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Questlove: Michele Bachmann almost got me fired from Jimmy Fallon show

Sat, 22 Jun 2013 14:00:00 +0000

One of the best things about the Jimmy Fallon show — maybe the best thing — is that it's a test of ingenuity every single day. It sent me back to the days of working with Dave Chappelle. But that show was brilliant guerrilla comedy; it happened on the fly and then some. The Fallon show is a day job in the best sense. We're in by noon and gone by seven, and in between we make a show. It's highly structured, and as a result, the opportunities we have for creativity are really distilled: not reduced at all, but disciplined, forced into existing forms and packages. "Freestylin' with the Roots" is one of the highlights for us. One of the others is the walkover.

The walkover, or walk-on, for those who don't speak backstage, is the song that the band plays as a guest comes out from behind the curtain and walks over to the host's desk. Once upon a time, maybe, it was straightforward, a little musical cue or song associated with the artist. But then came Paul Shaffer's work on "Letterman," and the walkover became its own little art form — an obscure musical reference that the audience (and sometimes even the guest) had to decode.

Questlove: “I don’t have friends.”

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:29:00 +0000

Musically speaking, soul is among the most social of genres: It's deep, earthy, lively, rhythmic and transcendental. And few musicians have popularized the genre more than Roots drummer Ahmir Thompson, known to fans as Questlove.

But a recent interview with the Village Voice's Jenna Sauers provides an intimate and surprising glimpse into the life of the DJ, casting him as an isolated, vulnerable workaholic:

"You know, after work, everyone hangs and they go to a bar and stuff?" says Thompson, sounding a bit like an anthropologist who has just pinpointed a key habit of a strange tribe. "I don't socialize that way. I don't have a posse. I don't have friends. I got the people I work with. I got a mom and a sister."

He explains that this is intentional:

"I'm very guarded, because I'm very vulnerable. Which really reads as gullible ... I guess the downside of that is that the guardedness that Questlove has to use to protect himself has now absolutely done overages and bleeded over into Ahmir Thompson's life."

Justin Timberlake releasing another album this year, according to Questlove

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:23:00 +0000

Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience," his first album since 2006, when, as the New York Times reminds us, "Barack Obama was the junior senator from Illinois, Jay-Z and Beyoncé were not married, and iPhones did not exist," is shaping up to be one of the biggest pop music comeback stories of the year, with Timberlake announcing a tour with Jay-Z, hosting performances at the Grammys and SXSW and a ubiquitous presence on late night television this month.

But this might just be round 1: Over the weekend, Roots dummer and Justin Timberlake collaborator Questlove took to the online forum that he co-founded, Okayplayer, and wrote "spoiler alert. 20/20 Vol 2 comes out in nov." His explanation for the "20/20" title fits, too, writing: "(10 songs now.....10 songs later= 20 vision)."