year old and the four and a half year old, and they get in bed around probably four in the morning. Usually wait what I know, and I'm just like, dude, I gotta sleep, but we show biz kids. My wife is like, no, no, they go to sleep at like
seven or at night, but in their room. But then at four in the morning, they walk into our bedroom and come into bed with me and my wife and just want to sleep in the bed with us. And I was like, we got to just tell them no, and they got to go back to the room. My wife's like, they won't do it forever. There's no you know, thirty year old kids sleep with their parents. She's eventually they figure it out. She goes, one day we'll be wanting our kids to come in and send it laying.
So anyways, so they come in around four, I try to I toss and turn till about probably seven, and then we wake up around six thirty seven.
When he's not out of school age now she in first grade.
She's in first grade, and she still wants to get up at six in the morning. Oh yeah, they got up at six in the morning. They play for they're excited and they love it. They play for an hour like all their toys, and then we brush our teeth and that we have breakfast. We usually make them breakfast, but I didn't eat with them because I had to. But normally what I would do is you know what I've been doing is the gross apple cider, vinegar, lemon, hot water. I love that now you do, and I'm
used to it. I'm still not used to it. It's disguis's honestly painful for me, really to drink vinegar every morning. It sounds like torture. Why did we do that to each other?
Or do you put a little bit of honey in it? Yes, and it's still hard.
It's getting better a little bit for me, but I think I was maybe I was putting too much vinegar in mine. Oh okay, I was just drinking like hot vinegar. It was pretty gross. But you do it every day.
I look forward to it.
You do.
Yeah, And I put Kian pepper.
Yeah, I do that never now and then I throw that in there. But anyways, so that's normally I would not have breakfast. I would just have that, but I had a meeting about the show today, so I had to go order something to just be rude.
So your morning routine usually starts at seven, yeah, and then because the thing is is that sometimes I'll say most of the time, unless we're talking about a sketch or some sort of whatever, the format of what we're gonna do later, I never see you, so I never know what your morning routine is from nine from eight in the morning till three or two. Yeah, because usually I'll say that I used to probably up until like a year and a half ago, I used to go to bed at five and then wake up at nine.
But now I'm on a whole new regular schedule. Like this is the most regular I've ever been in. You know, my my girl won't allow me to. She wants it lights out at eleven o'clock and no Soul train on loop either, Like, wow, I watch soul train.
Yeah, usually when I walk in, you got, she asked me?
She has me all like maybe I'll say, like I could probably do three episodes a week a week, that's it. I used to do three hundred a day. Gosh, like she used to be my jukebox or that sort of thing.
So I go to bed as soon as I can. I go. I'm one of those people now I go out to dinner. If I go out to dinner with Nancy, we go out at like I'm there at five o'clock.
So you like, I can't wait to go to sleep.
I love sleep, I.
Started I hate I mean, I'm afraid that sleep is I feel like me is saying like, oh man, I can't wait to go to bed?
Is last of time?
Well, no, I just feel like it's it's me admitting that I'm getting up there. Like I used to be proud to like five days in a row.
I've been out. No, dude, we had Remember Grace Joneses came on the show and she goes, I go, uh, She goes, what are you doing tonight? I go, this is it? I mean, I'm going home. I'm probably just gonna eat something to go to bed. She's like, oh man, I go, You're not doing that. She's like, no, I gotta I got a show tonight. And then after the show we're going to there's something some club. I go, you still got the clubs? She's like, yeah, oh.
Yeah, I go.
What time do you get home. It's like, I don't know, four or five. She's like, I don't know what's wrong with this generation. No go to bed too early. I'm like, Grace Jones still just stays out the five in the morning. I go, oh my god, I wouldn't even know what to do. I would have no clue.
Well, yeah, I'm just I love sleep now and I hate to admit that I.
Love It's the greatest thing. That's the one thing you can get me for my birthday, for Christmas or anything I can can get sleep. Oh I would love sleep, man, that would you gotta?
You know, there's coupon. One time I thought Tarik was joking, but he had these coupons made for like an uninterrupted No, Tarik fixed this, or Dad, I need help with that, Like that was his birthday gift.
Like yeah, yeah, yeah, I did that with my parents when I was a kid. I made them coupons. Yeah, I'm like, oh, so they can leave you alone, or so I could leave them alone or help them out, Like you use this coupon whenever you want me to go, Like, I'll, you know, watch the car, I'll do whatever. I'll instead of just regularly regularly regula chores. Yeah, exactly like that. All right.
So you of course mentioned your your dad's affinity and love for do wop music.
Oh yeah, yeah, I grew up with it, loved it.
What's the first single do you remember purchasing?
Oh man, non doop or just in general? Verse forty five?
So like his record collection was your record collection?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that.
Yeah, all right, So what was your favorite of his of his record collection.
You're trying to learn harmony to the song called Zoom because like zoom zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoomzoom, zoom zoom zoom zoom.
The same format. I've never heard this song in my life, but I knew it, so I.
Was trying to. So he would try to teach me and my sister to sing Zoom so we could like harmonize and be like, you know, I don't know the Osmonds or whatever some towns. No, I was Marie, but I was. It's like so my sister immediately was like, I'm out. I don't even I don't get harmony. I don't like this. I'm out of the out of the group. But me and my dad were even rebel. I mean yeah, Gloria was the rep. So me and my dad could
sing zoom pretty well. Uh. And so that was just I would just start learning all these harmonies and then getting in the trick your harmonies and trying to like, I mean, I just loved it.
I just so would he would he go to all those like Dick Fox productions of like at Westbury Music Forear do wop Yeah.
Kind of yeah. We I grew up in Sagerty's, New York, which is upstate by Kingston, p Keepsie, Woodstock, that area. So there was a place called Ulster Performing Arts Center, you pack, and they would have oldie shows there, and so I would go to see. My first concert concert was Weird Al Yankovic. But my first kind of venture into concert was with the whole family. We went to a do up show and I saw like, oh gosh, you know.
Chances are it was a Dick Fox production.
Yeah, Larry Chance and the Earls were there.
Yeah, member Rember.
I saw Joey D and the Starlights star Lighters they got another dancing the dance the peppermn.
Side note all right, So not many people know that Hendricks used to play in Joey D and the star Lighters. What yeah, Hendricks. Joey always tells that story, like when when I see him. Joey D had a son that was in the star Lighters was my age, and so at one point in nineteen eighty five, my dad had this idea like, Okay, we're gonna get Joey D's son,
Gary us Bond's daughter. But my maddle name is Middle's sister, right right, his two nieces, my sister and I. It was like a eight It was like an eight eight kid group of all duop legends, and they wanted to call it UBI the next Generation. Oh like Redo Duop called UBI. I don't know if we were redoing duop, but it was just a thing like, let's put a supergroup together of all like the legends. We did one session at the studio that's now that used to be
Sony on fifty fourth and eleventh Avenue. So somewhere in their files in nineteen eighty six there's like a four song oldies do op demo from the Legends of Douop. I think that was like my first studio session ever.
No way, yeah, was it a cappella? Was a duop? Or is it? No? We played like I drummed and see I could see that working. But that's because I think I grew up brainwashed that duop was the only.
Music I thought, right right.
My parents tricked me as well, because well, my dad was in Vietnam, so he was like he had these real, real tapes of him and his group on the ship singing duop. So I always thought that Vietnam everyone sang duop songs. And then I'm watching these movies. I watch Apocalypse Now or whatever, and no one's singing any duop and I'm like, I'm here like the doors, and right, did I go? What is this music? I know for a fact people sang do op until she turns out. My dad was just like a nerd to me.
No, we got tricked, man, we got trick right, because in my first grade class, my first homework assignment was bring in in your favorite forty five. The next day everyone came in with contemporary stuff and he gives I just want to be everything disco duck yeah, rick D's all that stuff. And I came in with why do Fools fall in Love?
What fools?
And my teachers were like, oh, this is from my era, and none of the kids knew my record. And wait a second, right, my teacher explained, like, well, a mere like when I was your age, this is what I listened to.
And I'm looking like, how come this isn't resident if you guys this happened to me? But such later in life, I was like, I was actually in high school or college people do that now.
I remember at one point, uh Comal decided that he was going to make his kids think that Michael Jackson's Off the Wall was a brand new album. So I know kids that do that now, like just put their kids in the time warp and don't listen. You know, there's nothing for it.
Yeah, did it work for a little bit.
Well, it's weird now because I'll say that of all the Roots kids, Kamal's kids are the weirdest. Yeah, his daughter. Now, as this taping, your Your Grateful Dead experience will be over. But Kamal's oldest daughter is and she I think she just turned twenty. She's like a total deadhead, like she knows American beauty. She went to college one year and then they just put her on to like the first four Grateful Dead records because she had all these quotes
on her social media. I'm like, wait a minute, what do you know about Cherry Carsia?
Dude. I think it's changed my life a little bit. I've never listened to him at all, and I'm really into it. I dig it, I get it all right, I totally get it.
And then Kamal's son is straight up country what yo, No, I think your kids. Your kids are going to be the total opposite of what you are, which explains it because even Kirks Kirk's son is into like the hardest trap music of all time. Really, like when when certain acts come on the show and kirk Son doesn't show up, I'm like, Yo, you didn't want to see Da Da Da Da Da. You'd be like, Nah, that's too commercial for me.
I'm like, what, like like the underground stuff?
He if it's if it's if it's too mainstream, he won't he won't mess with it.
I just realized I gotta teach you when he had to dance because we went to this Halloween party and they're like first grader dance competition. Who wants to dance? And she goes, well, I have to go, dad, it's first dance competition. I'm like, do you really know how to dance? And dude, they played like everybody dance now, and she just stood there and kind of like walked
back and forth. It's really stiff, and the dude next to her was like doing backspins and flips and like moonwalking, and I was like, oh my gosh, my kid does not know how to dance. I got a teacher.
Your kids discover YouTube yet no, Yeah, it's like they got it. I mean YouTube's a slippery slope because you don't want them controlling, like what the search.
I was watching one thing and I just said, hey, maybe no more YouTube because it was no It was like adults moving toys around and doing voices for dolls like that's it, dude. And they were obsessed with this show. And it's like it's the any parent out there knows what I'm talking about. It is the creepiest thing ever. There's like a hand will hold like a paw patrol
doll and be like, hey, what are you doing? Oh I'm and they play with dolls and the kids just watch it like like it's them playing with dolls and it's the It goes on for hours on a loop on YouTube and kids like it. Don't know how they found it, but they loved it. And I was like, oh, do we got take us? We gotta watch something with the beginning, middle, end, a plot, anything. You could watch anything, but not this.
What's it called?
I have no idea what it's called, but I almost want to soothe these people. It's like I don't like it. I don't want it in my house.
Now, you just got to show a bunch of dance clips on you know, you.
Read know how to play music for them, because it's just like Alexa or you know, or you know, show them soul training. I should.
I gotta get put on trust me a good soul tiraying clip. They will emulate it. That's how everyone in America learns how to dance. That's it, Yes, that's how they learned. Hey, do you remember the first mixtape you ever made for someone?
Yeah, he has a big deal.
How long did it take you to craft it?
Oh? I mean plusing play record and pause and having the record startup. And it wasn't even a great mixtape. It was just my stuff, which is all weird stuff. And I would take it because I had this thing when I was a kid that I didn't and this is you could ask my sister. I wouldn't let anyone copy my music. Why because I thought it would affect the record industry. Wait what because I must have seen
someone talk about it on TV or so. I said, you're going to ruin the record industry if you record a song, if you take my song, you have to buy the record. You can't just take the song off of by record. The eyebaught He's going to ruin the industry. And my sister was like, you're the worst, You're the weirdest kid. And so I would have to take my music to the party. I play my mixtape, then I take the tape home. I would just I would own my mixtapes.
You wouldn't give it to no one, No, no, shut up, Bill, no boss. Bill's in the other room, like, yes, I agree with you.
Right right, I would I. I wouldn't give it to anyone, not even my sister.
I'm like, man, I was the opposite. I feel I am Spotify like the the The amount of work I don't have to do now in the age of streaming is mind boggling because back when you we had to make mixtapes and mix you have to listen to the whole song. I was the guy you had to come to to make whatever, Like I was the king of mixtape, make it. But you never made a mixtape for anyone.
Well, I mean I might have done like earlier, because I remember I used to listen to the radio all the time. I was like, I loved it. I had a boombox and I'm trying to think of the brand, the brand name of my boombox. I forget. I mean I remember it in my brain looking at it. Just to listen to this radio station, have play record and pause, just there, just in case a song came on the radio. Ghostbusters was my jam. I was like Ray Parker Junior, Ghostbusters.
If I hear that, I would run over and like try to record it.
And I was like, oh.
And then like I remember listening to another like my dad would play radio and I would bring the boom box over to his speaker so I could record the song from his speaker onto my cassette player so I can tape it that way, like if there was like a special Beatles thing. I was really into the Beatles at one point, right, so I had those type of mixtapes. And then I remember listening to Doctor Demento. Do you know him at all?
That's how weird Out got to start, right, Yeah, Okay, He's just was the legend of Doctor Demento.
He played novelty songs and novelty record so any comedy song there was a whole mess, a whole different. They don't do it anymore as much, but in the seventies, especially in the eighties. Uh, it was all comedy joke songs like that was the birth of weird al But it was like Steve Martin, you know, doing King tut that was like it charted that That's all Duck. Yeah, that disco Duck was a hit. So, I mean, that's a novelty record. All these like but do you remember
he would just play novelty records. Do you remember the Coasters? They had that song well jobing cad like what dun. It was called beat Beep and then by the end of the song it gets faster, so it's like that that don that then that betpep bet beep, the hormone beat beep beep, and now I'm going to one hundred and and so it was like a song about a race, but the song it was not a real it was it was like a novelty song, but it was a hit really and it was Yeah, so all these songs.
So he would play all these kind of weird songs like that and very it was very more seventies than anything else. But I would listen to that Sunday nights and and and just try to record all these funny songs and then see if I can start writing them myself.
See you write them down and perform the school.
The first song, my first parody song I ever wrote, was awful, but it was what's your what's your defto?
Money?
This is bad? Do you remember King Kong Bundy was a rapper. I was a wrestler, so I did. I wish it was King Kong Bundy instead of Manic Monday, Like I wish I was King Kong Bundy. That would be a fun or whatever. And it was like it was awful. And I remember writing it like and I had my eraser, my papermate, eraser mate, and like rewriting the lyrics. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm writing like I'm gonna be weird out and that's what I and I remember writing it was just I thought it
was so clever and fun. Then I was too embarrassed. Couldn't play for anybody.
What year weird out?
Did you see? What period is the there to be Stupid tour? I had a teal concert tee, no sleeve concert tea, That's what That's what I bought. What was I doing? I just I wanted to be you know, this is pre Zach Morris, but I was like I would have that or gosh, my wardrobe. I was trying to be as fashionable as I could as a kid. And you know, growing up in Sorrtyes, New York, was this you and going to this concert? Or Drew was there? He was, but he was not. No, he wasn't. He
wasn't my best friend yet. Okay, but now Gerroori he's talking about Gerard Bradford who our show as a producer. And but I we started hanging out more, I'd say probably end of high school when we're getting into the Beastie Boys and started like we had a bad We had a fake rap group that was terrible. What was the name of the group? We were called the minute Man and I don't know why, and we not even knowing there already was a punk band called the minute Man.
We were we just thought and I can't even tell you it's honestly, it's is worse than uh death money, dude. My name was Jim Hat and the room is explosive there. I was like Jim Hat with that B Boys style, wild dude, it was awful. I thought, Jim Hat, I know, like that makes logical sense. I wouldn't have wanted to be Colgate. I thought that would be a cool rap name.
Colgate.
Yeah, Like I thought people could have the logo on the shirt, like the toothpaste.
And they still make Colgate half Colgate still.
I don't you know.
One day, like whenever I land in La X, the first time I make is that I go to pharmacy to do the trial size stuff like the things I need toothbrush, toothpage, and I was just noticed and like brands that only exist there. Well, no, well, brands that I thought were out of you know, like Safeguard or like they trail like seventies brands.
Yeah, Cam they still they exist in trial size. So what other what other concerts did you go to when you were uh uh weird? I saw, oh gosh, it was that Upax. So there was that group that's saying Expose, come go with me. Whoa you saw Expose? They had a song that was really I loved it. It wasn't come go with me, but it was a point and overturn, yes, the point of uh, you're taking me right? Yeah?
And they had seasons change, Seasons Change.
I love that song.
I was a member of Columbia House to me too, but I was the I would never return the all right.
So for those that don't know, at Columbia House and all your kids, you missed out.
If you, yeah, this this was our Spotify you you were basically they will offer you twelve cassettes or CDs for a penny.
You would tape Scott's tape of penny.
Scotch tape of Penny to the to the order form, pick your pick your twelve CDs or cassettes you want it, and then for an extra three for an additional three records you had to I forgot what the check was like for. You know, for a dollar ninety eight more, you can get three more. See, so you can get fifteen all together for under the low low price of three bucks. Yeah, and then you were part of this club in which every month they would send you product and you had, yeah, like two.
Weeks to mail it, not even yeah something like that. Yeah, you either liked it or mail it back. If you kept it, it was like twenty bucks a record.
Yeah, if you kept it, it was definitely like seventeen ninety nine or something like that. But if you mailed it back, and I think between that and the first two years of trying to catch Michael Jackson videos on MTV was how I developed my vocabulary for pop music because I would never mail back Debbie Gibson's Out of the Blue or.
Or Timpany's first record. I think I got tricked into that one toil. Yeah, I know you know what.
I think she thinks I'm being sarcastic, like I'm cool with her now, But in the beginning, I think in her mind it was like, what you're trying to told me? What you're saying that? Yeah, my first I was like, yeah, I had Out of the Blue Eyed, Electric Youth, Electric Youth.
I was like they were a first War right. I was like, no, I really was.
I was a fan of yours, and she was just looking like, Okay, where's where's the Where's ash? Yeah? Right, she's cool though she didn't believe. She didn't believe it for the longest, but then I think she realized, like, oh you are.
But every album back then I loved it, even if he had like one hit song on there. I remember I was trying to I didn't know what music I was going to be into, right, so I tried every type of genre and like, oh, maybe I'm in the metal, Is it really? Yeah? I was like, dude, maybe I should like worship with the Devil, and like, what am I talking about? I'm an altar boy.
I think it's I think the weird thing is that I think between twelve and seventeen, you're open to anything, which you know I can't like. Now I really have the patience to like sift through records and see what I'm into, and the way that I used to do back in the day, Like I would listen to an entire Mina Me sal Machine record, whether I like the song or not too, because you didn't want to go up to the cassette and fast forward. Okay, I don't like this song, What's what else is it?
Like? You would just play the whole thing? Yeah, exactly, Like, yeah, I don't want to. It's easier to lift the needle to move that back, but no, I would listen to the whole album. Then I'd like the B sides. I would know what song follows what song too, in order.
See. That explains why sometimes when an artist comes on and then you ask for the deep cut and I'm like, wait a minute, what what about the hit the hit joint?
And you like, Nope, I want the Yeah, that's the secret one that you go like, oh, like like if you buy Cyndi Lauper, you just sing she Bop, you know, it's like that's the that's the secret song off of Right the Girl.
Right Right? Do you have a top five like performances on the show for us?
God, there's so much now we've been done. We've done so many shows now, it's crazy.
I mean you, I have a top five, I have a top five of me performing and a top five of me watching.
Was one of your top five recently? Dog Dude Miller?
I almost sometimes It's it's hard not to because I'm so connected to music and the memories that it brings on. Because whenever I hear fly like an Eagle, I instantly think about the first month of school, and I'm thinking of like my parents not conning me, like Okay, we're going to take you to this brown building and you're going to stay in here for the next seven hours and then we're gonna come and get you at three o'clock. And you know, like I was just never explaining the
concept at school. It was just like, huh wait, I'm playing with them, and so I think during like one of those explanations, it was the radio was just playing like Billy Davis and Marilyn mccoo's you Don't Have to be.
A Star, and then like you I am radio at this point, FM you know what?
So Philly, Philly was really good with Fmrie On the weekends though, FM radio turned religious and then you'd have to live and listen to AM radio, so we'd have to switch a wizard one hundred. And the thing is is that I lived in a don't touch my stereo household, So again a big part of my palette is the fact that I had to listen to what my sister
wanted to listen to and what my dad. I didn't control the car radio nor in my bet you know the room that my sister and I shared, so like I just remember, like.
I remember pressing, like being able to press the button to my dad's car that would it would be a plastic, hard plastic button that you would actually switch the station. You would see the zip to the one side right and I actually tuned. I mean this is pre digital scan and seek for something. It was actually press the button and you would feel like gears moving to the radio station that you want to yeah, and I was like, oh, I just to hope to hear like the Rolling Stones
or something like that. And yeah, so fly like an eagle. It was definitely, dude, you crust that one. And I was like, dude, I actually had to look over to see what your face was doing because usually I can't see the drummer.
I was doing every I had two moments in which I kind of had a I might cry moment.
It was awesome, dude. It was honestly, it just clicked, like because you did the first like.
Yeah, in the space. I had to beg for those extra because at first they were like three minutes and thirty seconds, you know, and I'm like, wait a minute, guys, not for this one. You don't understand, like the most important part of the song is like the beginning. We gotta do that.
So you did didn't did out, So it was so yeah, I didn't want to end. And he was having fun. Yeah, and he was having and he was so look at it, because you know, we have these guys on that like they don't play with anyone else but their band, and they're jaded and they're like, oh well look, it's almost feel like they're cheating on their band, but then when they see how much love and how much work you guys put into that song, like Eddie Grant, Oh.
I forgot.
He was so nervous. I know, he was so nervous, like Jimmy I, I I don't I only play with my band. I I'm these guys are great, but I don't know them. And you know, to play with my song, you know, electric Avenue, And so he goes, do you remember you brought a harmonica?
Yes? Oh?
Did you wait?
When we're sound checking? Are you watching on close times? I'm watching, damn it.
Sometimes I am, but sometimes I'd like to be surprised.
But we're doing sound check. It was like a ten minute version and we're like looking at each other while I was.
Like, paying harmonica do electric Avenue? Like who is to blaming? I like, dude, stop. But so I saw him and he goes, yeah, I'm just gonna bring this just in case. I go, Eddie, you don't need a harmonica. The roots will got you covered. Trust me, man, it's gonna me fun. And he did the song, didn't do harmonica, and he crushed. It was great, And I went over to say thank you for being on the show and want to shake his hand and what was in his hand harmonica? Yeah, that's the case.
You know what.
It's also like a big part.
I'm always nervous about the legend because one you don't want to ruin like the thought in your head of like, uh, what's it gonna be or what's it not going to be? It's just that sometimes all right, I met we had one guess that walked away, do you remember, Yeah, Cinthy yea, Just because I think, okay, in our minds, in their minds, it's like, okay, I'm gonna play with the roots. So they think like I'll take my song and filter it
through and I'll rutify it. Like that's the one word we hear the most inside the rehearsal room, like you know, don't don't do the normal version, like rutify it. And I'm like, dude, what you don't get is that us rutifying it is doing it just like your album version.
That is roots fact, because we want the yeah, I mean, we want the exact sound. We want Eddie Grant to go out in the streets if he if he yeah, he doesn't want to do that. Anymore. He goes, I don't do that. I haven't done that for twenty five years ago.
Yeah, bring it back.
That's the part of the song that we love, those little nuggets, those little awesome little eggs, those easter eggs where you're like, oh no, that's the one part you gotta do, like right, like on the dock side of town, yeah or something. You didn't do that, and he was like, uh, like when we have it, was it crowded house or something came on. I'm like, all I want to hear is that base I go Boodoo do doo. That was freedom a little bit. If you don't hit that baseline,
and that's just ruin. I need that. It's part of my whole thing of loving that song. It's like, but we usually hit it like ninety nine percent of the time, right. We convinced the people tore like, come on, you gotta do that part and like, oh, I don't hit that note anymore. It's like, yeah, but try it. Just go for it because trust me, we'll get your back. And then they do it in the scores.
Well, probably the one humorous movement for us was definitely in the Air Tonight, where that was the only time I saw you being nervous, dude, twice twice in my life. But I've talked myself into major sabotage.
I was.
I wasn't helping them like I well see, I didn't know about meditation back then. What I should have been doing was basically deep breathing. Get out of your head. Just hit these three times the way you've always done it all your life.
In the basement.
And for some reason, right when Phil Collins is like and I remember, and I was like, don't mess up, don't mess it.
I remember, don't worry all right, don't fuck up, don't fuck it? How good I ever.
I'm looking at Jimmy. Jimmy's looking left.
I went from behind my desk to the front to look at your face. I know, love it. And I'm looking at the band standard for the roots members and I says.
Silence up, oh boy, no using fool me, oh dann cameras he's looking at me.
The heart doesn't so you're looking at it.
The pain still grows sustainious dudems.
And I hit that symbol and was just drop a stick or something. No, my my my ride symbol. Oh yeah, I fell fell down dude. It was the fell I broke in pieces.
I was gonna let it slide and just be like I'm going home. I failed and then shout out to Sugar Steve. Steve's like, no, man, I can't let this happen. We're gonna fix this. And I was like, well, we can't go back and tape it like it's over, and he says, I bet you. They have sound check on tape. So we basically.
Spent at least an hours editing. Oh god, you remember that he was here. He was there to five in the board.
We're the only show that gives that autonomy, like gives that power to guests to come and edit their own thing and mix their own thing. Any other show like I've done Letterman. But I'm like, okay, so we want reverbal and you know, verse.
Two and then already and they're like it's already, can't touch it right, They're like, no, it's gone.
It is what it is.
And we let everyone like go in listen to it and mix it. But we usually we have the right sound between you know, we we have the best sound.
I feel like we have the best sound mixing and engineering. Yeah that al Simon stayed up until right before his segment, which is unheard of. Right.
We were nervous because we got to deliver the show. And this is when we were doing twelve thirty five, right, so we had an extra hour. But it was like I think it was up to like it was actually up to midnight.
Right, it was ripe two commercials before you were actually covering more.
So he spent we take that five or six, right, and he engineered it like it was a real song for five hours. It must be the best engineered song of all time. I don't even I kind of remember what it was that wasn't the one with stomp was it? We don't even remember. That's the thing. It's just now I got to go back in the archives and he really spent the time in that one. But but then back to the Phil Collins thing, because you ended up nailing it on when you see it on TV, because all a pack a lot.
Yeah, that that to me, that that was a moment.
I mean, I love that. I love Jim James. I was from Late Night. I love that. That's right.
He did another life with all of his presentations.
Whenever Jim James comes on. I also liked when you guys come when the roots come on, and we spend extra time like making a production and it's actually it's almost like a music video.
Or musical musical. Yeah, my three moments from that. I don't know why. Once I realized that we had a lot of I didn't realize the power of how Dave is as as a director Dave de Meti and and and directing and doing tricks and all those things. So I thought, like, I wonder how we could pull off a song that makes us look like we're playing in
slow motion like the Beastie Boys always do. Like so what you want video was like the ipetus of it, like of them performing in you're hearing the song in real time, but it's like them doing it slow motion. So when Usher was on the show, yep, you know, I knew it was going to confuse the audience, like we had to do that Usher song like chipmunks.
Dude, it was like.
And he's dancing really super fast and he caught and he caught like he was dancing, And really that's the thing I thought, like do you need to practice this? Like do you need to figure out your splits and everything?
It looks so weird and so you're almost laughing at.
Him, right, but then when you watch it, it was, oh, it's.
Magical, dude. He's like slow motion doing the perfect dance moves and singing on the you know, on the ring exactly right. Yeah, it was insane. That was That was a cool moment.
Yeah. The second time, Tyler, Tyler, they created To See You Again with Caliuchis and he created Yeah, this it was almost like a surreal musical. But it's it's to me, that was like a moment, dude. Get we have to talk about Prince.
There's there's two films, there's so many.
Yeah. For me, the best part of the craziest memory is definitely the Ping.
Pong with the pea pong story. But even goes on before that. Do you remember bring me on stage at the garden, Oh, Madison Square Garden. So Chris Rock comes on and he goes, he goes bah blah blah blah. He goes, well, of course Prince is my favorite concert. I've never seen him. Go. You've never seen Prince like you. You love music and you've never seen Prince in concert? What are you talking about? How could you even say that?
You're a fan of what do you. I can't talk to you until you see Prince, all right, And so I go, all right, I gotta go see Prince. And you're like, dude, I can't believe you. I haven't seen him. So anyways, I go to the garden see Prince and he is unbelievable. He really is. I remember Madonna was at the concerts in the audience watching Prince stoneface, just going like wow, I got up my game. He's just so magical. And she's great too, Yeah he was. So
he's crushing it. And Prince's manager or whoever this was, came up to me, Yeah, hi, I'm a princess manager. I don't even think it was Cairo was someone to say, like, Prince would really love you to get on stage at the end of the concert and dance with him, like he gets a bunch of celebrity friends and to go on stage and dancing at the end. I go, that's not really my thing. I'm not really a big dancer, but thank you. So I'll just watch the concert. Next song,
someone else comes out like, hy how you doing. I'm working for a princess A different person, Yeah, different person. I go, Prince would really love for you. I go, yeah, I don't think so. I mean, that's not really my thing. And I don't even think he really wants me to dance with him anyways. So that happens to me maybe two more times during the whole concert. End of the concert, I'm like, I see you, because I didn't see you
if the whole concert go what's up dude? You go, I'm gonna get on stage at the end of the concert. I go, oh, if you're getting up there, I'll go up with you then. So they all right, so you get up, I get up, you go behind a drum set.
Yeah.
And as I get up and you get behind drums set, Prince leaves. He's keep his he's on a keyboard and it goes and sinks into the stage side of the stage, and I could see him down there, almost getting in his limousine right there, and I'm like, and I'm looking around and there's no one else on stage dancing but me. Right, it's just me dancing and you're playing. I go, oh my, that's exactly why I don't say yes to this stuff.
So I think it kind of started there. And then when Prince came on the show, it was always fun, right. So Prince came on the show and is, uh, probably is Kiran His manager, Yeah, says hey, Prince would really have to play ping pong on the show. So we go, okay, we don't really play ping pong. We played beer pong, but if he wants to play ping pong, it's fine. Then he calls back and he goes, you know what, Prince does not want to play beer pong on the show.
He doesn't want to play ping pong. We go, okay, whatever, he just come on play music. As long as he has fun, we're good. He calls back. He goes, Prince does want to play ping pong. We rethought about it. Go okay, we'll have it ready to go just in case. Calls back. He goes he doesn't. He wants to play ping pong, but he doesn't want to play it on camera. He wants to do it, and I go, what's your obsession? He goes, he just thinks, Jimmy, be fun to play
ping pong with. I go, whatever, We'll have it ready to go. If he wants to play backstage whatever. Man, So he comes down. The show never brings up pong, doesn't even mention it all right, it just comes on and plays. He's great and he and he leaves and it was a great show and it was awesome. I go,
that was interesting. So I tell the story on the show about the whole ping pong thing, and I go, by the way, the Prince, if you're watching, I would probably kick your ass in ping pong or something like that, all right, just joking around. So then I think that week I'm at the dinner, right, and so this is this is the rare night. No, this is when Winnie oh, Whennie was being born. So I get a call.
It was around that time. I just remember, like it was any moment, you know what I mean. And I get a call at ten pm. Now I think I was sick this night, because this is one of the rare times I was in bed at like ten thirty pm on a school night or whatever. And they're like, Prince wants to play Jimmy now at Susan Sarandon's ping pong spot. Yes, Spin Spin, And I was just like, oh, man, you know he's about to kid da da da dah.
So yeah, I'll let him know.
And then like a minute later they're like, well he's uh you know, he's down to do it right now, if you know available. And I was like, oh, maybe they didn't get the message. I was like, no, no, no, Jimmy's about to have a kid, so uh, yeah it might you know, it might be busy or whatever. And then a minute later he says, okay, well, uh just name the time and place and you know he'll be there. And I'm like, oh, they're just not listening or not taking a note for an answer.
Yeah.
So I was like, I'm not going to answer this. So I went to bed for like twenty minutes and over my eyes and I was like, I don't let me at least tell Jimmy.
So then I texted you.
I said, hey, uh, Prince wants to play in ping pong. So I had no idea of this whole exchange that you just went through. I said, for some strange reason, he wants to play in ping pong at Susan sarandom spot and I told him that you're tied up with baby stuff. So anyway, just passing the message along.
Cool.
I had no idea that you were going to answer that message.
Yeah, because I was out. I was out to dinner that night. Okay, I wasn't because it wasn't yet. It was close to it. It was close to it. I knew any moment that it was, any moment I had to be on the ready for winning to be born. But I was out to dinner that night. I'm like what And then I got a text from his manager or something, so you gave him.
Did it happen that night or the next night? It happened soon.
I think it happened that night, right because I got a text from their manager right and saying like, hey, this princess manager princess at Spin. He wants to play you in ping pong right now. So I go. It's the weirdest thing. I go. So I told the first time having dinner with him, like, all right, I gotta go. Man, Prince wants to play me in ping pong and I'm gonna go meet him at the Spin at Susan Random's Club. So I leave, I, I, you know, get in a cab and I go down to Spin and I go out.
I go into the story, go down the steps and there's a girl working there and I go, Hi, I'm I'm here to see uh and she goes Prince. He goes, yeah, she goes, he's right behind the curtain. He's in the private room over there. I go, all right, so I go and there's a good They have a velvet room. There's a velvet rope and a curtain, and I go past the rope and I opened the curtain and he's Prince is standing there and a crushed blue velvet suit.
Were in the high heeled right shoes, and he's holding a ping pong whole paddle and he looks at me. He goes, you ready to do? And I go, oh my gosh, I go, I guess so sure. He goes want a warm up? I go, uh yeah, I warm up a little bit, Like in my head, I don't even play ping pong right even know what he's talking about. So we start warming up a little bit. If he had two friends in the room, he goes, everybody leave, everyone go go. So it's just me and Prince. So
everyone had to leave the room. It was just me and Prince and nobody else. And I goes, all right, you ready, I go, let's start. So he hits the first he's like, hits it over and it goes and it just it was a good shot. And I didn't hit the back. He goes, one's it and I go, oh, you're gonna talk smack or and this is gonna happen twenty one points. Let's dude, this man, let's go, Prince. So I go, let's we start playing and you know,
hitting back and forth. It's he's crushing me. So I think, now it's like twenty to ten or something like that. He's killing me. And he goes, uh, game point. I go, let's let's go, man, and he hits the shot and it's like and it's like beautiful, perfect shot and the painst spin and spit flames coming off it and it hits the hits that corner of the table that's just
impossible to hit them. Yell, you know what I'm talking, like a perfect shot, and when flying behind me and I go, ah, you won, you on and I go and I'm looking in the background to find the ball. I picked up the ball and I turn around and he's gone and he's not there. And I don't know him that well, so I thought maybe he was hiding or something. No, so I'm like Prince Prime, Prince Prince some like looking under the pink punk table like there's security, but it looks like crazy. I was like, is he
hiding behind a curtain? I don't know him, but I don't know the type of sense of humor. He's funny, but I was like, but then I look and kind of rope is kind of moving almost like Batman.
In the door swiveling. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah the window. So I go to the girl, I go, did he she just yeah? He left? I go, okay, son, I went up and up the stairs on the street.
So, me, being notorist lee late for everything, I got back from a DJ gig and got your text that about to play prints right now. I was like, I'm on my way over. So I drive to Manhattan to spin get out the car, and I forget who from the show was outside smoking a cigarette. But I run and I was like, am I too late? Am I too late? And she's like, wait, you just missed him?
That was him?
And I looked, uh in the street and in the suv he was there and pulling off to a red light. I was like, hey on wait and I'll run and straight up great poupon style. I'm like knocking on the door and the window rose down slowly and I said, wait, it's over. It's over what happened? And seriously he's a ask you boy, And then this thing the windows goes slowly up, just like the great Poupon conversial just takes off and takes off. The only thing I noticed that
he had the paddle with him. Yeah, and it was a gold paddle. And later did I learned that he is that obsessed with it.
We did a show with.
Him in Carousel. Uh we well, i'll rephrase that. We were supposed to do a show with him.
We did it. We showed up with him. There's the weirdest lineup ever.
Dinah Ross, Toto, Lows Lowbos Dude, Dinah Ross, who booked this god, Dinah Ross, Lows Lobos, Toto Journey.
Oh Prince the roots.
He cares now and he was supposed to do a three hour set then the Roots, right yeah, nah, friends, don't play that. Princes wound up doing a five hour set and no roots. We like, definantly like we still don't, you know, trying to like, yeah, we're still going to perform, and we did like one and a half. We just stopped this on like all right, y'all want to see Okay, we'll just do the sea just the Yeah, it's at this point in the No, the place holds like eight
thousand people. I swear to god, it was like thirty five people. Yeah, they all split on Prince left like we just got like y'all the seed. Okay, No, but what's the one that the DJ night with Prince? Remember that on that one?
Yeah?
It was he he that's the best story Everard.
I love that.
I was Okay. So I was on I was on a blind date, and I wanted to appear cool, to be cool, and so I asked this, you know, like, I got tickets to Prince, you want to see it? And I had ten tickets, and me not thinking I invited, I said, oh, I got ten tickets. So I invited ten of my friends. I never counted myself as one of the ten. So when we get there, I was like, here's your ticket, here's your ticket, here's your ticket, here's your ticket.
And I was like nine, oh fuck. So and this is beyond sold out.
So they're in and I had the number of his assistant and so I'm like, hey, I'm on a date and I forgot to buy myself a ticket. Decided to explain the whole thing and She's like, yo, man, like no one can get in, like you know everyone else. Sharpton was trying to come down. Spike Lee was trying to say please, anything else ready in trouble. So he just happened to be in his own custom golf cart in Philly, doing like forty miles an hour in a golf cart, like not doing donuts, but like like that
sort of thing. And I was just like, oh, just tell him straight up. I said, look, I made a mistake that da da da. I had ten friends. I forgot to include myself in the ten. Can I sit somewhere please? And he was just like all right, cool, you can sit on the stage under the stage. So the way that that stage is designed like his name, like it's it's a thirteen foot tall stage, and so
I'm literally sitting under the arrow that is his name. Meanwhile, my dates like sitting with my friends in the audience, but I'm sitting like under the stage. And mid show, this assistant comes by and says, Prince wants you to throw him a party, and I was like, I have no resource, like right now. He said yeah, tonight, and I was like, well, well I would have to. Yeah, you can use our phones. But I'm like, I'm going
to miss the concert. And now it's like, oh, I'm working for Prince now, So I'm like leaving my concert going into gotta you gotta throw them a party, right, So I called my friends who I normally do parties with in Philly. I was like, look, Prince, hang on a second. He wants one pool table. Okay, hey, Prince wants to do a party tonight. So in like four hours, can you find me a spot? They said, we found a spot. I said, okay, Now he wants a pool table.
They're like, well, this is a five story walk up.
Can't please?
Can we please just make this happen? Please please? So they had to find a detachable pool table to carry up five flights to stairs. So then I rush home, get my records ready, get there. You know, Prince is like a late party. So this party's not starting to like one point thirty, and it's ten of us and we're inside and basically he wants to control the door, and you know, there's a whole group of people waiting outside, but they're inside. There's only like seventy people. Club shit
hold about three hundred. Anyway, so I'm playing like a bunch of like fail out, you know, West African funk music. And I'm thinking, like, okay, I'm gonna educate Prince on Faialai. He likes James Brown, he likes George Clinton, and play the original you know, West African guy of funk and he'll be into it. And Prince wasn't into it. He was just like what else he got? I was like, okay,
I playing another Faila song? What else he got? I was like, damn, He's like, play some of your music and I was like, I never played the roots in the club, Like I'm just scared to do that because it's instant club.
So I'm failing.
And twenty five minutes in and his assistant walks up and says, here, play this, and she gives me a DVD and it's Finding Nemo.
And I was like, yeah, the movie, not the soundtrack, the actual movie.
And I was like, wait, what do I I don't there's not a DVD player here. She said, oh. She comes back gives me a portable DVD player. I was like, well, I say, it's a nightclub, they don't have it. His engineer gives me, like the chords. I said, yeah, but there's no projection. There's a projection screen.
So suddenly.
I put this thing on, but I'm still DJing, so I figured like he just wants the visual of like the fish playing in the background. Yeah. And then they come over and they're like no, no, no, can you turn the volume up. I was like, wait, we're in a nightclub in Philadelphia.
You want to watch Finding Nemo?
And he said yeah, just you know, just kill the music and put the thing up. And I was like, oh no, you set me up. So I got the opening DJ guy, I said, look and about five seconds do the transfer and put up the So suddenly we go from like this this funk music talking about protesting the government in Nigeria to suddenly, like Ellen Degenero's voice.
He just wants to watch Finding Nemo. Yeah.
And it was like it's it didn't affect nobody and his crew like this happens all the time every day, and I'm just sitting there dejected, like.
No one has this story, No one has this story. That is the greatest.
I just sat there like, yo, dude, like you're playing Finding Nemo in the club like popping bottles in a and you remember the club back in like in two thousand and four, like it was sexy back then. Nah, he wanted, we were watching Pixar in the Duck Club.
Are you Duck Club? Are you? Did you read the Beautiful Ones yet?
Yes? I read it and it it's ah man, it makes me so sick, like he he wrote that. Normally, when people write books, you do it with a collaborator, like with me, it was like going back to school, like chapter for chapter, Like my guy would say, like, Okay, write about the first time he brought a record and then I write something and he goes and okay's run on sentence d D D no whatever. Or traditionally you just do a twenty hour interview with someone and then
they write the words in your voice. But he wrote that book and he only wrote thirty pages, but it revealed so much about at least up until the age of four, which you know could have been but he took a lot of photos, like so there's a lot of unanswered questions about his childhood. Uh, Maya Rudolph is really going to love this book because there's I guess if Instagram were out back then, Prince would have been
on Instagram instead. Like he just kept photo books of all that as he made, like the process of making it, like my breakfast, my engineer sleep on the couch again. So there's a there's a picture where he Prince is driving down Sunset and there's a big giant ad of Minnie Riperton's new album Stay in Love, like on Sunset Boulevard and Princes waiting at a red light and Flash takes the photo. It's a perfect shot, like this would
have been his iPhone back in nineteen seventy seven. And the caption was like this woman could cause a car crash and I was like, oh man, my Rudolph is really really going to love that? Yeah?
Does he ever know that she loves him that much? Oh? Definitely, I think yeah. Yeah.
Because he talks about even though he only covers the first four year of his life, he often jumps to modern references. So there's a there is a mention of him watching h the Darling Nicky performance. Really that is also in my topic, that and Stevie Wonder. I'm just trying to figure out what else.
Jorn Darling, you remember that my Stevie Wonder story with you guys, Remember I opened for you guys in Atlantic City I hate you for this man. I open for the Roots in Atlantic City and we get there and someone forgot James's keyboard.
James, Yes, we forgot James Boyce's keyboard, so how do.
You forget an instrument too? We were new you forgot his key So we get there and James like, I do my set. I came back and I go, James, what are you doing? He's like, they forgot my keyboard. I'm just gonna watch. I go oh. He's like, you want to get a tequila? I go sure, So we get a drink and then somebody comes back and go, hey, do you guys want to meet Stevie Wonder. I go, what he's here? He's also playing a different room venue. I go, oh, let's go. So we run over to see Stevie.
You leave the Roots and then run cee ceeviehead and see Stevie Wonder and I go, uh, what do you uh?
It was only like maybe it was a meet and greet with like ten people.
He does this every time, and it's ten people, and I go, uh.
He's Stevie's Jimmy Fallon and James like, I'm from the Roots. Blah blah blah, ago. I'm the biggest, biggest fan. I start going through all his bits and I start going like ebony and uh Marie, and then he starts harmonizing with me, yeah, and you dude. So then James starts going playing the song on Stevie's other piano, right, So then Stevie James is playing piano and I'm harmonizing with Stevie. Wonder we sing perfect harmony Ebany and Ivory. Dude jumping
up and down like what is just happening? Like, all right, love you buddy, I talk to you later. We split. We were backstage, We throw down a couple more drinks. We watch you guys your last song. You finished the set. You're like, oh, that was pretty good. What'd you guys do? There you go?
Stevie won day.
I can't wait to tell you what we did.
Man, you bastards.
Dude.
We can go on forever with these stories, but both of us have day jobs.
We got too.
I know we're just going to finish this conversation on the way backward. I really want to thank you for helping us and well, first of all, for everything you've done for me personally. No, seriously, dog like, that was I always joke that not even joke because everyone asked like, well,
how did you guys manage to do the show? And I always tell them that we were prepared in the nicest way possible to say no because we didn't want to burn a bridge and be like, Okay, when we have a new album, ount we can come on said show, I said, But then you disarmed us in literally ten minutes,
which no human being has ever done. I mean, we've had the finest of women, the finest of models, the biggest of act I think there was a point where we were supposed to go fishing with uh George Clooney at one point, like that's a typical backstage thing, like George, clue, we're going fishing tomorrow whatever, and like we're so stand offish as a group, and literally in ten minutes you had us doing a human pyramid. That eight is enough human pyramid at UCLA, and only because Tarik was on
the bottom row. Who you know, his clothes are so expensive. It's like Treek is actually getting his Japanese denim dirty. And I looked at Rich like we're not getting rid of this guy anytime soon, and he's like, Nope, you.
Do it right there.
I couldn't figure out what you did to disarm the roots in ten minutes flat, and I was like, oh, this this is the next stage of my life right here I'm watching it. But yes, I want to thank you for that, and also thank you for helping us with our new uh are about to say jump off like it's two thousand and eight, our new jump off on iHeart Radio.
Thank you very much. Thank you by the way for changing the whole game. And honestly, it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be that wouldn't be where I am. So here's do another twenty five years of magic. Let's do it.
Yes, yo on behalf of the team Supreme. Who's tied up in the room next door? Boss Bill unpaid Bill font ticgolo uhlaya.
I love you Liaiah anyway? I heart you.
Yes we I heeart Oh sugar, Steve, Yes, I forgot about No, you can forget about it though, No, I did that purpose Steve. I love it anyway. This is of course, Leve. We'll see you on the next go round. What's left Supreme. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.