He was determined.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images, Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
Unlike the mid-run switch over at The Late Show, the Roots have loyally served as Jimmy Fallon’s house band ever since he began hosting Late Night in 2009. Questlove, Black Thought, the cutie who tries to keep a straight face while doing the thank-you-note music, and the rest of the Roots crew have remained a steadfast (and silly) presence in Fallon’s world ever since, which included a promotion to The Tonight Show in 2014. While the pairing of host and band may have initially been perceived as a strange one to viewers, Black Thought — who co-founded the group with Questlove — told Rolling Stone in a new interview how Fallon only had his sights set on them. “Man, the way we got the gig, Jimmy was always a huge music nerd,” he 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.”
Fallon began his persistent efforts about a year prior to the show’s debut, as he had been tapped by Lorne Michaels to assume the role with a long amount of lead time. “Jimmy came around and said, ‘I’m thinking about doing that 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.” Even if that meant a random tour stop, Fallon would materialize. “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 added. “He showed up a bunch of times pitching it. This was around the time that we had just got done working on Dave Chappelle’s show. 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.” Redman, who was also interviewed for the Rolling Stone feature, considered the group’s hiring as both a win for hip-hop and “our culture.” If only they were also allowed to ask an unhinged question at the end of every show.