Questlove

24:18Okay, so there was a famous local dance show in Philadelphia called Dancing on Air. Kelly Ripper used to dance on the show. So this was sort of like our local soul train. So my best friend in the high school and I really like, damn, I feel stupid saying fancied these two girls. You fancied them. You know why you fancied them? Because it was 1882. And you had your, you put on 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? And then I knew her on prom night. No, no, no, sorry. No, you ate your cereal to keep yourself innocent.

25:03Yeah, the early season of being a sociopath. Um, I, we wrote these girls, you know, they, you know know they would read like fan letters on the air whatnot and um so we wrote our respective targets and my target got back to me right his tar my best friend's target did not get back to him and i see i saw a moment where i could use this opportunity to my advantage his target went to the high school creative and performing arts which was basically the public version of the fame score yep yep laugherty school if you have younger listeners high school musical and so dude does he have younger listeners anyway do i have younger listeners yes no we finally met a 48 year old who loves the show can i just ask one thing about sanna her laughter my 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 yep like she's laughing with us but she's also kind of laughing at us yeah yeah i'm laughing with you i'm laughing at him yes she laughs at me but she laughs with the people who are on the show um i saw this as an op because i didn't want to go to the the college prep school right even though I've been playing professionally with my father since I was a kid.

26:31My first gig was at Radio City Music Hall at the age of 12. I know this story because his drummer hurt his arm. Motorcycle accent. Yeah, and your dad said, hey, kid, get up there. You know the show, right. Yeah, and you were like, all right. And it's Radio City Music Hall. Right. I wasn't nervous at all, but the sort of antidote to that is that the second I got off stage, I wasn't and I'm band leading like adults and I'm 12 years old. Right. And I'm band leading. But, you know, I could play like adult since I was five. I get off stage and I walk backstage and this black woman says, oh, my God, young man, that was awesome.

27:10That was great. I was like, I said, you're Susan from Sesame Street. She's like, indeed, I am. My husband was playing keyboards. And I was like.

27:23And I threw her backstage.

27:28You know, those Sesame Street people got that a lot. I would do that now if I saw someone from Sesame Street. I'd throw up. Freaked out. I've heard, correct me if I'm wrong, that your parents, you were allowed to watch two shows, Sesame Street and Soul Train. Yeah, I could only watch PBS and Soul Train. Which is a pretty cool combination. Well, they were really strict on anti-television. I made the hard mistake once. It was to the point, you know, like it was postmodern times and they were pretty much like he might be impressionable. 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.

28:06Right. And they don't want me to be impressionable. And there is another product placement. Here you go. There is a an Hawaiian punch commercial in which you remember. Punchy. Sure. is hopping down the block with a bunch of fruit. And then he goes up to the unsuspecting tourist. And he's like, hey, how about an ice and wine punch? He's like, sure. And he just, you know, hits him. So I went to my mother and was like, Mom, say sure when I ask you a question. Oh, no. And she's like, huh? I said, Mom, is this? Okay. So I'm saying, how about you say sure? Okay. Hey, how about an ice and wine punch?

28:50My mom said, sure. And let's just do the sitcom flip thing. We'll skip the... Did you punch your mom? I beat the shit out of my mom by accident. He's a kid. He's a little kid. How old were you? 38. I think I was two or three. Oh, yeah. So then no more television. No more television. So, but thankfully I grew up in a house with the least, with about 3000 albums. So, and three very distinct record collectors. So all I knew was music and I was allowed to watch music programs, which is also weird because my parents are nightclub entertainers and they didn't believe in babysitters. So thus I had to go to work with them, even though my bedtime was like 8.30 as a kid, as a three, four, five year old.

29:42They would wake me up at midnight or at 1230, and I'd watch like the second performance on SNL. In Philadelphia, Soul Train was not a 12 in the afternoon experience. It was a 1 a.m., depending on the cultural sensitivity of whoever the programming director was. I'm going to put this on at 1 in the morning or 2 in the morning. So that's how Soul Train to me is a 1 a.m. after SNL experience. Back then, it's very hard to describe, but you watched what was on. But I remember Soul Train would come on and be like, I'm watching this. And you know, here I am, this little red haired girl watching in Boston with a bowl haircut.

30:20Wait, you're Frida, the little red haired girl. I am, I know. Her natural born curly hair. Yeah, it wasn't curly. But I would just watch Soul Train and my, you know, my brothers would come in and we're like, this is what's happening. And you know, man, Don Cornelius is cool. He looks like the coolest guy in the world. So yeah, I was allowed to watch it. Anyway, let me, we rabbit hole. 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 done invested in like the best education to get you in, you know, this institution, you know, it was a Hail Mary throw, but they, they fell for it.

30:58I, 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 prom. You're a good friend. I was a great friend. I still don't know why a high school student would occasionally work in the office. Like, I don't know how that works, but it was her job to hand out school tokens. We would get like free bus tokens to get back because we didn't have like a school bus system. And so I was standing in line and in front of me was kind of like a Dreamweaver moment, like where the prettiest girl in school, like another girl, totally unrelated, was talking about music, which instantly like my ears were pricked and she made a wrong Prince reference.

31:39and I'm the human version of hashtag, well, actually. Oh, no. Oh, no. You remember on the Smurfs when Brainy would say, well, actually, and then seconds later, they tossed him in the trash can. I was that guy. I was like, well, actually, that was a B-side, a Japanese import B-side, which is longer than the album version. You're Linus. Right, right. Like the four girls just looked at me like, no one asked you. I was just trying my hardest to, like, impress them with anything that probably maybe two months later, I interjected myself again in a conversation I shouldn't have. And I said, well, no, it was that song because, you know, we we sampled that last night and they were like sample where?

32:26You know, at the studio. And it's like, who? I said, me, my group. Who's in your group? And literally the way that Tariq and I met, like, it's somewhere between like a tale of two cities. You know what? Can I just say something? this is a common sitcom plot. Yeah. Of, I got to impress the girl. You're chatting. You're getting over your head. You say, my group, your group. Yeah. Yeah. We're in the studio. We want to see you play. Sure, next week. And then you run down the hall. Guys, we got to form a band. That is literally how I'm in this chair right now. So, now the thing was, Tariq really had an insane gift for talking off the top of his head.

33:04I knew that he had a gift for doing that. And he just happened to walk by. And I was like, oh, with him. So then I went to the next two periods of class, like in orchestra. And somewhere in orchestra class, I thought about it. I said, nah, I got to warn him. Put the, put like Flight of the Bumblebee in here. And the lunchroom is on the eighth floor. I'm in the basement. So literally, sorry, lady. Excuse me. Watch it there. We're two guys carrying a plate of glass. Right. And you missed it. And then someone else walked through it. I ran to the cafeteria and I was like, if anyone asks, we're a group.

33:44And he was literally calling, okay.

33:50And that is how the roots were born. That's fantastic. We're also in school the same time that boys to men are becoming boys to men. It's literally like they're in the bathroom harmonizing and, you know, they won every contest. they would like cheat and put like glitter in their hands and do something like that. And girls would be like, and I'm like, no, like Nate cheats in calculus class. Like you're falling for that. Like all I have to do is have some glitter in my hand and do that. Michael Jackson three handed point. Yep. Do something. I did it for a while in my monologue on the late night show.

34:27Killed 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 City. But 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, has to go to rehab. So you'll fill in Joey DeFrancisco at the age of 16.

35:08Like that's just how it was. So we graduated and now it's like, well, OK, I guess I got to live my dad's dream and audition for Juilliard. So I auditioned for the new school and for Juilliard in around like 92. Tariq 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 Grey Poupon commercial or that last scene in Dumb and Dumber. The world's most beautiful woman. It's always a beautiful woman behind this thing. And it's a slow motion walk. Yep. To me. Now, here's the thing. The previous year is when Boyz II Men started to blow up.

35:50They came out the box with a single called Motown Philly. And of course, they're, you know, calling up their high school friends. Hey, be in the video, whatever. So they asked me to play drums in that video. So I milked those 1.9 seconds.

36:06Wait, let me rephrase it. Tariq milked 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. And he'd just look at me like, what are you doing? And I'm like, what? He's like, come on, man, put the shirt on. I was like, come on, dude. Put the same shirt. Yes. That entire summer, I had to dress in the exact outfit that I was wearing. Of course you did. The way you're staying. No, it's true. I'd have had a t-shirt made that would say, or I'd wear a hat that'd say, yes, I'm that guy from 1 minute 32 seconds. The entire summer of 1991, I'd have to put on the hoodie, that dingy-ass T-shirt, those Oshkosh-Bagosh thing, and walk up and down South Street.

36:54We would do like nine rotations. And, you know, wait. Ain't you there? Oh, my God. And Tariq would take their numbers down and everything. And that's literally like our social, you know, the way your staff is holding their hearts right now. I feel like such a dweeb. Not at all. anyway so it's a year later and nothing is more painful than the slow dim fade of like you know al bundy's always bragging about those like four touchdowns at polk high 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 glitter in my hand anymore right so the world's most beautiful warming walks up to me and Tariq and she's like you're the drummer in the Spike Lee Levi's commercial right now there was a guy there's there's a bucket drummer the guy that pioneered the idea of when you see street musicians bucket drumming his name is Chocley he's from DC he moved to New York and he was you know playing buckets and whatnot and Spike Lee saw him and put him in a Levi.

38:04So now he's the new drummer of the moment. Like, he's in the Mariah Carey video and I'm a little jealous. Like, oh, damn. You're like, those are buckets. I gotta find a new drummer.

38:17So she's like, are you the drummer in the Spike Lee Levi's commercial? And I was like, no, I'm not. That's where you and I are different. And you... I'd have said, yes, I am. And you are Blackthaw of the roots. I am Tariq. And just like that commercial in Dumb and Dumber, she's like, oh, okay. And she walks back and got off the next stop and Tariq was just looked like, I felt the, you asshole, riding idiot. He kept, right. He kept riding the whole time, calling my people. And next day, we crashed in my parents' crib, living room, Next day, Soul Train's on. The commercial's on. And then that becomes like our Doc Brown flex capacitor sitcom sort of like.

39:14You look at each other and go. 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, we're grabbing buckets and everything, sneaking out. And we went on South Street. If we didn't make$120, then it would have been a one-time only thing. But in like two hours, 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 condiment packages, and that's a date. You know, make your own stand. Yes, we go to like the park or whatever. Here, have some lunch meat.

39:51Oh, my God. That line never worked for me. It's the way you say it. How'd you like some lunch meat? Oh, no. It never worked. The way you say it. If you're from Philadelphia, if you're from the tri-state, Wawa is a religion. 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 still the condiments. Okay, I'm writing this down. Right. 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 do that. No, and that was like romantic. And movies were cheap back then.

40:36If you see it before 6 p.m., you can see the matinee for like, you know, whatever,$2.50. 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 going to do it again? I was like, yeah. He's like, well, can I join you guys? Sure. Now he drives. I didn't drive. He drives with the station wagon. His dad's station wagon. He shows up. And he has his upright bass in the back. And I'm getting my buckets. He's like, well, dude, I got the station wagon. So get your real drums.

41:04And I was like, oh, man, my dad will kill me. I can't do that. He's like, well, he's not home. I said, yeah, you're right. So I snuck, you know, very stealth operation of loading my drums in the station wagon. And that's literally how the roots were born. This is your origin story. 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 for a guy that didn't watch television clearly clearly you did or something happened or i made up for it yeah you made up for it but uh but i'm you know to me what really speaks to is that you're 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.

41:56Don't send me to HR. No, no, no. Not goes no boundaries. Trust me, you're in a safe space here. What I'm talking about is, are you guys picking up on the same thing? Yeah, from Flight of the Bumblebee to Al Bundy. Yeah, it's Flight of the Bumblebee, Al Bundy, Grey Poupon, this guy from a cereal commercial. Do you know this historical reference? It's all over the map, 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. And it's almost like there's no connection and also a thousand connections. It's really cool. Yeah. Rewind the three hours of that story.

42:32Wait a minute. I don't even think the origin story was what let me here. Who's the rabbit hole remember? What? I told the story. Okay. So here's the deal. Here's the deal. About late night. Yeah. Damn, I'm good. Okay. Okay, 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. Pretty much Dr. J released the chronic, which was kind of the first time that a credible person of pedigree in hip hop did big numbers. Yep. I mean, you know, nothing against Hammer or Vanilla Ice or whoever like was selling by the millions, but it was sort of like, okay, that's not what we listen to.

43:15you know, that sort of thing, or he's not that good. You're saying Vanilla Ice didn't invent hip-hop. No, he didn't. Wait a minute. I've been told I've sold a bill of goods here. Rewind the tape. Rewind the tape. Let's see. I'm certain he did. I'm certain he did. You two would know. Matt and I, hey, Questlove, we're sorry. Yes. But Matt and I are quite certain that Ice Ice Baby was really the beginning of hip-hop. I cannot believe, and I say that with no contractions, I cannot believe that is true. Even Eduardo is horrified right now. No, no, no. I'm going to tell you something. There are two ices in his name.

43:50It's a thing. It's a legal thing. If you have two ices, you're the inventor of hip hop. It's like 007, he earned those kills. Look, I'm going to tell you something. As a DJ that is definitely logged in, probably, you know, my Gladwellian 10 ,000 hour thing is probably in the sevens now. I probably DJ 70 hours. So you say. So you say. 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 get shot for that shit. Like, yeah. Yeah. Ninety three at a house party.

44:31So anyway, so it's like because of that moment where hip hop realize, oh, commerce, we can make. and you know every culture goes this is not just hip-hop where it's like do you do art from your heart or do you got to survive and again i already told you about fight or flight and the needs to survive so of course everyone followed suit and there was just a whole giant rush to make it and so as a result that leftist center uh weirdo hip-hop train left the station the train that de la soul was on in a tribe called quest and arrested development and digible planets they left the station we had to wait there at the platform for another five years it had we stayed in america we wouldn't have made it so thus we had to we called it pulling a hendrix so the way that we kind of pulled the hendrix is is also an epic i noticed you didn't ask one question yet so am i taking over this interview i haven't i've left the room three times okay fine and i got all those i got all those ingredients that you you gave me i went to the ralph's but let me just say to our listeners, just pulling a Hendrix, Jimi Hendrix wasn't making it here and went to London in like 66.

45:45Yeah. And teamed up with two white guys with funny haircuts and became Jimi Hendrix in the experience. And there he blew up. Came back a God. Right. Came back a God. He went to the gym to work out and came back a God. So we signed the Geffen because their success with Guns N' Roses, with Nirvana, and with Aerosmith. And by the time the top of 94 comes, Aerosmith leaves Geffen to go back to Columbia. It's very obvious that Guns N' Roses is not going to have a follow-up record in the next two or three decades. Yes. Axl had to take his time and really work it out. Right. And so April of 94, my manager calls me up and it's like early in the morning and he's like, dude, we're fucked.

46:33And I was like, what? He's like, you didn't hear what happened? I was like, no, it's like, turn on. And literally Kurt Loder is announcing that Kurt Cobain killed himself. And my manager of mine, he's like, wait, there's no more Guns N' Roses or Aerosmith and now Nirvana, the three pillars that are financially holding that label up. Right. 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. And so it's like, OK, what do we got to do? What do we got to do to survive? So we did something that's almost akin to if you remember, you remember and you remember in Ghost when like we'll be.

47:15I never know what's going on. It's so fascinating. 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. And what happens in Whoopi Goldberg? You remember when Patrick Swayze tells Whoopi Goldberg to go to the bank and you're going to, you know, he's giving her instructions. She's shutting the accounts down. So we kind of had a similar situation. Also, that's a scene from Ghost that nobody references. It's not the making of the pot with Demi Moore. It's, you know, the part in Ghost. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

47:51The making the sexy scene. No, no, no, no. The bank transaction. You know, the bank transaction from Ghost. No. So. No, I don't. What it was, what it was, was that. So we were like, we're going to get dropped. So we have to make a move. We found a loft to live in at London. Yep. And that's where we worked out at the gym. So we did this for 18 years. I mean, people will say like, oh, you guys were the fish of hip hop, the grateful dead of hip hop. But it's like we were dependable and responsible. So our job was to stand by in the waiting room. And then it was good survival, but it really wasn't conducive for like having a steady relationship.

48:40Yeah. There are kids in the factor now. And, you know, so we around like 2009, it was sort of like, man, we wish like a Celine Dion situation would happen. A residency. Yeah. You want a residency. And so we just got to the mountaintop of like making good money. Like we finally made it. And it's like, do we just turn our back on this and try something unproven? And we did it. I will say that for us, that was what we needed to actually bond and be friends again. There is a moment. I know I'm loquacious. Give me a safe word like pineapple or something if I'm talking too much. like i see you're turning maroon right now i'm no i'm good that's his normal color yeah that's just me when you see i just those are called veins in my head okay that's how white i am so there's a moment that happened around two 2006 maybe three years before we did fallon and we're on tour of the chili peppers and it's a european tour and they're playing like soccer stadium.

49:44I'm sorry, post lasso football stadiums. Right.

49:52And, you know, it's like 80 ,000 to 120 ,000 a night. And every three to four songs, those guys get into sort of a football magic circle huddle. 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. And then they go back to their instruments. And then I had the set list in my hand. I'm like, wait, they didn't change anything. They didn't change the arrangement. So I'm waiting like days down the line. Like, why do they keep having these little meetings every like five songs and nothing changes from what I know the show to be? It's like muscle memory.

50:29And so I see Flea in the catering and I'm like, dude, what are you guys talking about when you go into that huddle? And Flea's like, yo, man, it's like, I don't know, man. We're just, we're so full of gratitude. Like, we're just four guys that, you know, we met each other when we were 13. And, you know, we're in the da-da-da stadium with 120 ,000 people. And we're just showing gratitude to each other. Like, guys, we really made it. So this is 2006. I'm not evolved yet as a human being. So I get on the tour bus, and I'm like, yo, man, this motherfucker's just like hippie shit. Like, oh, we're so happy to be a monk's.

51:08You know, like I'm really just like being dismissive of it. Like, oh, that's what they're doing. And my manager's like, yeah, well, makes sense. Like, yeah, I can see that because they like each other. That's cool. I was like, yeah, you know. So I go back and start playing places. Wait, what do you mean they actually like each other? And he's like, I see that. They actually, I mean, it's not like a Goodfellas thing. Like, what do you mean I'm funny? But it was sort of like, well, what do you mean they actually like each other? Like, why did you say actually? He's like, you see the chemistry. Like, they actually, they fuck with each other.

51:41I can see that. And I was like, as opposed to what? He's like, come on, man. And I was like, as opposed to what? He's like, come on, man. Don't make me spell it out. I said, what? He said, man, y 'all don't fuck with each other. Y 'all just show up. Y 'all show up. Maybe y 'all come to soundcheck. Y 'all show up backstage. Y 'all do it off memory. You know, you're the one to name the tour buses Gryffindor and Slytherin. Like, you got your own separate tour of buses. Y 'all don't spend the night at each other's houses. Y 'all ain't friends. Y 'all just business partners. He's like, it's cool. Like, keep the peace.

52:15That's funny that you didn't know. You didn't know. Well, I thought, look, we been, by that point, we had known, like, we met in 87. And it's now 2007. Like, it was 20 years later. Like, what do you mean we're not friends? and then I realized 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 Fallon 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 gonna lose our street cred 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 fling 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 in the trailer, did my interview, came back 20 minutes later and we're on UCLA's football field and Jimmy this is going to be my worst reference and I'm in my head like, please don't say this reference Can we just take a guess around the table what this is going to be first?

53:46You go first I'm going to say Saved by the Bell No, I'll give you a hint Okay Oh, Zapped? or Charles and Charge. God damn, you're good. Zapped. This is why I met the man. Yeah, Zapped, the movie where Scott Baio can make people's bras fly off. It's either that or Charles and Charge or Bible Man. Well, no, where he first started, which was eight is enough. 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 oh god i guess stick with pyramid i have to okay yeah so you know they're doing a human pyramid and it it wouldn't have fazed me more but tarik and i are such polar opposites of each other by this point tarik is one of those like, you know,$5 ,000 Japanese denim wearing fashionistas.

54:57Yeah. Of which I was like, yo, he's really on the bottom row on his knee. Like he's ruining his denim. He would never do this. He's one of those Jesus Christ, like not spot nor wrinkle. Meanwhile, I will go to the White House with like mustard stains on my tux. and I look at my manager and I was just like, we're not getting rid of this guy anytime soon, right? And my manager was just like, we're stuck with him. Like literally, Jimmy would not let up until we committed to him and he just did it. And so what I'll say is now the amount of being in the gym on that show has actually made us friends again.

55:46Yeah. 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.

56:03We're probably the only people in history that got sent to HR on our first day on the gig. All right. So if your listeners are, everyone knows what HR is. I know what your demographics are. um i don't i have no idea who's listening i have no idea what yeah i know none of this one of the one of the funniest stories that came from the the the ghost of of conan's late night show was they brought all the roots to hr so i don't be alarmed guys you didn't do anything but you know we kind of want to get in front of the train so they said to me i don't even know if i i should be saying this. 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.

57:02Okay. Am I lightly putting it? Sure. I didn't know that. You know, I was insulated like Nixon. Crimes were committed. Compared yourself to Nixon. In a good way. Of all people. In the way he insulated himself. No, I meant Cynthia Nixon. Not Richard Nixon. The way she insulated herself from some of the problems they had on sex in the city. 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, go with my wife to do shopping, like supermarket shopping and then it went to like mowing his lawn Eventually it went to light construction.

57:54No, that was next. Then, no, no I'm not lying, it went to painting so literally by the end 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, please. And so they just said, look guys, just, 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,

58:38uh, well, you were there, You want to weigh in on anything? Because you know me, like Cynthia Nixon, I was insulated.

58:46That's enough. Thank you. Good point. Good point. I think we put that to bed. 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. It's infrastructure, and we need infrastructure. But you don't know anything about it. Insulated like Cynthia Nixon on Sex and the City. Yes. All right. Now can we start the theme to the. No, wait. Can I just ask you and then we probably have to wrap it up. What do we have to do, Adam, at some point? And I at least ensure that I can come back again. Oh, no, no. Yeah. Oh, you have no idea.

59:28I want to work here, man. You have no idea. This is so nice. Questlove, you are coming back. You're a chill chum. Yeah. And also, I, uh, we can micro dose next time. Yeah. We can micro dose and you could bring some other people. And, um, great. I have a driveway that I need paid. I'm on it. Well, wait a minute. I do have to wrap up something about like, are people actually your friends on the show? So the thing is, is that my new New York times crossword puzzles actually Wordle, but. Oh, me too. Oh, I do Wordle too. Yeah. Uh, are you on a group? No, I don't get, I get an, uh, again, I'm insulated.

1:00:05I, yeah. 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 and I should campaign to fight to get into Bateman's illustrious word of club. What? Oh, it's like Jason Bateman. Wait, you want more time with Jason Bateman.

1:00:32We 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 for my friends. This is crazy because this is what I wanted to ask you about, which is you make these playlists and you do 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 oh i do that all the time like the the amount of he doesn't he doesn't uh question much there's there's a few people like did you really mean to to to put this version of that song on there like i will lightly troll i'm not trying to troll more than i'm just trying to expand the palette yep 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 yes and i'm willing to do the the musical metaphorical uh equivalent of the shawshank shit crawl uh and and go through i go through about 500 songs a week uh of which maybe seven are cool and add that to the database and these are songs that i believe in like not like desert Island Disc, but like I co-sign the song and every part of the song has to be like something that, yeah, this is a great song.

1:02:04And yeah, it started with the Obamas and then I added the Carters. I wanted to add people that just had kids. 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. And then, because if you can reach a kid before six, you can really determine their creativity. What I love about this is that when you do this, you are in a very intimate way in the ear of Barack Obama. You're like creating new neural pathways by throwing in a Trixer for Kids commercial really quickly. You're fucking with. Full circle. You're screwing with the mind of a president of the United States, which is fascinating.

1:02:49I believe that music is sort of nourishing like food and the right song could inspire you to. So I do two types of playlists. 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. And that doesn't mean like, hey, baby, quiet storm music. It's not that. But I do an evening set. So it started with them. And then it was 10. And then it was the 50. so I think right about now I am oh my god that's a lot of scrolling I text 700 there's the list of people you might know some of the names is Vanilla Ice on there? oh my god there's no Robbie Van Winkle I'm adding Vanilla Ice I can't believe I'm holding your list and this is the most impressive list of names I don't want to I want to respect people's privacy no they I mean they're you know it's let's hear it Yeah, just do it.

1:03:47No. Do it. There's just, I mean, Spike Lee is in here. Yeah. Which is, and you got Bill Hader. Yeah, Bill is a music head. 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. And I'll be like, I'm on the tour later, something like that. But no. Kenan Thompson's in here. Yep. Rashida Jones. Yep. Nora Jones. This is amazing. Martha Stewart. Jesus. Yeah, Martha is She's come a long way She's amazing That's my love language So my question is, will you be 342? You bet I will I would be honored To be on this list This is such a cool list of people This is absolutely Ron DeSantis Oh no Yeah I'm surprised to see that name but I'm glad you're working on the guy.

1:04:48For like 2.3 seconds, I was like, wait, how did he get on? I would love it. I would love it if Ron DeSantis was like, you know, when I'm shipping unsuspecting immigrants to Nantucket, I like to calm down occasionally with Questlove's playlist. This is so cool. So great. Please put me on this. Right. this means that we're gonna have to actually be friends now yeah so does he know what to do I know what to do he's gonna check with me to make sure his phone number is right yeah he'll know I change my phone number a lot constantly no he doesn't I don't trust people that change their numbers that much I don't change it a lot do you have that one professional in which you have to have like blah blah blah new blah blah blah three 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.

1:05:53Oh. But it was always, they were always upbeat. They were always like, dude, is this Conan O 'Brien? And like an idiot. Who would give your number away? I don't know. And I would say, yeah, it would be me. No, no, they would give my number away and then they would call me and I'd hear cheering in the background and I had some pretty good conversations. I'll bet you did. Is someone writing your name like in a bathroom stall or something like that? They are now. For a good time. For a lame time. This is, you know, I am by law, I must end this at some point. But this has been absolutely a treat. This is really, no, seriously.

1:06:31Thank you. You are hilarious. And also this has been like a thrill ride of where are we going next? And it's been so much fun. No, I'm not. It's not hyperbole or anything. Like when I say that this podcast literally of all the podcasts I listened to, like during the pandemic and especially during that period in which like you didn't know if you were coming or going. Yeah. You know, some of us had a lot of safety. Guy like me had safety, but I still had like a death every two weeks. And I mean, real death. Like I got to pay for the funeral. I got to pay for the hospital car, that sort of thing.

1:07:07The level of escapism that this podcast brought me. Like if one day when 10 years pass and you talk about like my pivot, especially doing a whole new medium, directing movies and all that stuff. Like what kept you saying, Amir? Like the Pharrell, the Will Pharrell podcast. Oh, God, the rabbit hole 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. my life achievement moments and I'm not even, uh, exaggerating. So I thank you for it. Listen, two things before we go. Thank you for saying that we were glad to be there for you.

1:07:48All three of us. Oh God. I hate saying, you want to take that scenario? Eduardo guys, like, but also, yes, but here's something else. You're whether you want to or not, you're coming back. Yes. And I'm going to ask you, I think I asked one question this time and I'll ask you one question next time. and by over time well you know everything so we're really friends now so we can you're on the playlist yes I'm on the playlist you made it but the thing is that when you travel like come on dog you gotta thank you when you travel man like the Harlem Go Trotter esque magic circle way that you guys operate that's needed I want a Barack Obama episode Yeah, where?

1:08:36Thank you. Guess what? Secret Service, they don't clear it. They do not clear it. You have a criminal record. I've never been caught with my stealing. You have a criminal record. I don't have a criminal record. You've admitted to stealing. You try and get into a room with Barack Obama. That's not going to happen. I've been in a room, but just far from him. Yes. I haven't been able to touch him. Trust me, that was not my call. You don't understand the people he kept us from when he went back to New York. Yeah. It was almost going to be you. Thank God. It's not me. I was angry. Yes. It is. It's not me.

1:09:06Yes, it is. Oh, really? And who's going to pay for these flights with all your demands? I need seven hotel rooms for the 35 Armenian Greeks that are coming with me. How dare you? How dare you? True or not true? True. Yeah. Questlove, thank you so much. I didn't put my hand up to say silence, Sona. Yes, you did. I put it up to say shut up! Which is different than silence. Shut up! You didn't so much do talk to the hand as shut up to the hand. Shut up to the hand. We got to wrap this thing up. Questlove, please come back soon and come back often. Because we have a lot to talk about. And get me that music.

1:09:45Yes, I will. I will bombard you with the best music. And then I'm going to send you my playlist and you will never stop throwing up. Help us all. Thank you, guys. Locken up your overcoat when the wind blows free. Take good care of yourself. You belong to me. Ho-dee-o-dee-o. Eat an apple every day. Shut up to the hand. Does it work? You know what I love? My list I'm going to send to Questlove is that song. And then raindrops keep pumping. And then again, button up your overcoat. No BJ Thomas lander. All right. Peace out. Thank you. Conan O 'Brien Needs a Friend. With Conan O 'Brien, Sonam Ofsessian, and Matt Gourley.

1:10:25Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Nick Leal, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan?

1:11:02Call the Team Coco hotline at 323-451-2821 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. 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.