January 3, 2017 • 53 mins
Few musicians can compete with the encyclopedic musical knowledge that Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson possesses—which is great news if you got to be a student of his at NYU. When not teaching music history, the 45-year-old drummer is directing the Grammy-Award winning group The Roots—a hip hop collective that rose from “everyone’s favorite underground secret” in the late 90s to Jimmy Fallon’s house band on The Tonight Show. Whether drumming, DJ’ing, or writing a book on food, Questlove is universally beloved. “The coolest man on late night,” according to the Rolling Stone. But there is one thing this genius of music can’t do: accept that he is one. He talks to Here’s the Thing host Alec Baldwin about a three year exile in London, Jimmy Fallon wooing the Roots, and how meditation saved his life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.
His family and folks close to him called him a mere.
That's a mere Khalib Thompson. But you probably know him
as Quest Love, Philly native music history savant and drummer
and music director for the Grammy Award winning hip hop
(00:22):
group The Roots. When the Roots aren't in the studio
or out on tour, they're backing up Jimmy Fallon on
the Tonight Show. Dude, I gotta say you one of
the hardest working guys ever. We love you so much,
you know, and you and the guys, this is the coolest.
We've been doing this together for what like seven years.
Years he's been called America's bandleader. The forty five year
(00:46):
old drummer is also a DJ, and he's been a caterer.
He just came out with the book about Food this year.
Quest Love is constantly creating, trying to do the many
things he loves seemingly all at once. But why thing
Quest Love doesn't do well is take compliments, which explains
his reaction to a very flattering profile in The New Yorker.
(01:09):
I was pleased you were, Yeah, I don't know, I've
been taught to not relish and celebration of of press
stuff because I do so much. Um, you can't let
it matter. I mean, after a while, it's just like, okay,
I'm it's like now, I don't think I've watched Tonight
(01:30):
Show episode like two years. You haven't watched your show
unless it's super epic. I mean, if it's like Phil Collins,
then I'll watch it to make sure. Have we firstly started?
We started? Okay? Um? I read this piece in the
New Yorker, and I mean, just from my money, I mean,
these press things aren't that important. You're right, but this
(01:52):
piece is very complimentary and real and honest. And I'm thinking,
what do you miss about them? What do you miss
about Philly? Is it Osage Street? You having a mom
and dad, the drums, the basement? What do you miss
about back before you made it? You know what? You know,
it's weird. Um. My sister always rags me about this, um,
and this will probably mark the first time that I
(02:13):
haven't made a pilgrimage. Um. There's certain luminaries in hip
hop that will go back to the old hood. And
I'm like, dog like, why are you? Why are you
driving a Bentley through the projects, you know what I mean?
Like that having that moment I'm in mind is the
exact opposite because my car is like I'm still driving
my first car, which is still driving. Yeah, I'm never
(02:36):
going to give it up. I mean, I have other cars,
but my scion is is my baby. But um uh,
I don't know, like I have this. I often have
this craving to drive back, just drive back and look
for old ghosts. Um it's it's weird, it's it's even
(02:58):
uh even with with food, Like I'll question why am
I sticking to a certain diet from my childhood? Am
I hoping to to find old ghosts? Or I don't
know what it is, But what's a diet from your childhood?
I mean, I'm in a place now, in a position
(03:20):
in which I could be at the prime healthiest of
my life if I chose to. And you know, as
I speak to you, I'm back on that bandwagon in
the piece you talk about a Greek chorus of health
people around you. Whatever, they're back, They're back and singing
louder than ever you asked for it. Because I let
two thousand sixteen be two thousand and sixteen, and it's
(03:42):
you know, it took a toll on me. So I
decided after Thanksgiving, I'm going back to you know, to
to fight for my life again. Um and I think
during Thanksgiving, I don't know, it's just thinking about those
psychological process and I'm like, well, you know, what is
(04:04):
it when you taste these college greens? What is it
when you when you eat this particular type of soul food?
Like are you missing memories of of of grandmam On
on a Sunday? Like food was a very big part
of our my childhood and uh, I'll say, like the
process would start on Thursday. I'd stay at my grandmother's
(04:26):
house and it was always like it was an event.
And Thursdays, like she and her sisters would start the
process of cooking Sunday dinner. So Thursdays, Fridays, Saturday's even
like while watching Soul Train, I'd help with snap beans. Uh.
They're the type of people that would like start a
(04:47):
cake on a Monday and drown it in uh brandy
for about three weeks. Don't touch that game here and
you know that sort of thing. Uh. So it's like
always a big process for this sprawling Sunday dinner, like
every Sunday was like Thanksgiving. Every Sunday was Thanksgiving and special. Yeah,
(05:07):
it was special. So I don't know, maybe I'm looking
for my identity now that I've been sort of Uh,
I don't want to say misplaced, or you know, I've
I've transitioned to another life, another lifestyle which I'm kind
(05:28):
of separate from my childhood memories, which probably explains the
Soul Train obsession, which explains like now now that I've
I've had time to really think about it, and especially
in the last week, it's it's making sense. Like I
don't think I'm collecting seven episodes of soul Train because
(05:50):
I really think that's an awesome show. Of course, I
think it's an awesome show. But you know, in my mind,
I'm thinking, yeah, in my mind, I'm thinking, Okay, the
Frankie Valley episode of Soul Train, my sister and I
almost burnt down the house using the Jiffy popcorn on
the stove. Uh. The Johnny Guitar Watson episode of Soul Train.
I remember like cutting my hand on the the no
(06:13):
Frills Ravioli from Path Mark. Uh. The seventy nine episode
of the Jacksons remember stupping my till in the coffee.
Like there's there's certain childhood memories that are associated with
every episode of souldring. So I think that's why I
hang onto it. Um. And plus like being part of
a uh you know, being in the quote unquote hip
(06:37):
hop generation, a culture that celebrates youth so much. Um.
I think just the idea of transitioning or metamorphosis or
even just vanishing, which I think I think the idea
of vanishing is what's really can trolling a lot of
(07:02):
Americans thoughts in two thousand sixteen, the idea of not
mattering old traditions leaving the idea of change. The idea
of this is related to the election or not. No,
just every yeah, everything. It could be the election, it
could be me personally. I think they have a sense
of somethings vanishing. Um. Yeah, I think just in general,
(07:30):
there's something about two thousand and sixteen that is transitioning
more than anything. I for one, um as a musician
and a lever of the arts. Um, you know, this
is the the largest amount of I mean this yeer
volume of people dying in two thousand and sixteen. Um,
(07:56):
it's for me. This is this is uh a message.
I feel more of my childhood being I feel more
me being stripped away than just like, oh, Natalie Cole died, Oh,
Mauric's White died, Prince died. Oh. Like you know, it's
it's up to light piece of your twenty three key
members of my life that you know shape my life
(08:18):
are like now going in this year, this year, dude,
I mean my It's to the point that even when
I was writing um on my Instagram the there's a
well known, well loved house singer named Colonel Abrams, I
(08:41):
was hesitating to write a tribute to him on Instagram
because now, like it was to the point where people
were like, oh, mirror, you're just the the obituary historian,
Like your Instagram has come become nothing but these long
two paragraph tributes to that of I was life like.
It's it's almost like a joke down and that's that's
(09:02):
where it's come to you. But I think more than that,
it's just I think that all of us right now
are fearing a transition, if you will. So you know,
when I when I do drive back home and you know,
sit there in the parking lot and and here at
the house and everything. I don't know. I think I'm
(09:25):
maybe in my mind, I'm Jacob Marley looking for my
younger seven year old self on going to school or something.
You see, this is the thing I want to get to,
which is when I read the article, and I don't
want to keep referencing that article. But when I read
the article, it's like you kind of get the sense
of like how much longer are you going to do this?
That this is gonna be enough for you? Meaning music
(09:47):
will be in your life maybe in some other way.
Something tells me your love, your worship, music being in
your DNA in the way it is so completely from
what I read. I mean, you being you people, you're
like some company of like, uh, you're like Mozart and
Alan Turing. You know this savantage freak in a good
way about music and so for an entertainment for that matter.
(10:10):
But I'm wondering, so I assume you'll have some place
in your life where do you think it's weird? Because
since that New Yorker article came out, um, it is
blossom and bloomed tenfold um to the point where I
guess at that time, uh, I had let's say I
(10:34):
had maybe eight jobs, um up until early January. I
mean I had six sixteen jobs. Like, I just decided
maybe a month ago to not return to m y
U to teach, um because what were you teaching there? Um?
(10:57):
I taught music history. I taught at Clive Davis Music School.
Me and Harry Wagner, who controls all of Universal Music's reissues.
So anytime you get like, he's the guy that has
to sit back and figure out how to resell you
Marvin Gaye's box set or anything from Motown or anything
(11:18):
from the Rolling Stones, anybody Universal related on that label.
So he and I taught at n y U for
the last five years, um, and mostly we we I
like with that experience. Uh, it got scary the last
year because suddenly I realized, I mean, I mean you
(11:41):
you you have children, so I'm sure that there's a
point in your life where you just a sentence started
with millennials like you know, I go there, right, And
it was frustrating. It's it's it's an amazing mystery because
the rich kids, no, I mean some some are I
(12:05):
mean some are well to do. I've realized that some
came from the lineage of Oh, that's your father, you know,
that sort of thing. Um. But it was to the
point where, because the information is so abundant now, I
actually caught myself wanting them to teach me as I was.
(12:27):
I mean, the questions they were asking about, Uh, like
the production methods of Michael Jackson's thriller, Well, you know,
on human nature. Uh here a fairlight synthesizer. But what
do you think that was the eighty two module or
the yeah that's using that class. It got scary for
(12:49):
a minute. But um, what what I specifically taught about was, um,
the departure record. I'm really I'm really obsessed with the
idea of self sap tajing Um. There's a movie that
came out by comedian Mike Rabiglia called Don't Think Twice
(13:09):
and actually, um coming up the follow up to Whiplash
is the film called uh Land of La La with
Emma Stone La La La La. I'm sorry, I'm getting
that uh La La lamb with Emma Stone and um
Ryan Gosling, which sort of uh deals with the same
(13:33):
uh premise, which is have you seen Don't Think Twice
or heard about this film? Okay, so Don't Think Twice
is a film about um a groundlings or uh kind
of a comedy troupe, um you CBS comedy troupe of
like seven people, um who are really like at the
(13:55):
top of the game with improv and then one day
a Steve Higgins figure comes in and changes one of
their lives by offering them a spot on an smlish
type of platform. And uh, one of them, one of
(14:15):
the seven that have been tightened it forever will clearly
be a star. Um. And of the seven, you know,
it's like it's how they deal with the idea of
again separation and and it's it's just an amazing two
(14:35):
hour exercise and self sabotage. So how it relates to
the class that I teach uh, I teach about departure albums? Uh?
In other words, Uh okay, So the Beatles got tired
of being the Beatles. They got tired of playing in
stadiums in which they couldn't hear themselves of the screaming
and yeah, yeah, you know the story. Assuming that you're
(14:57):
in love, love love, assuming that you're listeners are on
your i Q level. Um okay, So they get a
SHA stadium. After that they pack it in right then
they decide we're tired of being the Beatles, so let's
just make uh you know, a psychedelic record and Tim
Panaley references and and we'll stop being the Beatles. And
(15:20):
then it backfires. It really makes them like the greatest
band of all time. So speaking of Sergeant Peppers, that's
an example, or the opposite is sly Stone, whom uh
after having a massive like one single, hits off of
his records, finally hits jackpot in uh n nine with
(15:44):
the stand album and then a very you know uh
uh uh a victorious uh uh run at at Woodstock
uh leaves his audience like just you know, begging for more.
In whatever is follow up records is going to be like,
you know, it's it's the ultimate alley you set up
(16:04):
someone just shot of alley you and all he has
to do is run to the to the rim and
dunk it. And what does he do? He makes one
of the most depressing let's go get that what is
that's called there's a riot going on? Now? The thing
is that, yeah, family affair. Here's the thing, there's a
(16:27):
riot going on. Leaves a lot of people in conflict
because it's essentially the first funk record. But what I
try to explain to the class is the equivalent of
you know, how like your first okay, not for you personally,
but how a person in two thousand and six, how
(16:48):
their first instinct will be to pull out their cell phone.
If a car accident happens, they pull out their cell phone. Oh,
fight happens, I'm gonna pull out my cell phone to
watch it. What there's the right going on is is
really you're you're watching in real time a human being
having a meltdown on wax and it's it is It's like,
(17:13):
do you know personally, why was he melting down? Well,
that's the thing. There's there's survivor's guilt that people don't
talk about, especially with black people. The idea of like
you reference in the article where you say the thirty
three kids and this one's dead, this one's in jail,
this one's bright and you made it dude, survivor's guilt.
Survivor's guilt is real. Where is he from. He's from
(17:36):
the Bay Area, Oakland. So I mean there's the pressure
of staying true, staying true to yourself, not not selling out. Uh,
the just the pressure of having to now deal with
be careful. You know, you here all the time, be
careful what you asked for. And I feel as though
(17:57):
in those two years of of the pressure of now,
I have to live up to the expectation and the
brilliance that people expect of me. And what does he do? He?
I mean, Slim and Family Stone was in the age
of Martin Luther King, the the utopian dream. It was
a group of black and white musicians, a male and
(18:19):
female musicians. I mean, it was the utopian post idea
of what Martin Luther King's dreams should have been. And
he just piste on the legacy. In turn, he also
gave us funk music. I mean, you know, historians will
be like, you know, it's the first time a drum
machine was used, and it's the first time, you know,
(18:39):
the e cord was used on a on a base
for funk reasons. So it's like, what's the big hit
that comes out before this album? What's he riding the
wave on? What song? Uh? The the hit before was? Uh?
I mean the album before was stand Now. To sort
of stall for time, Epic Records put out the Greatest
Hits Album and put three other songs that weren't associated
(19:02):
so thank you for myself, thank you for letting me
be myself hot fun this summertime. Everybody's like, even even
the Throwaway singers were like, yes, we're waiting, we're waiting
for this big statement and he pisses all over it.
But you know it's the same for you know, Michael
Jackson wanting to escape the family and be his own
(19:25):
man Like. Making Off the Wall was a departure record.
The Beastie Boys not wanting to be known as these
these party frat guys and want to make a serious,
uh piece of art with Paul's boutique, the follow up
to License to Ill. So what I basically do is
I take eight or nine records of departure records. Some
(19:51):
of them they were all made with the premise of
I need to throw away and run away from what
I once was. Some of them made a more successful
all the be Les. Uh. Some of them were complete bust.
I mean, there's the jury still out on Satanic Majesty's
request by the Stones, but you know it's it's you know,
(20:12):
it's it's it's the Stones were never gonna get Beatles love,
and they know it well. They tried. I mean, you know,
I have to give it to them. They tried. So
it's really it's really just about examining the psychological process
of of making music and why we run away from
success or the idea of doing it. Did you wait,
(20:34):
let me ask you, because this is the first did
you did you run away from success? Um? Okay? So
the Roots were everyone's favorite underground secret, Like you know,
that's if you ever meet a music snob and there's
like that that one thing that you know, there's the
band that they know about that you don't know about,
and that makes them cooler than you, and then suddenly
(20:56):
you discover it, and then everyone discovers it, and then
it's suddenly it's like, uh, like everyone has my toy
now in the pool. Yeah, we were that for a
lot of people, and then with our fourth record, suddenly
we hit jack pop because we realized what the formula
was to not to monetize, but to to two gain acceptance.
(21:22):
We realized what the formula was, but acceptance with what
you It says, it seems to me you wanted acceptance
with something else, meaning something tells me, because you're so
acute about music, you didn't have a number one single.
This is what you're gonna learn about me? And you
could and you could have sat down and something tells me,
and I'm not saying this to be kind, you could
write a number one single in the car on the
(21:44):
way to the office right now when you leave here,
and you didn't do that because fear fear. This is
what happens. Okay. So when we started in UM, the
idea of the roots, the idea of we would be
pegged into alternative hip hop. Now, when we first came out,
(22:05):
they were like or they asked jazz. It was like, basically,
if you weren't, if you weren't holding your middle finger
out to the camera, you know, saying singing straight out
of Compton, if you weren't in way, you weren't the
status quo of what people perceived to be as hip hop. UM.
But again, like for people that are not immersed in
(22:26):
hip hop culture and when they just turn the channel
and just see no no bitches, no no, no, no no,
no no, then they just think, oh, that's all it
is UM, which it isn't. Like hip hop is a
wide array of art and it just so happens that
the five percent that catches on is what's in embroidered
people's minds as what it is, but emotionally violent, that's
(22:48):
what they think it is. But it's so much more
than it is. So I came into uh metaphorically speaking,
we got to the train platform as the first wave
of alternative hip hop. Uh train was leaving, you know,
like when you run for the train and the doors
closed and you see the train leaving, you have to
wait for another twelve minutes for the next train to come.
(23:09):
That was the roots. The first train was the Jungle Brothers,
a tripolic quest de las soul. Uh. It kind of
uh ended with arrested development like a ninety one, like
they won like four Grammys. They were the darlings of
you know, finally hip hop as in art, like you know,
people were were exclaiming that like our new savers, and
(23:34):
then the backlash happened, like imagine that being the Obama era,
like finally a new beginning. And then suddenly the next
train comes in and the night Dr Dre and Snoop
Dogg coming in with guns and bitches and ship and
people like, no, this is what we want. So imagine
this election, like how can we go twelve steps back?
(23:54):
And that was the mentality, and so we had to
wait it out and waited out and literally embraced for
it's a tsunami. We just said we're gonna, Paul Hendricks,
We're gonna leave America. We're gonna move to London as
a hub, find refuge in in in London. Uh, get
(24:14):
our musicianship together, get our show together, get our songwriting together,
get our production. Uh. We got a record deal in
ninety two. We exiled in Um three years when three
years you live we were on. We were on Geffin Records,
(24:34):
and In Records had so much money, Guns and Roses, Nirvana, Uh,
Aaron Smith. They made so much money that Geffen was like, Yo,
let's start a black music department where rock label. We
have no black acts, and you know we want to
cash in on on you know, the craze and so
(24:57):
name you just stayed ge Well, I mean there was
a d G C. But um, we were basically kind
of their guinea pig experiment. Um. They were like, you know,
we'll we'll build the staff eventually, but for now, look
just keep the receipts. Here's the credit card. Like that's
(25:18):
what we did. And then, um, anybody married back then
with kids that they had to pull over there or no,
everybody was single. No, we were all single, were all
out of high school and college and everything. And so
what winds up happening was when we first signed, Aerosmith announced, well,
we're gonna leave Geffen. Remember Pump came out and it
was like really big seller. So they went back to
(25:39):
Sony and so I was like, all right, whatever. And
then a little bit later it was kind of obviously
like Guns and Roses was not going to have a
follow up to use your loosen one and two, and
I mean they had an ep of the spaghetti incidence,
but that really didn't make any noise. And so Guns
and Roses wasn't there to have a fill up record
(25:59):
to make the more millions. And then Nirvana came and
you know, just changed everything and make gazillions. So then
when April comes and Kurt Cobain makes his exodus, my
manager called me at one in the afternoon and said,
(26:22):
playing and simple, we're fucked, And I was like, what
do you mean. He's like, dude, Aerosmith's going, Guns and
Roses ain't coming back now, Kirk is gone, and what
they're gonna do is they're they're just going to drop
and cut the label in half. I was like, so
what do we do. He's like, we're gonna go to
the studio for four days. We're going to finish the record.
(26:44):
I was like, eight songs, ye, I don't have any ideas,
make them up on the way there. And he's like,
we're gonna shoot three videos next week. We're gonna shoot
the album cut like totally russ and then we're gonna
take that money because we were controlling our budget. They'd
have a staff, yet we just had the credit card.
We're gonna take our leftover money and we're gonna buy
tim plane tickets and get an apartment in London and
(27:06):
Pola Hendricks and just lived there and pray to God
that's our only hope. And you know, that was our
only hope. And it worked. Uh, we miraculously finished an
album and even in rushing it, I'm shocked. I mean
it was critically claimed and all that. So we were
in the right mind frame. Shot three videos, Uh, kissed
(27:29):
everybody goodbye, came to London with a stick in a
bundle on her um, stayed in a hotel for like
maybe a day or two, and then eventually found a
flat god. An agent said, work is to death. We
don't care what it was, and like that was our
Beatles in Hamburg moment. That was our our Hendricks living
(27:51):
in in in Europe moment. And we made two other
critically acclaimed records, but by the fourth one we felt
if we didn't deliver the goods, uh, we'll be in trouble.
And so we had a scientific conversation with our label.
We said, look, before you, you know, divulge all this
(28:12):
money into us, let's have a conversation. We told them
that no matter how good the records are, no matter
how critically claimed, how many top ten lists we make,
unless you build us a movement, it's never gonna work.
And they said, well what is that. So we said
this is what we need. You want the short version,
long version? He said, give us a short version. We said,
(28:33):
we need three fifteen passenger fans, we need uh expendable
kind of uh studio equipment, uh, and we need to
hire two chefs. And they looked and said what the hell?
And we explained the plan. We said, what we're gonna
do is every Tuesday, at this particular spot, we're gonna
(28:57):
have jam sessions, and every Friday in the Mirrors living room,
we're gonna have jam sessions. The chefs are going to
cook all the food to entice the artistic community. Because
if you say free food, every everything, everybody be surprised.
Everybody comes over and we'll just have jam sessions. And eventually,
(29:18):
what we figured out in those four years was that
no one has ever had success in music without being
contextualized in an artistic community. So you think you like
Stevie Wonder, but it's like, no, you associate Stevie Wonder
with Smokey Temptations, Uh, Diana Ross's Supremes, the Motown family.
(29:39):
You look at look at someone without design, take Justin Timberley.
You're automatically gonna think, Oh and Sink, Oh, Backstreet Boys,
Oh Brittany Disney, Christina Aguilty. You think of the Disney set,
you think of I mean, Prince grew his own crops,
Prince Sheila e Mars, Dame of Time. Like everyone that
has success, the only people that have never had success,
(30:02):
that had success without a family or contextualization was one
Hit Wonders, Where Alan kick the guys that say Macarena,
Tiny Tim Maybe the McArthur part person. But everyone's associated
with the movement. You look at the Police, Okay, they
were part of that post punk punk movement, early new
(30:23):
wave movement. Talking heads like even if they don't do
it by design, we as consumers think that. So we
had to grow on crops. So as a result, m
these three years of having the chef the Jam sessions
week by week, Um, suddenly we were writing the story
(30:44):
of the next millennium of soul. So that's explains Erica
Bado D'Angelo. Uh, most def tali quality basically the fourteen
or fifteen or so platinum based artists in the future
of course. Uh, starting in our living room and then
(31:05):
expanding having their own careerson my words yours. But but
if if London is graduate school, if you all decide
to stop. We found success by our fourth album, and
then you know, the one thing that we didn't plan
on was succeeding. Everyone got successful, so we stopped paying
(31:30):
it for it. Like suddenly it's like, oh, we don't
need the Jam sessence no more, Like we're an MTV
every week, Like that's that's what the mentality was. And
then it all came to I'm not saying it came
to a screeching halt. But people often asked me, what
do I talk. There's there's a movie we did with
Michelle Gandry and Dave Chappelle in two thousand four called
(31:52):
Black Party. It was Dave Chappelle's version of of watch Stacks.
It was Dave Chappell's version of Woodstock, which was basically
kind of the alternative, the alternative hip hop gathering you
know of in Brooklyn, of all the great acts Kanye West, Uh,
(32:17):
the Roots, Dead preys Erica, Baudoo, common Um, all the
all the people that are under our umbrella. And something
happened that day and I realized, just like, Okay, if
you look at wood Stock, wood Stock is not the beginning.
You would think like, oh, what Stock. All these new
acts I've never heard of, They're going to be big.
(32:38):
Wood Stock was the end of the sentence. People think
that what stocks at the beginning of the sentence? What Stocks?
The end of the love movement? Because next was Altamont
and Pay the seventies, the club everyone diing, Uh, Saturday
Night Fever. People think the right about disco. Nope, that
was the end of disco. By the time Hollywood puts
(32:59):
to on screen, it's over right, It's over. So this
was that morning. I was like, ah, this is how
it all ends, and you know, it's like a brace.
It was. It was a the mentality that you have,
which how am I going to survive the next four years? Well,
not you personally, put for the average American, like I
gotta hang on tight. I don't know what's gonna happen.
(33:22):
That's the feeling I had. I mean, on on screen
it looked very beautiful, like Mischelle Gandry is one of
the best directors of all time, and you know it.
It looked like a beautiful celebration. But in my mind,
I was like, well, this is where you know, I
once held the baton and now this youngster named Kanye
West is going to take over the reins and he's
(33:42):
going to be a new leader. And then I'm um,
he yeah, at the time, he was the new leader
because when he arrived on the set, suddenly and I
looked in everyone's eyes, any anyone that was on the
set that was like under nineteen suddenly came at attention
and all the energy and attention went to his direction
(34:03):
and he was just there like stand outside for a
second and looking, but he was new. He just got it. Well.
He he sort of came in his wolf in Sheep's
clothing approaches is kind of brilliant. I really regret, like
we tried to hide our true aspirations and our true
heart because we didn't want to upset the system. So
our thing was like, yes, we represent the everyday man,
(34:27):
the common man. I mean, there's there's nothing in the
Roots narrative that looks appealing to black people, Like we
don't have any tales of there's no tales of of
of there's no look, Mom made it, that's the narrative.
Jay Z's narrative is I made it. I made it,
(34:48):
like it's just it's a winning lottery ticket. I made it.
That was never our narrative. So thus the reason, I mean,
the Roots are more known to be Fish or the
grateful dead of hip hop than you know, the winners
of hip hop. But you know, don't sleep. Fish is
a group that somehow still made eight figures a year
(35:12):
under the radar. They didn't have to shake their ass
in the video, they didn't have to get mired in controversy.
They quietly sell out Madison Square Garden three nights, and
so that for us was a better was a better
way of survival. Coming up, quest Love explains the magic
of Jimmy Fallon and how Fallon convinced the Routes to
(35:34):
join him. On Late nine TV explore the Here's the
Thing Archives, I talked to Danny Bennett, who has spent
his life managing the career of another musical giant, his dad, Tony.
I had this epiphany and I'm like, I'm gonna run.
I'm gonna do this like I'm running for president. And
(35:55):
I went to him and I said, you know, presidents
would not go to Iowa if they didn't have to
go to and and you know, shake the hands I
go instead of having people come to you in Vegas.
I said, your music transcends, right, He's reinventing himself. He's
really kicking ass. I mean in terms of like taking chances.
There's a transcendent quality and great art that that, like
(36:19):
he says, defies demographics. Take a listen at Here's the
Thing dot Org. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
to Here's the Thing. My guest today is a mere
quest Love Thompson. While he's best known as the drummer
(36:42):
and music director for The Roots, the house band on
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He's also sat in
for Erica Badou, Fiona Apple, jay Z, saxophonist Joshua Redman,
and he's managed to put out several books. While some
people were surprised when The Roots took the Fallon gig,
quest love is a man who has a lot he
wants to accomplish. People think it's money, money, money, and
(37:07):
because it's not money, money money, you run and do
something that frees you so you can go do this
other thing. And was this gig with Jimmy frees you can?
I ask you go for it. I hate to be
the guy that answers your question with the with the question. Okay,
so when your first approached to do thirty Rock, I
(37:27):
mean this is the tail the tail in of of
Scorsese film Baby Eater, No, No, No, even um um
the Cops Boston departed. Yeah, so even on the tail
into that, like anyone else, I feel, I mean, this
(37:47):
is why imire you so much. Anyone else would have
overthought the situation and defiantly been like no, like you know,
the particular legacy. I want to read leave behind is
this and that? Or you know, I don't know if
you're thinking about your Wikipedia entry as you do this.
(38:08):
I'm all, no, see, I'm obsessed with how's this going
to look on my Wikipedia? Because you say that, trust me?
Critic critics. One critic actually said, you know, the sad
the sad thing about listening to a Roots record is
that I can hear quest Love imagining his Wikipedia entry
as each song is right exactly. So I mean, how
(38:32):
easy was it for you to make that transition? Because
people say to me, like I didn't have posters of
Shaffer or Doc Steverson on my walls, like one day
I'm gonna do this, and then it's like you've met
with the opportunity and it it was it was a
(38:53):
no brainer. But it was also on the other hand,
I was very it's just about it, and my manager
at the time said, look, this is what's gonna happen.
The critics that have been and you have to understand
how the Roots are perceived in the critical community. And
(39:16):
we kind of unfortunately paying yourself in this corner where
you know, they just thought like we were oh so serious,
and you know, you know, like a surface person will
look at Bono and think like he just thinks of
himself too seriously and that sort of thing, and like
overthinks everything. That's what critics were thinking about us. And
there he was like, we need this because what what
(39:38):
we'll do is it will help break the perception of
the political seriousness of The Roots. And I was like, yeah,
but you know, like I had dreams of of doing
what he does, like selling out stadiums and producing, you know,
releasing other records and da da da da da, And
he was just conventional goal we all have. Yeah, this
(40:01):
is a lot there's a lot of good there as well.
I don't want to put it down to be decaprio.
There's a lot of great things about being Decaprio. It is,
but I was I so fought it, and he says, look,
this is like some critics going to snark you, and
we've got to use it as our motivation to really
come back. And I was like okay, And sure enough
(40:23):
it happened. The first blur news blur about the Roots
are actually going to be a late night band. The
guy says, this is the most depressing news I've heard.
It's the equivalent of Miles Davis being a uh subway
a street subway. Uh busker busker, yes, exactly, which ironically
(40:44):
is how the route started. Um. It's like it's like
watching Miles David busking the subway and he's like, there
you have it. Like we've always been in the position
where we are always and that's the thing. We've always
been underestimated, Like these guys walking in with these instruments,
they're not real, they're not real hip hop. You know,
(41:05):
we've always been in the underdog. What are you guys
gonna do? And he's like, just repeat it again, use
it to your advantage, Like we should define and redefine
the coolness of it all, not to say that oh,
you know, they're same or corniness associated with the position
(41:25):
of being a late night band, but it was our
chance to make it and for us at least, the
coolest thing ever. And that's basically what it was like.
We weren't even really going to accept the position, and
then Jimmy did something that no other human being was
(41:46):
able to do. Uh. With us, by this point we
were like the complete opposite of what we were in
ninety two. This is like two thousand seven, you know,
two tour buses, you know, high off the hog and
everything and in our glory, and uh, we just thought, okay, well, yeah,
come to the show, Jimmy. We just figured like, at
least we'll have a friend on television so that when
(42:09):
we release records, we can be on his show and
promote it. But we're not going to accept this gig.
And the funniest thing happened. I went away for five
minutes to do. We were in U c l A campus.
I want to do a quick, uh interview with the
campus newspaper in my dressing room. And when it was
over six minutes later, I opened the door and on
(42:32):
the on the field grass, Jimmy and all eight members
of the Roots we're in the eight is Enough human
pyramid stands and I looked at my manager and we
are the most cynical, snarkiest, smartass know it all. You're
(42:52):
we're the smartest guys in the room and not you.
We just looked at each other and we're like, we're
not getting rim this guy or and he just looked like, no,
we're not. And what Jimmy managed to do was disarm
us in less than ten minutes. Like Tarik alone, anything
(43:15):
that Tarik wears is worth twenty dollars, like he's not
driving a spark was on. Yeah, I mean Tarik drives
before he wears like ten thousand dollar Japanese denim. You
know what I mean. He was on the bottom, like
Tarik with nerve put his jeans on on the dirty
(43:38):
I'm like, what did this guy do to talk? What
did he do? What did he do? I don't I'm
still trying to figure it. He has he's that guy.
He's that guy like when you watch the movie and
the the guys are trying to dissemble the bomb. In
like point three seconds, he as the leg of the draw.
(44:01):
He knows exactly how did disarm. He literally disarmed us
and showed us the prose of the situation. It was
as if we agreed to it already and forgot. Well.
But but let me let me say that this that
I worshiped, Jimmy I adored. And the thing is, Jimmy
is guileless. Jimmy's a kid, and and that freedom and
(44:22):
that Jimmy's gonna flow with the ground. But we're all kids, right.
But what's great is you guys in behind him with
I'm not gonna say cynicism. But there's a gravity, you guys,
there's a balance exactly, there's a great there's a great
balance there. There's a great balance there. What I what
I discovered the first month in first of all, what
I discovered about myself and about the band um starters
(44:49):
for a band that sat and Rolling Stones twenty best
band Live Bands of All Time list. I noticed that
we never ever practice as a band because our shows
are Springsteen length, three hours every night, and we we
(45:10):
did two hundred shows a night. Like every show was
like its own. I never wanted to snack before the meal,
you know, you don't wanna before the orgy whatever. Uh right,
And so when we got there and we were in
(45:32):
this closed in room, eight of us looking at each other,
it was the hardest thing in the world to do
because we never did this before, and like I had
to call my manager, like yo, we did not know
how to It was like being naked in public or
something like. It took three weeks, but suddenly we rehearsed
(45:52):
and became better musicians. We became better songwriters, became better
producers because they it's all these challenge is of Okay,
I need a ten seconds sting for d Da Da
Da da Da. Here's the name of the song now,
and it made us more focused song like we're now.
I felt like we've robbed our fan base those initial
(46:13):
fifteen years because we're so much wiser now at songwriting,
at being musicians, at entertaining. Like there's so much knowledge
that we've gotten that we didn't know. I thought it
was gonna be a cushy retirement gig. Okay, we'll just
set off in the sunset. I'll be fine. My mom's
(46:34):
house will be paid off, my b that'll be cool.
But that was foolish. I was made for this gig
and didn't realize it yet. Are you guys gonna tour
perform any time? Thinking about it? We what was once
thirty eight weeks on the road is now a normal
(46:55):
two days on the road is now We're gonna go
out again, which is normal. We do weekends, We have hiatuses,
talk about your books. Yeah, well it's the first you
find time for that. Well. The thing is, I'm I'm
a serial tweeter, which is why I know, like people
(47:18):
are ragging our current president elect about you know, why
do you get up at three and and five that's
the best times to tweet. Ever, I don't want to
defend him publicly that way, but trust me too. I
got the pad next to my bed lighting scenes down
for TV shows. So um because of the the paragraph
(47:41):
nature of all my instagrams and and thoughts. Um, they
were basically like, well, why don't you just write a
book already? And at first I was resistant to it
because I was like, how many ideas do I have
in me? But um, so far, I've written three books
and I'm kind of proud of it. The first book,
Momento Blues, is kind of a a music memoir where
(48:04):
I talk about life and music, and the second one
was a passion project. Uh. I'm very obsessed with the
show Soul Train, so I wrote the Ultimate Coffee table
book about Soul Train and uh my my last book
was something the Food, about which is I discovered that
comedians and uh chefs are kind of onor on a
(48:27):
parallel creative level as musicians. That's what I learned in
in fallon watching I'm observing David Chang and Dominique Ganzel
and all these these great chefs when they're preparing foods
for our show. I started to notice that they think
like musicians and became friends with them and then did
(48:49):
a kind of observational study at their creative methods. Um,
and I guess the next book I'm gonna work on
is also about creativity and creativity. Well, I'm I'm the
guy that doesn't necessarily I don't marvel at the vehicle
(49:12):
more than I'm marvel at the machinery that makes it run.
And I'm always curious about the preparation process, Like I
beg Higgins daily to let me sit in on that,
Like can I I want to enter in at SNL
(49:32):
so I can be And Lauren is not having none
of this, by the way, uh too be there on
the pitch meetings, like to to when I watched the
show on Saturday. I'm always wondering what was the pitch, like,
like how do they pitch this? And how did it
morph into what I'm watching right now? I want to
(49:55):
know what it's like in the beginning, So like I'm
always sneaking around on the seventeen floor trying to figure out,
you know, how SNL works, So like between steps and Comedians,
I'm trying to inspire myself with the restless the creative process. Yes,
and I'm also wrestling. Well, the thing I admire and
the thing I'm so drawn to about you and that's
so attractive about you is there's this discipline, there's this
(50:19):
sense of history and at the same time, like Tony Bennett,
who I always use him as the standard of this,
it's like, but we also have to have a good time.
This is what we dreamed of doing, we dreamed of
being here. Let's have a good time, yes, and enjoy
it because this is what we wanted. And I get that.
I get the two from you. I get the discipline
(50:40):
and and and and and the the the the professionalism,
if you will, But I also get where you're like,
let's I enjoy it. Well, I enjoy it now. Before
uh maybe five years ago, I didn't enjoy it because
you're so immersed in the work. But uh um, a
(51:01):
lot of it. Well, I discovered meditating because well, yeah,
I mean I hate to be so more of it.
But it was like, you know, again, growing up in
hip hop culture, the number one fear in your twenties
is like bullets in the club, So it's like, stay
off the club. But then at the age of like
(51:23):
strokes became a new bullet. So it's like insulin. Yes,
I I had to make a choice. So yes, having
a clear mind and clear thoughts helps, and I know
it's it's such a hard sell. It saves my life,
Like there's no way that you can have my rigorous schedule.
(51:46):
I feel so bit like my inner circle of nine people,
I'm the only person without gray hair, and I look
at them like, wow, I pay you people to take
the gray hair that I I'm not getting. Well, let
me just say this that you're not married now, I
have a girlfriend, no kids, no, no, So here's what
(52:08):
I want to here's what I want to try to
close with. If I'm if I'm able, do you want
to raise kids as well? Absolutely, that'd be so cool.
You would be such a great parents. Anybody that would
have you as a parent would be so lucky. Well, yeah,
thank you. It's weird. I'm bad with compliments like yeah.
I feel as though everything that I'm doing is eventually
(52:31):
to pass it on and pass the love to to someone. Drummer,
DJ author and fingers crossed Future of Father a mere
quest Love Thompson. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
to here's the thing
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.
His family and folks close to him called him a mere.
That's a mere Khalib Thompson. But you probably know him
as Quest Love, Philly native music history savant and drummer
and music director for the Grammy Award winning hip hop
(00:22):
group The Roots. When the Roots aren't in the studio
or out on tour, they're backing up Jimmy Fallon on
the Tonight Show. Dude, I gotta say you one of
the hardest working guys ever. We love you so much,
you know, and you and the guys, this is the coolest.
We've been doing this together for what like seven years.
Years he's been called America's bandleader. The forty five year
(00:46):
old drummer is also a DJ, and he's been a caterer.
He just came out with the book about Food this year.
Quest Love is constantly creating, trying to do the many
things he loves seemingly all at once. But why thing
Quest Love doesn't do well is take compliments, which explains
his reaction to a very flattering profile in The New Yorker.
(01:09):
I was pleased you were, Yeah, I don't know, I've
been taught to not relish and celebration of of press
stuff because I do so much. Um, you can't let
it matter. I mean, after a while, it's just like, okay,
I'm it's like now, I don't think I've watched Tonight
(01:30):
Show episode like two years. You haven't watched your show
unless it's super epic. I mean, if it's like Phil Collins,
then I'll watch it to make sure. Have we firstly started?
We started? Okay? Um? I read this piece in the
New Yorker, and I mean, just from my money, I mean,
these press things aren't that important. You're right, but this
(01:52):
piece is very complimentary and real and honest. And I'm thinking,
what do you miss about them? What do you miss
about Philly? Is it Osage Street? You having a mom
and dad, the drums, the basement? What do you miss
about back before you made it? You know what? You know,
it's weird. Um. My sister always rags me about this, um,
and this will probably mark the first time that I
(02:13):
haven't made a pilgrimage. Um. There's certain luminaries in hip
hop that will go back to the old hood. And
I'm like, dog like, why are you? Why are you
driving a Bentley through the projects, you know what I mean?
Like that having that moment I'm in mind is the
exact opposite because my car is like I'm still driving
my first car, which is still driving. Yeah, I'm never
(02:36):
going to give it up. I mean, I have other cars,
but my scion is is my baby. But um uh,
I don't know, like I have this. I often have
this craving to drive back, just drive back and look
for old ghosts. Um it's it's weird, it's it's even
(02:58):
uh even with with food, Like I'll question why am
I sticking to a certain diet from my childhood? Am
I hoping to to find old ghosts? Or I don't
know what it is, But what's a diet from your childhood?
I mean, I'm in a place now, in a position
(03:20):
in which I could be at the prime healthiest of
my life if I chose to. And you know, as
I speak to you, I'm back on that bandwagon in
the piece you talk about a Greek chorus of health
people around you. Whatever, they're back, They're back and singing
louder than ever you asked for it. Because I let
two thousand sixteen be two thousand and sixteen, and it's
(03:42):
you know, it took a toll on me. So I
decided after Thanksgiving, I'm going back to you know, to
to fight for my life again. Um and I think
during Thanksgiving, I don't know, it's just thinking about those
psychological process and I'm like, well, you know, what is
(04:04):
it when you taste these college greens? What is it
when you when you eat this particular type of soul food?
Like are you missing memories of of of grandmam On
on a Sunday? Like food was a very big part
of our my childhood and uh, I'll say, like the
process would start on Thursday. I'd stay at my grandmother's
(04:26):
house and it was always like it was an event.
And Thursdays, like she and her sisters would start the
process of cooking Sunday dinner. So Thursdays, Fridays, Saturday's even
like while watching Soul Train, I'd help with snap beans. Uh.
They're the type of people that would like start a
(04:47):
cake on a Monday and drown it in uh brandy
for about three weeks. Don't touch that game here and
you know that sort of thing. Uh. So it's like
always a big process for this sprawling Sunday dinner, like
every Sunday was like Thanksgiving. Every Sunday was Thanksgiving and special. Yeah,
(05:07):
it was special. So I don't know, maybe I'm looking
for my identity now that I've been sort of Uh,
I don't want to say misplaced, or you know, I've
I've transitioned to another life, another lifestyle which I'm kind
(05:28):
of separate from my childhood memories, which probably explains the
Soul Train obsession, which explains like now now that I've
I've had time to really think about it, and especially
in the last week, it's it's making sense. Like I
don't think I'm collecting seven episodes of soul Train because
(05:50):
I really think that's an awesome show. Of course, I
think it's an awesome show. But you know, in my mind,
I'm thinking, yeah, in my mind, I'm thinking, Okay, the
Frankie Valley episode of Soul Train, my sister and I
almost burnt down the house using the Jiffy popcorn on
the stove. Uh. The Johnny Guitar Watson episode of Soul Train.
I remember like cutting my hand on the the no
(06:13):
Frills Ravioli from Path Mark. Uh. The seventy nine episode
of the Jacksons remember stupping my till in the coffee.
Like there's there's certain childhood memories that are associated with
every episode of souldring. So I think that's why I
hang onto it. Um. And plus like being part of
a uh you know, being in the quote unquote hip
(06:37):
hop generation, a culture that celebrates youth so much. Um.
I think just the idea of transitioning or metamorphosis or
even just vanishing, which I think I think the idea
of vanishing is what's really can trolling a lot of
(07:02):
Americans thoughts in two thousand sixteen, the idea of not
mattering old traditions leaving the idea of change. The idea
of this is related to the election or not. No,
just every yeah, everything. It could be the election, it
could be me personally. I think they have a sense
of somethings vanishing. Um. Yeah, I think just in general,
(07:30):
there's something about two thousand and sixteen that is transitioning
more than anything. I for one, um as a musician
and a lever of the arts. Um, you know, this
is the the largest amount of I mean this yeer
volume of people dying in two thousand and sixteen. Um,
(07:56):
it's for me. This is this is uh a message.
I feel more of my childhood being I feel more
me being stripped away than just like, oh, Natalie Cole died, Oh,
Mauric's White died, Prince died. Oh. Like you know, it's
it's up to light piece of your twenty three key
members of my life that you know shape my life
(08:18):
are like now going in this year, this year, dude,
I mean my It's to the point that even when
I was writing um on my Instagram the there's a
well known, well loved house singer named Colonel Abrams, I
(08:41):
was hesitating to write a tribute to him on Instagram
because now, like it was to the point where people
were like, oh, mirror, you're just the the obituary historian,
Like your Instagram has come become nothing but these long
two paragraph tributes to that of I was life like.
It's it's almost like a joke down and that's that's
(09:02):
where it's come to you. But I think more than that,
it's just I think that all of us right now
are fearing a transition, if you will. So you know,
when I when I do drive back home and you know,
sit there in the parking lot and and here at
the house and everything. I don't know. I think I'm
(09:25):
maybe in my mind, I'm Jacob Marley looking for my
younger seven year old self on going to school or something.
You see, this is the thing I want to get to,
which is when I read the article, and I don't
want to keep referencing that article. But when I read
the article, it's like you kind of get the sense
of like how much longer are you going to do this?
That this is gonna be enough for you? Meaning music
(09:47):
will be in your life maybe in some other way.
Something tells me your love, your worship, music being in
your DNA in the way it is so completely from
what I read. I mean, you being you people, you're
like some company of like, uh, you're like Mozart and
Alan Turing. You know this savantage freak in a good
way about music and so for an entertainment for that matter.
(10:10):
But I'm wondering, so I assume you'll have some place
in your life where do you think it's weird? Because
since that New Yorker article came out, um, it is
blossom and bloomed tenfold um to the point where I
guess at that time, uh, I had let's say I
(10:34):
had maybe eight jobs, um up until early January. I
mean I had six sixteen jobs. Like, I just decided
maybe a month ago to not return to m y
U to teach, um because what were you teaching there? Um?
(10:57):
I taught music history. I taught at Clive Davis Music School.
Me and Harry Wagner, who controls all of Universal Music's reissues.
So anytime you get like, he's the guy that has
to sit back and figure out how to resell you
Marvin Gaye's box set or anything from Motown or anything
(11:18):
from the Rolling Stones, anybody Universal related on that label.
So he and I taught at n y U for
the last five years, um, and mostly we we I
like with that experience. Uh, it got scary the last
year because suddenly I realized, I mean, I mean you
(11:41):
you you have children, so I'm sure that there's a
point in your life where you just a sentence started
with millennials like you know, I go there, right, And
it was frustrating. It's it's it's an amazing mystery because
the rich kids, no, I mean some some are I
(12:05):
mean some are well to do. I've realized that some
came from the lineage of Oh, that's your father, you know,
that sort of thing. Um. But it was to the
point where, because the information is so abundant now, I
actually caught myself wanting them to teach me as I was.
(12:27):
I mean, the questions they were asking about, Uh, like
the production methods of Michael Jackson's thriller, Well, you know,
on human nature. Uh here a fairlight synthesizer. But what
do you think that was the eighty two module or
the yeah that's using that class. It got scary for
(12:49):
a minute. But um, what what I specifically taught about was, um,
the departure record. I'm really I'm really obsessed with the
idea of self sap tajing Um. There's a movie that
came out by comedian Mike Rabiglia called Don't Think Twice
(13:09):
and actually, um coming up the follow up to Whiplash
is the film called uh Land of La La with
Emma Stone La La La La. I'm sorry, I'm getting
that uh La La lamb with Emma Stone and um
Ryan Gosling, which sort of uh deals with the same
(13:33):
uh premise, which is have you seen Don't Think Twice
or heard about this film? Okay, so Don't Think Twice
is a film about um a groundlings or uh kind
of a comedy troupe, um you CBS comedy troupe of
like seven people, um who are really like at the
(13:55):
top of the game with improv and then one day
a Steve Higgins figure comes in and changes one of
their lives by offering them a spot on an smlish
type of platform. And uh, one of them, one of
(14:15):
the seven that have been tightened it forever will clearly
be a star. Um. And of the seven, you know,
it's like it's how they deal with the idea of
again separation and and it's it's just an amazing two
(14:35):
hour exercise and self sabotage. So how it relates to
the class that I teach uh, I teach about departure albums? Uh?
In other words, Uh okay, So the Beatles got tired
of being the Beatles. They got tired of playing in
stadiums in which they couldn't hear themselves of the screaming
and yeah, yeah, you know the story. Assuming that you're
(14:57):
in love, love love, assuming that you're listeners are on
your i Q level. Um okay, So they get a
SHA stadium. After that they pack it in right then
they decide we're tired of being the Beatles, so let's
just make uh you know, a psychedelic record and Tim
Panaley references and and we'll stop being the Beatles. And
(15:20):
then it backfires. It really makes them like the greatest
band of all time. So speaking of Sergeant Peppers, that's
an example, or the opposite is sly Stone, whom uh
after having a massive like one single, hits off of
his records, finally hits jackpot in uh n nine with
(15:44):
the stand album and then a very you know uh
uh uh a victorious uh uh run at at Woodstock
uh leaves his audience like just you know, begging for more.
In whatever is follow up records is going to be like,
you know, it's it's the ultimate alley you set up
(16:04):
someone just shot of alley you and all he has
to do is run to the to the rim and
dunk it. And what does he do? He makes one
of the most depressing let's go get that what is
that's called there's a riot going on? Now? The thing
is that, yeah, family affair. Here's the thing, there's a
(16:27):
riot going on. Leaves a lot of people in conflict
because it's essentially the first funk record. But what I
try to explain to the class is the equivalent of
you know, how like your first okay, not for you personally,
but how a person in two thousand and six, how
(16:48):
their first instinct will be to pull out their cell phone.
If a car accident happens, they pull out their cell phone. Oh,
fight happens, I'm gonna pull out my cell phone to
watch it. What there's the right going on is is
really you're you're watching in real time a human being
having a meltdown on wax and it's it is It's like,
(17:13):
do you know personally, why was he melting down? Well,
that's the thing. There's there's survivor's guilt that people don't
talk about, especially with black people. The idea of like
you reference in the article where you say the thirty
three kids and this one's dead, this one's in jail,
this one's bright and you made it dude, survivor's guilt.
Survivor's guilt is real. Where is he from. He's from
(17:36):
the Bay Area, Oakland. So I mean there's the pressure
of staying true, staying true to yourself, not not selling out. Uh,
the just the pressure of having to now deal with
be careful. You know, you here all the time, be
careful what you asked for. And I feel as though
(17:57):
in those two years of of the pressure of now,
I have to live up to the expectation and the
brilliance that people expect of me. And what does he do? He?
I mean, Slim and Family Stone was in the age
of Martin Luther King, the the utopian dream. It was
a group of black and white musicians, a male and
(18:19):
female musicians. I mean, it was the utopian post idea
of what Martin Luther King's dreams should have been. And
he just piste on the legacy. In turn, he also
gave us funk music. I mean, you know, historians will
be like, you know, it's the first time a drum
machine was used, and it's the first time, you know,
(18:39):
the e cord was used on a on a base
for funk reasons. So it's like, what's the big hit
that comes out before this album? What's he riding the
wave on? What song? Uh? The the hit before was? Uh?
I mean the album before was stand Now. To sort
of stall for time, Epic Records put out the Greatest
Hits Album and put three other songs that weren't associated
(19:02):
so thank you for myself, thank you for letting me
be myself hot fun this summertime. Everybody's like, even even
the Throwaway singers were like, yes, we're waiting, we're waiting
for this big statement and he pisses all over it.
But you know it's the same for you know, Michael
Jackson wanting to escape the family and be his own
(19:25):
man Like. Making Off the Wall was a departure record.
The Beastie Boys not wanting to be known as these
these party frat guys and want to make a serious,
uh piece of art with Paul's boutique, the follow up
to License to Ill. So what I basically do is
I take eight or nine records of departure records. Some
(19:51):
of them they were all made with the premise of
I need to throw away and run away from what
I once was. Some of them made a more successful
all the be Les. Uh. Some of them were complete bust.
I mean, there's the jury still out on Satanic Majesty's
request by the Stones, but you know it's it's you know,
(20:12):
it's it's it's the Stones were never gonna get Beatles love,
and they know it well. They tried. I mean, you know,
I have to give it to them. They tried. So
it's really it's really just about examining the psychological process
of of making music and why we run away from
success or the idea of doing it. Did you wait,
(20:34):
let me ask you, because this is the first did
you did you run away from success? Um? Okay? So
the Roots were everyone's favorite underground secret, Like you know,
that's if you ever meet a music snob and there's
like that that one thing that you know, there's the
band that they know about that you don't know about,
and that makes them cooler than you, and then suddenly
(20:56):
you discover it, and then everyone discovers it, and then
it's suddenly it's like, uh, like everyone has my toy
now in the pool. Yeah, we were that for a
lot of people, and then with our fourth record, suddenly
we hit jack pop because we realized what the formula
was to not to monetize, but to to two gain acceptance.
(21:22):
We realized what the formula was, but acceptance with what
you It says, it seems to me you wanted acceptance
with something else, meaning something tells me, because you're so
acute about music, you didn't have a number one single.
This is what you're gonna learn about me? And you
could and you could have sat down and something tells me,
and I'm not saying this to be kind, you could
write a number one single in the car on the
(21:44):
way to the office right now when you leave here,
and you didn't do that because fear fear. This is
what happens. Okay. So when we started in UM, the
idea of the roots, the idea of we would be
pegged into alternative hip hop. Now, when we first came out,
(22:05):
they were like or they asked jazz. It was like, basically,
if you weren't, if you weren't holding your middle finger
out to the camera, you know, saying singing straight out
of Compton, if you weren't in way, you weren't the
status quo of what people perceived to be as hip hop. UM.
But again, like for people that are not immersed in
(22:26):
hip hop culture and when they just turn the channel
and just see no no bitches, no no, no, no no,
no no, then they just think, oh, that's all it
is UM, which it isn't. Like hip hop is a
wide array of art and it just so happens that
the five percent that catches on is what's in embroidered
people's minds as what it is, but emotionally violent, that's
(22:48):
what they think it is. But it's so much more
than it is. So I came into uh metaphorically speaking,
we got to the train platform as the first wave
of alternative hip hop. Uh train was leaving, you know,
like when you run for the train and the doors
closed and you see the train leaving, you have to
wait for another twelve minutes for the next train to come.
(23:09):
That was the roots. The first train was the Jungle Brothers,
a tripolic quest de las soul. Uh. It kind of
uh ended with arrested development like a ninety one, like
they won like four Grammys. They were the darlings of
you know, finally hip hop as in art, like you know,
people were were exclaiming that like our new savers, and
(23:34):
then the backlash happened, like imagine that being the Obama era,
like finally a new beginning. And then suddenly the next
train comes in and the night Dr Dre and Snoop
Dogg coming in with guns and bitches and ship and
people like, no, this is what we want. So imagine
this election, like how can we go twelve steps back?
(23:54):
And that was the mentality, and so we had to
wait it out and waited out and literally embraced for
it's a tsunami. We just said we're gonna, Paul Hendricks,
We're gonna leave America. We're gonna move to London as
a hub, find refuge in in in London. Uh, get
(24:14):
our musicianship together, get our show together, get our songwriting together,
get our production. Uh. We got a record deal in
ninety two. We exiled in Um three years when three
years you live we were on. We were on Geffin Records,
(24:34):
and In Records had so much money, Guns and Roses, Nirvana, Uh,
Aaron Smith. They made so much money that Geffen was like, Yo,
let's start a black music department where rock label. We
have no black acts, and you know we want to
cash in on on you know, the craze and so
(24:57):
name you just stayed ge Well, I mean there was
a d G C. But um, we were basically kind
of their guinea pig experiment. Um. They were like, you know,
we'll we'll build the staff eventually, but for now, look
just keep the receipts. Here's the credit card. Like that's
(25:18):
what we did. And then, um, anybody married back then
with kids that they had to pull over there or no,
everybody was single. No, we were all single, were all
out of high school and college and everything. And so
what winds up happening was when we first signed, Aerosmith announced, well,
we're gonna leave Geffen. Remember Pump came out and it
was like really big seller. So they went back to
(25:39):
Sony and so I was like, all right, whatever. And
then a little bit later it was kind of obviously
like Guns and Roses was not going to have a
follow up to use your loosen one and two, and
I mean they had an ep of the spaghetti incidence,
but that really didn't make any noise. And so Guns
and Roses wasn't there to have a fill up record
(25:59):
to make the more millions. And then Nirvana came and
you know, just changed everything and make gazillions. So then
when April comes and Kurt Cobain makes his exodus, my
manager called me at one in the afternoon and said,
(26:22):
playing and simple, we're fucked, And I was like, what
do you mean. He's like, dude, Aerosmith's going, Guns and
Roses ain't coming back now, Kirk is gone, and what
they're gonna do is they're they're just going to drop
and cut the label in half. I was like, so
what do we do. He's like, we're gonna go to
the studio for four days. We're going to finish the record.
(26:44):
I was like, eight songs, ye, I don't have any ideas,
make them up on the way there. And he's like,
we're gonna shoot three videos next week. We're gonna shoot
the album cut like totally russ and then we're gonna
take that money because we were controlling our budget. They'd
have a staff, yet we just had the credit card.
We're gonna take our leftover money and we're gonna buy
tim plane tickets and get an apartment in London and
(27:06):
Pola Hendricks and just lived there and pray to God
that's our only hope. And you know, that was our
only hope. And it worked. Uh, we miraculously finished an
album and even in rushing it, I'm shocked. I mean
it was critically claimed and all that. So we were
in the right mind frame. Shot three videos, Uh, kissed
(27:29):
everybody goodbye, came to London with a stick in a
bundle on her um, stayed in a hotel for like
maybe a day or two, and then eventually found a
flat god. An agent said, work is to death. We
don't care what it was, and like that was our
Beatles in Hamburg moment. That was our our Hendricks living
(27:51):
in in in Europe moment. And we made two other
critically acclaimed records, but by the fourth one we felt
if we didn't deliver the goods, uh, we'll be in trouble.
And so we had a scientific conversation with our label.
We said, look, before you, you know, divulge all this
(28:12):
money into us, let's have a conversation. We told them
that no matter how good the records are, no matter
how critically claimed, how many top ten lists we make,
unless you build us a movement, it's never gonna work.
And they said, well what is that. So we said
this is what we need. You want the short version,
long version? He said, give us a short version. We said,
(28:33):
we need three fifteen passenger fans, we need uh expendable
kind of uh studio equipment, uh, and we need to
hire two chefs. And they looked and said what the hell?
And we explained the plan. We said, what we're gonna
do is every Tuesday, at this particular spot, we're gonna
(28:57):
have jam sessions, and every Friday in the Mirrors living room,
we're gonna have jam sessions. The chefs are going to
cook all the food to entice the artistic community. Because
if you say free food, every everything, everybody be surprised.
Everybody comes over and we'll just have jam sessions. And eventually,
(29:18):
what we figured out in those four years was that
no one has ever had success in music without being
contextualized in an artistic community. So you think you like
Stevie Wonder, but it's like, no, you associate Stevie Wonder
with Smokey Temptations, Uh, Diana Ross's Supremes, the Motown family.
(29:39):
You look at look at someone without design, take Justin Timberley.
You're automatically gonna think, Oh and Sink, Oh, Backstreet Boys,
Oh Brittany Disney, Christina Aguilty. You think of the Disney set,
you think of I mean, Prince grew his own crops,
Prince Sheila e Mars, Dame of Time. Like everyone that
has success, the only people that have never had success,
(30:02):
that had success without a family or contextualization was one
Hit Wonders, Where Alan kick the guys that say Macarena,
Tiny Tim Maybe the McArthur part person. But everyone's associated
with the movement. You look at the Police, Okay, they
were part of that post punk punk movement, early new
(30:23):
wave movement. Talking heads like even if they don't do
it by design, we as consumers think that. So we
had to grow on crops. So as a result, m
these three years of having the chef the Jam sessions
week by week, Um, suddenly we were writing the story
(30:44):
of the next millennium of soul. So that's explains Erica
Bado D'Angelo. Uh, most def tali quality basically the fourteen
or fifteen or so platinum based artists in the future
of course. Uh, starting in our living room and then
(31:05):
expanding having their own careerson my words yours. But but
if if London is graduate school, if you all decide
to stop. We found success by our fourth album, and
then you know, the one thing that we didn't plan
on was succeeding. Everyone got successful, so we stopped paying
(31:30):
it for it. Like suddenly it's like, oh, we don't
need the Jam sessence no more, Like we're an MTV
every week, Like that's that's what the mentality was. And
then it all came to I'm not saying it came
to a screeching halt. But people often asked me, what
do I talk. There's there's a movie we did with
Michelle Gandry and Dave Chappelle in two thousand four called
(31:52):
Black Party. It was Dave Chappelle's version of of watch Stacks.
It was Dave Chappell's version of Woodstock, which was basically
kind of the alternative, the alternative hip hop gathering you
know of in Brooklyn, of all the great acts Kanye West, Uh,
(32:17):
the Roots, Dead preys Erica, Baudoo, common Um, all the
all the people that are under our umbrella. And something
happened that day and I realized, just like, Okay, if
you look at wood Stock, wood Stock is not the beginning.
You would think like, oh, what Stock. All these new
acts I've never heard of, They're going to be big.
(32:38):
Wood Stock was the end of the sentence. People think
that what stocks at the beginning of the sentence? What Stocks?
The end of the love movement? Because next was Altamont
and Pay the seventies, the club everyone diing, Uh, Saturday
Night Fever. People think the right about disco. Nope, that
was the end of disco. By the time Hollywood puts
(32:59):
to on screen, it's over right, It's over. So this
was that morning. I was like, ah, this is how
it all ends, and you know, it's like a brace.
It was. It was a the mentality that you have,
which how am I going to survive the next four years? Well,
not you personally, put for the average American, like I
gotta hang on tight. I don't know what's gonna happen.
(33:22):
That's the feeling I had. I mean, on on screen
it looked very beautiful, like Mischelle Gandry is one of
the best directors of all time, and you know it.
It looked like a beautiful celebration. But in my mind,
I was like, well, this is where you know, I
once held the baton and now this youngster named Kanye
West is going to take over the reins and he's
(33:42):
going to be a new leader. And then I'm um,
he yeah, at the time, he was the new leader
because when he arrived on the set, suddenly and I
looked in everyone's eyes, any anyone that was on the
set that was like under nineteen suddenly came at attention
and all the energy and attention went to his direction
(34:03):
and he was just there like stand outside for a
second and looking, but he was new. He just got it. Well.
He he sort of came in his wolf in Sheep's
clothing approaches is kind of brilliant. I really regret, like
we tried to hide our true aspirations and our true
heart because we didn't want to upset the system. So
our thing was like, yes, we represent the everyday man,
(34:27):
the common man. I mean, there's there's nothing in the
Roots narrative that looks appealing to black people, Like we
don't have any tales of there's no tales of of
of there's no look, Mom made it, that's the narrative.
Jay Z's narrative is I made it. I made it,
(34:48):
like it's just it's a winning lottery ticket. I made it.
That was never our narrative. So thus the reason, I mean,
the Roots are more known to be Fish or the
grateful dead of hip hop than you know, the winners
of hip hop. But you know, don't sleep. Fish is
a group that somehow still made eight figures a year
(35:12):
under the radar. They didn't have to shake their ass
in the video, they didn't have to get mired in controversy.
They quietly sell out Madison Square Garden three nights, and
so that for us was a better was a better
way of survival. Coming up, quest Love explains the magic
of Jimmy Fallon and how Fallon convinced the Routes to
(35:34):
join him. On Late nine TV explore the Here's the
Thing Archives, I talked to Danny Bennett, who has spent
his life managing the career of another musical giant, his dad, Tony.
I had this epiphany and I'm like, I'm gonna run.
I'm gonna do this like I'm running for president. And
(35:55):
I went to him and I said, you know, presidents
would not go to Iowa if they didn't have to
go to and and you know, shake the hands I
go instead of having people come to you in Vegas.
I said, your music transcends, right, He's reinventing himself. He's
really kicking ass. I mean in terms of like taking chances.
There's a transcendent quality and great art that that, like
(36:19):
he says, defies demographics. Take a listen at Here's the
Thing dot Org. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
to Here's the Thing. My guest today is a mere
quest Love Thompson. While he's best known as the drummer
(36:42):
and music director for The Roots, the house band on
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He's also sat in
for Erica Badou, Fiona Apple, jay Z, saxophonist Joshua Redman,
and he's managed to put out several books. While some
people were surprised when The Roots took the Fallon gig,
quest love is a man who has a lot he
wants to accomplish. People think it's money, money, money, and
(37:07):
because it's not money, money money, you run and do
something that frees you so you can go do this
other thing. And was this gig with Jimmy frees you can?
I ask you go for it. I hate to be
the guy that answers your question with the with the question. Okay,
so when your first approached to do thirty Rock, I
(37:27):
mean this is the tail the tail in of of
Scorsese film Baby Eater, No, No, No, even um um
the Cops Boston departed. Yeah, so even on the tail
into that, like anyone else, I feel, I mean, this
(37:47):
is why imire you so much. Anyone else would have
overthought the situation and defiantly been like no, like you know,
the particular legacy. I want to read leave behind is
this and that? Or you know, I don't know if
you're thinking about your Wikipedia entry as you do this.
(38:08):
I'm all, no, see, I'm obsessed with how's this going
to look on my Wikipedia? Because you say that, trust me?
Critic critics. One critic actually said, you know, the sad
the sad thing about listening to a Roots record is
that I can hear quest Love imagining his Wikipedia entry
as each song is right exactly. So I mean, how
(38:32):
easy was it for you to make that transition? Because
people say to me, like I didn't have posters of
Shaffer or Doc Steverson on my walls, like one day
I'm gonna do this, and then it's like you've met
with the opportunity and it it was it was a
(38:53):
no brainer. But it was also on the other hand,
I was very it's just about it, and my manager
at the time said, look, this is what's gonna happen.
The critics that have been and you have to understand
how the Roots are perceived in the critical community. And
(39:16):
we kind of unfortunately paying yourself in this corner where
you know, they just thought like we were oh so serious,
and you know, you know, like a surface person will
look at Bono and think like he just thinks of
himself too seriously and that sort of thing, and like
overthinks everything. That's what critics were thinking about us. And
there he was like, we need this because what what
(39:38):
we'll do is it will help break the perception of
the political seriousness of The Roots. And I was like, yeah,
but you know, like I had dreams of of doing
what he does, like selling out stadiums and producing, you know,
releasing other records and da da da da da, And
he was just conventional goal we all have. Yeah, this
(40:01):
is a lot there's a lot of good there as well.
I don't want to put it down to be decaprio.
There's a lot of great things about being Decaprio. It is,
but I was I so fought it, and he says, look,
this is like some critics going to snark you, and
we've got to use it as our motivation to really
come back. And I was like okay, And sure enough
(40:23):
it happened. The first blur news blur about the Roots
are actually going to be a late night band. The
guy says, this is the most depressing news I've heard.
It's the equivalent of Miles Davis being a uh subway
a street subway. Uh busker busker, yes, exactly, which ironically
(40:44):
is how the route started. Um. It's like it's like
watching Miles David busking the subway and he's like, there
you have it. Like we've always been in the position
where we are always and that's the thing. We've always
been underestimated, Like these guys walking in with these instruments,
they're not real, they're not real hip hop. You know,
(41:05):
we've always been in the underdog. What are you guys
gonna do? And he's like, just repeat it again, use
it to your advantage, Like we should define and redefine
the coolness of it all, not to say that oh,
you know, they're same or corniness associated with the position
(41:25):
of being a late night band, but it was our
chance to make it and for us at least, the
coolest thing ever. And that's basically what it was like.
We weren't even really going to accept the position, and
then Jimmy did something that no other human being was
(41:46):
able to do. Uh. With us, by this point we
were like the complete opposite of what we were in
ninety two. This is like two thousand seven, you know,
two tour buses, you know, high off the hog and
everything and in our glory, and uh, we just thought, okay, well, yeah,
come to the show, Jimmy. We just figured like, at
least we'll have a friend on television so that when
(42:09):
we release records, we can be on his show and
promote it. But we're not going to accept this gig.
And the funniest thing happened. I went away for five
minutes to do. We were in U c l A campus.
I want to do a quick, uh interview with the
campus newspaper in my dressing room. And when it was
over six minutes later, I opened the door and on
(42:32):
the on the field grass, Jimmy and all eight members
of the Roots we're in the eight is Enough human
pyramid stands and I looked at my manager and we
are the most cynical, snarkiest, smartass know it all. You're
(42:52):
we're the smartest guys in the room and not you.
We just looked at each other and we're like, we're
not getting rim this guy or and he just looked like, no,
we're not. And what Jimmy managed to do was disarm
us in less than ten minutes. Like Tarik alone, anything
(43:15):
that Tarik wears is worth twenty dollars, like he's not
driving a spark was on. Yeah, I mean Tarik drives
before he wears like ten thousand dollar Japanese denim. You
know what I mean. He was on the bottom, like
Tarik with nerve put his jeans on on the dirty
(43:38):
I'm like, what did this guy do to talk? What
did he do? What did he do? I don't I'm
still trying to figure it. He has he's that guy.
He's that guy like when you watch the movie and
the the guys are trying to dissemble the bomb. In
like point three seconds, he as the leg of the draw.
(44:01):
He knows exactly how did disarm. He literally disarmed us
and showed us the prose of the situation. It was
as if we agreed to it already and forgot. Well.
But but let me let me say that this that
I worshiped, Jimmy I adored. And the thing is, Jimmy
is guileless. Jimmy's a kid, and and that freedom and
(44:22):
that Jimmy's gonna flow with the ground. But we're all kids, right.
But what's great is you guys in behind him with
I'm not gonna say cynicism. But there's a gravity, you guys,
there's a balance exactly, there's a great there's a great
balance there. There's a great balance there. What I what
I discovered the first month in first of all, what
I discovered about myself and about the band um starters
(44:49):
for a band that sat and Rolling Stones twenty best
band Live Bands of All Time list. I noticed that
we never ever practice as a band because our shows
are Springsteen length, three hours every night, and we we
(45:10):
did two hundred shows a night. Like every show was
like its own. I never wanted to snack before the meal,
you know, you don't wanna before the orgy whatever. Uh right,
And so when we got there and we were in
(45:32):
this closed in room, eight of us looking at each other,
it was the hardest thing in the world to do
because we never did this before, and like I had
to call my manager, like yo, we did not know
how to It was like being naked in public or
something like. It took three weeks, but suddenly we rehearsed
(45:52):
and became better musicians. We became better songwriters, became better
producers because they it's all these challenge is of Okay,
I need a ten seconds sting for d Da Da
Da da Da. Here's the name of the song now,
and it made us more focused song like we're now.
I felt like we've robbed our fan base those initial
(46:13):
fifteen years because we're so much wiser now at songwriting,
at being musicians, at entertaining. Like there's so much knowledge
that we've gotten that we didn't know. I thought it
was gonna be a cushy retirement gig. Okay, we'll just
set off in the sunset. I'll be fine. My mom's
(46:34):
house will be paid off, my b that'll be cool.
But that was foolish. I was made for this gig
and didn't realize it yet. Are you guys gonna tour
perform any time? Thinking about it? We what was once
thirty eight weeks on the road is now a normal
(46:55):
two days on the road is now We're gonna go
out again, which is normal. We do weekends, We have hiatuses,
talk about your books. Yeah, well it's the first you
find time for that. Well. The thing is, I'm I'm
a serial tweeter, which is why I know, like people
(47:18):
are ragging our current president elect about you know, why
do you get up at three and and five that's
the best times to tweet. Ever, I don't want to
defend him publicly that way, but trust me too. I
got the pad next to my bed lighting scenes down
for TV shows. So um because of the the paragraph
(47:41):
nature of all my instagrams and and thoughts. Um, they
were basically like, well, why don't you just write a
book already? And at first I was resistant to it
because I was like, how many ideas do I have
in me? But um, so far, I've written three books
and I'm kind of proud of it. The first book,
Momento Blues, is kind of a a music memoir where
(48:04):
I talk about life and music, and the second one
was a passion project. Uh. I'm very obsessed with the
show Soul Train, so I wrote the Ultimate Coffee table
book about Soul Train and uh my my last book
was something the Food, about which is I discovered that
comedians and uh chefs are kind of onor on a
(48:27):
parallel creative level as musicians. That's what I learned in
in fallon watching I'm observing David Chang and Dominique Ganzel
and all these these great chefs when they're preparing foods
for our show. I started to notice that they think
like musicians and became friends with them and then did
(48:49):
a kind of observational study at their creative methods. Um,
and I guess the next book I'm gonna work on
is also about creativity and creativity. Well, I'm I'm the
guy that doesn't necessarily I don't marvel at the vehicle
(49:12):
more than I'm marvel at the machinery that makes it run.
And I'm always curious about the preparation process, Like I
beg Higgins daily to let me sit in on that,
Like can I I want to enter in at SNL
(49:32):
so I can be And Lauren is not having none
of this, by the way, uh too be there on
the pitch meetings, like to to when I watched the
show on Saturday. I'm always wondering what was the pitch, like,
like how do they pitch this? And how did it
morph into what I'm watching right now? I want to
(49:55):
know what it's like in the beginning, So like I'm
always sneaking around on the seventeen floor trying to figure out,
you know, how SNL works, So like between steps and Comedians,
I'm trying to inspire myself with the restless the creative process. Yes,
and I'm also wrestling. Well, the thing I admire and
the thing I'm so drawn to about you and that's
so attractive about you is there's this discipline, there's this
(50:19):
sense of history and at the same time, like Tony Bennett,
who I always use him as the standard of this,
it's like, but we also have to have a good time.
This is what we dreamed of doing, we dreamed of
being here. Let's have a good time, yes, and enjoy
it because this is what we wanted. And I get that.
I get the two from you. I get the discipline
(50:40):
and and and and and the the the the professionalism,
if you will, But I also get where you're like,
let's I enjoy it. Well, I enjoy it now. Before
uh maybe five years ago, I didn't enjoy it because
you're so immersed in the work. But uh um, a
(51:01):
lot of it. Well, I discovered meditating because well, yeah,
I mean I hate to be so more of it.
But it was like, you know, again, growing up in
hip hop culture, the number one fear in your twenties
is like bullets in the club, So it's like, stay
off the club. But then at the age of like
(51:23):
strokes became a new bullet. So it's like insulin. Yes,
I I had to make a choice. So yes, having
a clear mind and clear thoughts helps, and I know
it's it's such a hard sell. It saves my life,
Like there's no way that you can have my rigorous schedule.
(51:46):
I feel so bit like my inner circle of nine people,
I'm the only person without gray hair, and I look
at them like, wow, I pay you people to take
the gray hair that I I'm not getting. Well, let
me just say this that you're not married now, I
have a girlfriend, no kids, no, no, So here's what
(52:08):
I want to here's what I want to try to
close with. If I'm if I'm able, do you want
to raise kids as well? Absolutely, that'd be so cool.
You would be such a great parents. Anybody that would
have you as a parent would be so lucky. Well, yeah,
thank you. It's weird. I'm bad with compliments like yeah.
I feel as though everything that I'm doing is eventually
(52:31):
to pass it on and pass the love to to someone. Drummer,
DJ author and fingers crossed Future of Father a mere
quest Love Thompson. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
to here's the thing
Host
Alec Baldwin
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