NBC Must Approve The Roots' Songs Following Michele Bachmann Debacle, Says Questlove
The band's drummer said that "a lot of the song choices" must be cleared before they're played on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon."
NBC is now checking the songs Late Night With Jimmy Fallon's house band The Roots perform on the late-night talker following the controversy surrounding Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann's walk-on music during her appearance in November.
The Roots drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson said that he's "gotta clear a lot of the song choices" with NBC, the Associated Press reports.
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"It's still a comedy show, so they promise not to step on my toes or that type of thing, but they definitely want to know the title of the song, the subject matter of the song, can it be seen as an insult," Questlove said.
Bachmann made an appearance on the Nov. 22 episode of Late Night and when she walked on for her interview with Fallon, The Roots played the 1985 song by Fishbone "Lyin' A-- B----."
Questlove admitted that it "was kind of wrong for me to throw [NBC] under the bus without telling them what it was, so I understand from a business standpoint."
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He mentioned that he heard from Fishbone shortly after Bachmann's appearance. "They have a movie (Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone) out so I guess for them at least the stars were aligned," Questlove said. "They're one of my favorite bands, like I tip my hat to those guys."
Following Bachmann's appearance and an apology by Fallon on Twitter, NBC issued a letter of apology from the network's senior vice president of special programs and late night Greg Vaughn saying that what took place on TV was "not only unfortunate but also unacceptable."
Since the Bachmann mishap, Questlove has received racial "epithets."
"Blocking 3,500 Tea Party extremists [on Twitter] in a three-day period is no fun, especially when you're a drummer dangerously close to carpal tunnel. In the end, was it worth it? Absolutely not," he said in an interview recently.
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