0:00

This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening

0:02

to Here's the thing. His

0:07

family and folks close to him called

0:09

him a mere. That's a mere Khalib

0:11

Thompson. But you probably

0:13

know him as Quest Love, Philly

0:16

native music history savant

0:19

and drummer and music director for the Grammy

0:21

Award winning hip hop group The Roots.

0:25

When the Roots aren't in the studio or

0:27

out on tour, they're backing up Jimmy

0:30

Fallon on the Tonight Show. Dude,

0:32

I gotta say you one of the hardest working guys ever. We

0:34

love you so much, you know, and you and the guys, this is the coolest.

0:37

We've been doing this together for

0:39

what like seven years. Years

0:42

he's been called America's bandleader.

0:45

The forty five year old drummer is also a

0:47

DJ, and he's been a caterer.

0:50

He just came out with the book about Food this year.

0:53

Quest Love is constantly creating,

0:55

trying to do the many things he loves seemingly

0:58

all at once. But why thing

1:00

Quest Love doesn't do well is take

1:02

compliments, which explains his reaction

1:05

to a very flattering profile in

1:07

The New Yorker. I

1:09

was pleased you were, Yeah,

1:12

I don't know, I've been

1:14

taught to not

1:18

relish and celebration of of press

1:20

stuff because I do so much. Um,

1:23

you can't let it matter. I

1:25

mean, after a while, it's just like, okay,

1:27

I'm it's like now, I don't think I've watched Tonight

1:30

Show episode like two years. You

1:32

haven't watched your show unless it's super epic. I mean,

1:34

if it's like Phil Collins, then I'll

1:36

watch it to make sure. Have we

1:39

firstly started? We started? Okay? Um?

1:43

I read this piece in the New Yorker, and

1:46

I mean, just from my money, I mean,

1:49

these press things aren't that important. You're

1:51

right, but this piece is very complimentary

1:53

and real and honest. And I'm thinking,

1:56

what do you miss about them? What do you miss about Philly?

1:58

Is it Osage Street? You having a

2:01

mom and dad, the drums, the basement? What

2:03

do you miss about back before you made it? You

2:05

know what? You know, it's weird. Um.

2:07

My sister always rags me about this,

2:10

um, and this will probably mark the

2:12

first time that I haven't made

2:15

a pilgrimage. Um.

2:17

There's certain luminaries in hip hop that

2:20

will go back to the old hood. And

2:22

I'm like, dog like, why are you?

2:25

Why are you driving a Bentley through the projects, you know

2:27

what I mean? Like that having that moment I'm in mind

2:29

is the exact opposite because my car is like I'm

2:32

still driving my first car, which is still driving. Yeah,

2:36

I'm never going to give it up. I mean, I have other cars,

2:38

but my scion is is my baby.

2:41

But um uh,

2:43

I don't know, like I have this. I

2:46

often have this craving to drive

2:50

back, just drive back and

2:54

look for old ghosts. Um

2:56

it's it's weird, it's it's even uh

2:59

even with with food, Like

3:03

I'll question why am I sticking

3:08

to a certain diet from my childhood? Am

3:10

I hoping to to find

3:13

old ghosts? Or I don't know

3:15

what it is, But what's a diet from your childhood?

3:18

I mean, I'm in a place now, in a position

3:20

in which I could be at

3:23

the prime healthiest of my life

3:25

if I chose to. And you know, as I

3:27

speak to you, I'm back on that bandwagon

3:29

in the piece you talk about a Greek chorus of health

3:31

people around you. Whatever, they're back, They're

3:34

back and singing louder than ever you

3:38

asked for it. Because I let two thousand sixteen

3:40

be two thousand and sixteen, and it's

3:42

you know, it took a toll on me. So I

3:45

decided after Thanksgiving, I'm

3:47

going back to you know, to

3:50

to fight for my life again. Um

3:53

and I

3:55

think during Thanksgiving,

3:59

I don't know, it's just thinking about those psychological

4:01

process and I'm like, well, you

4:03

know, what is it when you taste these college

4:05

greens? What is it when you when

4:07

you eat this particular type

4:10

of soul food? Like are you missing

4:13

memories of of of grandmam

4:15

On on a Sunday? Like food

4:17

was a very big part of our my childhood

4:20

and uh, I'll say,

4:22

like the process would start on Thursday.

4:25

I'd stay at my grandmother's house and it was always

4:27

like it was an event. And Thursdays,

4:30

like she and her sisters

4:32

would start the process

4:35

of cooking Sunday dinner. So Thursdays,

4:37

Fridays, Saturday's even

4:39

like while watching Soul Train, I'd

4:42

help with snap beans. Uh.

4:44

They're the type of people that would like start

4:47

a cake on a Monday and drown

4:49

it in uh brandy

4:52

for about three weeks. Don't touch that game

4:54

here and you know that sort of thing. Uh.

4:56

So it's like always a big process for this sprawling

4:59

Sunday dinner, like every Sunday was

5:01

like Thanksgiving. Every

5:04

Sunday was Thanksgiving and special.

5:07

Yeah, it was special. So I don't know,

5:10

maybe I'm looking for my

5:13

identity now that I've been sort

5:17

of Uh,

5:21

I don't want to say misplaced, or you

5:23

know, I've I've transitioned to another

5:26

life, another lifestyle which I'm kind

5:28

of separate from

5:31

my childhood memories, which probably

5:33

explains the Soul Train obsession, which

5:35

explains like now now that I've I've

5:37

had time to really think about it,

5:40

and especially in the last week, it's

5:43

it's making sense. Like I don't think I'm

5:46

collecting seven episodes of soul

5:48

Train because I

5:50

really think that's an awesome show. Of course, I think it's an

5:52

awesome show. But you know, in my mind,

5:54

I'm thinking, yeah, in my mind, I'm

5:56

thinking, Okay, the Frankie Valley

5:59

episode of Soul Train, my sister

6:01

and I almost burnt down the house using

6:03

the Jiffy popcorn on the stove. Uh.

6:07

The Johnny Guitar Watson episode of Soul

6:09

Train. I remember like cutting my hand on

6:11

the the no Frills

6:13

Ravioli from Path Mark. Uh.

6:17

The seventy nine episode of the Jacksons

6:19

remember stupping my till in the coffee. Like there's

6:22

there's certain childhood memories that are associated

6:25

with every episode of souldring. So I

6:27

think that's why I hang onto it.

6:30

Um. And plus like

6:32

being part of a uh

6:35

you know, being in the quote unquote hip hop

6:37

generation, a culture that

6:40

celebrates youth so much. Um.

6:45

I think just the

6:48

idea of transitioning

6:51

or metamorphosis or even just vanishing,

6:54

which I think I think

6:56

the idea of vanishing is what's

6:59

really can trolling a

7:01

lot of Americans thoughts in two thousand

7:03

sixteen, the

7:06

idea of not mattering old traditions

7:08

leaving the idea of change. The idea

7:11

of this is related to the election

7:13

or not. No, just every yeah, everything.

7:15

It could be the election, it could be me

7:18

personally. I think they have a sense of somethings

7:20

vanishing. Um.

7:27

Yeah, I think just in

7:29

general, there's something about two thousand

7:32

and sixteen that is transitioning

7:35

more than anything. I for one, um

7:38

as a musician and a lever of the arts.

7:40

Um, you know,

7:43

this is the the

7:47

largest amount of I

7:49

mean this yeer volume of people dying

7:52

in two thousand and sixteen. Um,

7:56

it's for me. This is this is uh

8:00

a message. I feel more of my

8:02

childhood being I feel more me being stripped

8:04

away than just like, oh,

8:06

Natalie Cole died, Oh, Mauric's White died,

8:09

Prince died. Oh. Like you

8:12

know, it's it's up to light piece of your twenty

8:15

three key members of my life

8:17

that you know shape my life are like now

8:19

going in this year, this year,

8:23

dude, I mean my It's to the point

8:25

that even when I was writing

8:28

um

8:30

on my Instagram

8:33

the there's a well

8:36

known, well loved house

8:38

singer named Colonel Abrams, I

8:41

was hesitating to write a tribute to him

8:43

on Instagram because now, like it was to

8:45

the point where people were like, oh, mirror, you're

8:47

just the the obituary historian,

8:50

Like your Instagram has come become nothing

8:52

but these long two paragraph

8:55

tributes to that of I

8:57

was life like. It's it's almost like a

8:59

joke down and that's

9:02

that's where it's come to you. But I think more than

9:04

that, it's just I

9:06

think that all of us right now are

9:10

fearing a transition,

9:12

if you will. So you know, when I when

9:14

I do drive back home and you

9:17

know, sit there in the parking lot and

9:19

and here at the house and

9:21

everything. I don't know. I

9:23

think I'm maybe in my

9:26

mind, I'm Jacob Marley looking for my

9:29

younger seven year old

9:31

self on going to school or something.

9:33

You see, this is the thing I want to get to, which is when

9:37

I read the article, and I don't want to keep referencing that article.

9:39

But when I read the article, it's like you

9:42

kind of get the sense of like how much longer are you going to do

9:44

this? That this is gonna be enough for you?

9:46

Meaning music will be in your life maybe

9:48

in some other way. Something tells me your love, your

9:51

worship, music being in your DNA

9:53

in the way it is so completely from

9:55

what I read. I mean, you being you people,

9:58

you're like some company of like, uh,

10:02

you're like Mozart and Alan Turing.

10:05

You know this savantage freak

10:07

in a good way about music and so for an entertainment

10:09

for that matter. But I'm wondering, so

10:11

I assume you'll have some place in your life

10:14

where do you think it's weird? Because

10:16

since that New Yorker article

10:19

came out, um,

10:21

it is blossom and bloomed

10:24

tenfold um to

10:26

the point where I guess at that time,

10:30

uh, I had let's

10:34

say I had maybe

10:37

eight jobs, um

10:39

up until early January. I mean I

10:42

had six

10:45

sixteen jobs. Like, I just decided

10:49

maybe a month ago to not return to m y

10:51

U to teach, um

10:54

because what were you teaching there? Um?

10:57

I taught music history. I taught

10:59

at Clive Davis Music School. Me

11:02

and Harry Wagner, who controls

11:05

all of Universal Music's

11:08

reissues. So anytime you get like,

11:10

he's the guy that has to sit back and figure out

11:13

how to resell you Marvin Gaye's box

11:15

set or anything from Motown

11:17

or anything from the Rolling Stones, anybody

11:20

Universal related

11:22

on that label. So he and I taught at

11:25

n y U for the last five

11:28

years, um, and mostly

11:30

we we I

11:33

like with that experience. Uh,

11:35

it got scary the last year because

11:37

suddenly I realized, I

11:40

mean, I mean you you you

11:42

have children, so I'm sure that there's

11:44

a point in your life where you just a

11:47

sentence started with millennials

11:49

like you know, I go

11:51

there, right, And it

11:54

was frustrating. It's

11:56

it's it's an amazing

11:58

mystery because the rich kids, no,

12:02

I mean some some are I

12:05

mean some are well to do. I've realized

12:07

that some came from the lineage

12:10

of Oh, that's your father, you know, that sort

12:12

of thing. Um. But it was to the

12:14

point where, because

12:16

the information is

12:18

so abundant now, I

12:21

actually caught myself wanting

12:24

them to teach me as

12:27

I was. I mean, the questions they were asking about,

12:30

Uh, like the production

12:33

methods of Michael Jackson's thriller, Well,

12:35

you know, on human nature. Uh here

12:37

a fairlight synthesizer. But what do you think that was the

12:39

eighty two module or the

12:45

yeah that's using that class. It

12:48

got scary for a minute. But um, what

12:51

what I specifically taught about was,

12:53

um, the departure

12:56

record. I'm really I'm really obsessed

12:58

with the idea of self sap tajing

13:01

Um. There's a movie that came out by

13:04

comedian Mike Rabiglia called

13:08

Don't Think Twice and actually,

13:10

um coming

13:13

up the follow up to

13:15

Whiplash is the film called uh

13:17

Land of La La with Emma

13:20

Stone La La La La. I'm

13:23

sorry, I'm getting that uh

13:25

La La lamb with Emma Stone and um

13:27

Ryan Gosling, which sort of uh

13:31

deals with the same uh

13:34

premise, which is have

13:36

you seen Don't Think Twice or heard about this film?

13:39

Okay, so Don't Think Twice is a film about

13:41

um a groundlings

13:44

or uh

13:47

kind of a comedy troupe, um

13:49

you CBS comedy troupe

13:52

of like seven people, um

13:54

who are really like at the top of the game with improv

13:57

and then one day a

14:00

Steve Higgins figure comes

14:02

in and changes one of their

14:04

lives by offering them a spot

14:06

on an smlish type

14:09

of platform.

14:12

And uh,

14:14

one of them, one of the seven that have been

14:16

tightened it forever will clearly

14:19

be a star. Um.

14:22

And of the seven, you know, it's like it's

14:24

how they deal with the

14:28

idea of again separation

14:32

and and it's it's

14:34

just an amazing two hour

14:36

exercise and self sabotage. So

14:38

how it relates to the class that I teach uh,

14:42

I teach about departure albums? Uh?

14:45

In other words, Uh

14:47

okay, So the Beatles got tired of being

14:49

the Beatles. They got tired of playing

14:51

in stadiums in which they couldn't hear themselves

14:53

of the screaming and yeah, yeah, you know the

14:56

story. Assuming that you're in love, love

14:58

love, assuming that you're listeners

15:00

are on your i

15:03

Q level. Um

15:06

okay, So they get a SHA stadium. After that they

15:09

pack it in right then they decide we're

15:11

tired of being the Beatles, so let's just make uh

15:13

you know, a psychedelic record and

15:16

Tim Panaley references and

15:18

and we'll stop being the Beatles. And

15:20

then it backfires. It really makes them

15:22

like the greatest band

15:25

of all time. So speaking

15:27

of Sergeant Peppers, that's an example,

15:29

or the opposite is sly

15:31

Stone, whom

15:34

uh after having

15:36

a massive like one single,

15:38

hits off of his records, finally hits

15:41

jackpot in uh n

15:44

nine with the stand album and then a

15:46

very you know uh uh

15:48

uh a victorious

15:51

uh uh run

15:53

at at Woodstock uh

15:55

leaves his audience like just you

15:58

know, begging for more. In whatever

16:00

is follow up records is going to be like, you know, it's

16:03

it's the ultimate alley you set up someone

16:05

just shot of alley you and

16:07

all he has to do is run to the to

16:09

the rim and dunk it. And what

16:12

does he do? He makes one of the most

16:14

depressing

16:19

let's go get that what is that's called there's a riot

16:21

going on? Now? The thing is that,

16:24

yeah, family affair. Here's the thing,

16:27

there's a riot going on. Leaves a lot

16:29

of people in conflict

16:31

because it's essentially

16:33

the first funk record. But

16:38

what I try to explain to the class is

16:40

the equivalent of you know, how like your

16:42

first okay, not for you personally,

16:45

but how a person in two

16:47

thousand and six, how their first instinct

16:49

will be to pull out their cell phone. If

16:52

a car accident happens, they

16:54

pull out their cell phone. Oh, fight happens,

16:56

I'm gonna pull out my cell phone to

16:58

watch it. What there's the right going

17:01

on is is really you're

17:03

you're watching in real time a human

17:05

being having a meltdown on

17:08

wax and

17:11

it's it is It's like, do

17:13

you know personally, why was he melting down? Well,

17:16

that's the thing. There's there's

17:19

survivor's guilt that people don't

17:22

talk about, especially with black people.

17:24

The idea of like you reference in the article

17:26

where you say the thirty three kids and this one's

17:28

dead, this one's in jail, this one's bright and you made it dude,

17:31

survivor's guilt. Survivor's guilt

17:33

is real. Where is he from. He's

17:35

from the Bay Area, Oakland. So

17:38

I mean there's the pressure of staying

17:41

true, staying true to yourself, not not

17:43

selling out. Uh, the just

17:46

the pressure of having to now

17:49

deal with be careful. You

17:51

know, you here all the time, be careful what you asked

17:53

for. And I

17:56

feel as though in those two years

17:58

of of the

18:00

pressure of now, I have to live up

18:03

to the expectation and the brilliance that

18:05

people expect of me. And what

18:07

does he do? He? I

18:10

mean, Slim and Family Stone was in

18:12

the age of Martin Luther King, the the utopian

18:14

dream. It was a group of

18:17

black and white musicians, a male and female

18:19

musicians. I mean, it was the utopian

18:21

post idea of what Martin Luther

18:23

King's dreams should have been. And

18:26

he just piste on the legacy.

18:29

In turn, he also

18:31

gave us funk music. I mean, you know,

18:34

historians will be like, you know, it's the first

18:36

time a drum machine was used, and it's

18:38

the first time, you know, the e cord was used

18:40

on a on a base for funk reasons.

18:43

So it's like, what's the big hit that comes out before

18:45

this album? What's he riding the wave on? What song?

18:47

Uh? The the hit before was?

18:50

Uh? I mean the album before was stand

18:53

Now. To sort of stall for time,

18:56

Epic Records put out the Greatest Hits

18:58

Album and put three other songs

19:01

that weren't associated so thank

19:03

you for myself, thank you for letting

19:05

me be myself hot fun

19:07

this summertime. Everybody's

19:10

like, even even the Throwaway singers were

19:12

like, yes, we're waiting, we're waiting

19:14

for this big statement and he pisses

19:16

all over it. But you know it's the same

19:19

for you know, Michael

19:21

Jackson wanting to

19:23

escape the family and be his own

19:25

man Like. Making Off the Wall was a departure

19:27

record. The Beastie Boys not

19:30

wanting to be known as these

19:32

these party frat guys and

19:34

want to make a serious, uh

19:38

piece of art with Paul's

19:40

boutique, the follow up to License to Ill. So

19:42

what I basically do is I take eight

19:46

or nine records of departure

19:50

records. Some of them they were all

19:52

made with the premise of I need to throw

19:54

away and run away from what I once

19:56

was. Some of them made a more successful

19:59

all the be Les. Uh. Some of

20:01

them were complete bust. I mean, there's

20:04

the jury still out on Satanic Majesty's

20:07

request by the Stones, but you know

20:10

it's it's you know, it's it's

20:13

it's the Stones were never gonna get Beatles

20:15

love, and they know it well. They tried.

20:17

I mean, you know, I have to give it to them. They tried. So

20:20

it's really it's really just about examining

20:25

the psychological process

20:27

of of making music and

20:29

why we run away from success or

20:32

the idea of doing it. Did you wait, let me ask

20:34

you, because this is the first did you did you run away from success?

20:37

Um? Okay? So the Roots were

20:41

everyone's favorite underground

20:44

secret, Like you know, that's if

20:46

you ever meet a music snob and there's like that

20:49

that one thing that you

20:51

know, there's the band that they know about that you

20:53

don't know about, and that makes them cooler than

20:55

you, and then suddenly you discover it,

20:57

and then everyone discovers it, and then it's suddenly

20:59

it's like, uh, like everyone has my toy

21:02

now in the pool. Yeah,

21:05

we were that for a lot of people, and

21:07

then with our fourth record, suddenly

21:10

we hit jack pop because we realized

21:14

what the formula was to not

21:17

to monetize, but to to two

21:21

gain acceptance. We realized what the formula

21:23

was, but acceptance with what you

21:26

It says, it seems to me you wanted acceptance

21:28

with something else, meaning something tells

21:30

me, because you're so acute

21:33

about music, you didn't have a number one single.

21:36

This is what you're gonna learn about me? And you could and you

21:38

could have sat down and something tells

21:40

me, and I'm not saying this to be kind, you could write

21:42

a number one single in the car on

21:44

the way to the office right now when you leave here,

21:46

and you didn't do that because fear

21:50

fear. This is what happens. Okay.

21:52

So when we started in

21:56

UM, the idea of the roots,

21:59

the idea of we

22:01

would be pegged into alternative hip

22:03

hop. Now, when we first came out, they were like or

22:06

they asked jazz. It was like, basically,

22:08

if you weren't, if you weren't

22:10

holding your middle finger out to the camera,

22:13

you know, saying singing straight out of Compton,

22:15

if you weren't in way, you

22:18

weren't the status quo of

22:20

what people perceived to be as hip hop. UM.

22:23

But again, like for people that are not immersed

22:26

in hip hop culture and when they just turn the channel

22:29

and just see no no bitches, no no, no, no

22:31

no, no no, then they just think, oh, that's

22:33

all it is UM, which it isn't.

22:35

Like hip hop is a wide array of

22:37

art and it just so happens that the

22:39

five percent that catches

22:41

on is what's in embroidered

22:44

people's minds as what it is, but emotionally

22:46

violent, that's what they think

22:49

it is. But it's so much more than it is. So I

22:51

came into uh

22:54

metaphorically speaking, we got to the train

22:56

platform as the first wave

22:58

of alternative hip hop. Uh

23:01

train was leaving, you know, like when you run for the

23:03

train and the doors closed and you see the train

23:06

leaving, you have to wait for another twelve minutes for the next

23:08

train to come. That was the roots. The

23:10

first train was the Jungle

23:12

Brothers, a tripolic quest de las

23:14

soul. Uh. It

23:17

kind of uh ended

23:19

with arrested development like a ninety

23:21

one, like they won like four Grammys. They were the

23:23

darlings of you know, finally

23:27

hip hop as in art, like you know, people were were

23:30

exclaiming that like our new savers, and

23:34

then the

23:36

backlash happened, like imagine that being

23:38

the Obama era, like finally a

23:40

new beginning. And then suddenly

23:42

the next train comes in and the night Dr

23:44

Dre and Snoop Dogg coming in with guns

23:47

and bitches and ship and people like, no, this is

23:49

what we want. So imagine this election, like

23:52

how can we go twelve steps back? And

23:55

that was the mentality, and so we

23:57

had to wait it out and waited

23:59

out and literally embraced

24:02

for it's a tsunami. We just said we're

24:04

gonna, Paul Hendricks, We're gonna leave America.

24:07

We're gonna move to London as a hub,

24:10

find refuge in in in London.

24:13

Uh, get our musicianship

24:15

together, get our show together, get our songwriting

24:17

together, get our production. Uh.

24:21

We got a record deal in ninety two.

24:23

We exiled in

24:28

Um three years when

24:30

three years you live we were on. We were on

24:33

Geffin Records, and

24:35

In Records

24:37

had so much money, Guns and Roses,

24:40

Nirvana, Uh, Aaron

24:42

Smith. They made so much money

24:45

that Geffen was like, Yo, let's start a

24:47

black music department where rock label. We have

24:49

no black acts, and you know we

24:51

want to cash in on on you

24:54

know, the craze and so name

24:58

you just stayed ge Well, I mean there

25:02

was a d G C. But um,

25:05

we were basically kind of

25:07

their guinea pig experiment. Um.

25:10

They were like, you know, we'll we'll build the staff eventually,

25:12

but for now, look just keep the receipts.

25:14

Here's the credit card. Like

25:18

that's what we did. And then, um, anybody

25:21

married back then with kids that they had to pull over there or

25:23

no, everybody was single. No, we were

25:25

all single, were all out of high school and

25:27

college and everything. And so what winds

25:29

up happening was when

25:31

we first signed, Aerosmith announced, well, we're

25:33

gonna leave Geffen. Remember

25:35

Pump came out and it was like really big seller. So

25:37

they went back to Sony

25:40

and so I was like, all right, whatever. And then a little

25:42

bit later it was kind of obviously

25:44

like Guns and Roses was not going to have a

25:46

follow up to use your loosen

25:49

one and two, and I

25:51

mean they had an ep of the spaghetti incidence, but

25:53

that really didn't make any noise. And so Guns

25:56

and Roses wasn't there to have

25:58

a fill up record to make the more millions. And

26:01

then Nirvana came and

26:04

you know, just changed everything and

26:06

make gazillions. So

26:08

then when April comes

26:13

and Kurt Cobain makes his

26:15

exodus, my

26:17

manager called me at one

26:20

in the afternoon and said, playing

26:23

and simple, we're fucked, And

26:25

I was like, what do you mean. He's like, dude, Aerosmith's

26:28

going, Guns and Roses ain't coming back

26:31

now, Kirk is gone, and

26:34

what they're gonna do is they're they're just going to drop

26:37

and cut the label in half. I

26:39

was like, so what do we do. He's

26:41

like, we're gonna go to the studio for four days. We're going to

26:43

finish the record. I was like, eight songs,

26:46

ye, I don't have any ideas, make them up

26:48

on the way there. And

26:50

he's like, we're gonna shoot three videos next

26:52

week. We're gonna shoot the album cut like totally russ

26:55

and then we're gonna take that money because

26:57

we were controlling our budget. They'd have a staff, yet

26:59

we just had the credit card. We're gonna take our leftover

27:01

money and we're gonna buy

27:04

tim plane tickets and get an apartment in London

27:06

and Pola Hendricks and just lived there and

27:08

pray to God that's our only hope.

27:11

And you know,

27:13

that was our only hope. And it worked. Uh,

27:16

we miraculously finished

27:18

an album and even in rushing

27:20

it, I'm shocked. I

27:22

mean it was critically claimed and all that. So we were

27:24

in the right mind frame. Shot three

27:26

videos, Uh,

27:29

kissed everybody goodbye, came

27:31

to London with a stick in a bundle

27:34

on her um,

27:37

stayed in a hotel for like maybe a day or two, and

27:39

then eventually found a flat god.

27:42

An agent said, work is to death. We

27:44

don't care what it was, and like

27:46

that was our Beatles in Hamburg moment.

27:48

That was our our Hendricks

27:51

living in in in Europe moment. And

27:54

we made two other critically

27:56

acclaimed records, but by the fourth

27:58

one we felt if we

28:00

didn't deliver the goods, uh,

28:03

we'll be in trouble. And so we

28:06

had a scientific conversation

28:08

with our label. We said, look, before you,

28:11

you know, divulge all this money into us, let's

28:14

have a conversation. We told them that no

28:17

matter how good the records are, no matter how critically

28:19

claimed, how many top ten lists we make,

28:22

unless you

28:24

build us a movement, it's never gonna

28:26

work. And they said, well what is that. So we

28:28

said this is what we need. You want the short version,

28:31

long version? He said, give us a short version. We

28:33

said, we need three fifteen passenger fans, we

28:37

need uh expendable

28:40

kind of uh studio

28:43

equipment, uh, and

28:45

we need to hire two chefs.

28:49

And they looked and said what the hell? And

28:51

we explained the plan. We said, what we're gonna do

28:53

is every Tuesday, at

28:55

this particular spot, we're gonna have jam sessions,

28:58

and every Friday in the Mirrors living room, we're gonna

29:00

have jam sessions. The chefs

29:02

are going to cook all the food to entice

29:05

the artistic community. Because if you say

29:08

free food, every

29:10

everything, everybody be surprised.

29:13

Everybody comes over and we'll

29:16

just have jam sessions. And eventually,

29:18

what we figured out in those four years

29:20

was that no one has ever had

29:22

success in music without being

29:24

contextualized in an

29:28

artistic community. So you

29:30

think you like Stevie Wonder, but it's

29:32

like, no, you associate Stevie Wonder with

29:34

Smokey Temptations, Uh,

29:36

Diana Ross's Supremes, the Motown family.

29:39

You look at look at someone without design,

29:41

take Justin Timberley. You're automatically

29:44

gonna think, Oh and Sink, Oh, Backstreet

29:46

Boys, Oh Brittany Disney, Christina

29:49

Aguilty. You think of the Disney set, you

29:51

think of I mean, Prince

29:53

grew his own crops, Prince Sheila

29:55

e Mars, Dame of Time. Like

29:58

everyone that has success, the only

30:00

people that have never had success, that

30:02

had success without a family or contextualization

30:06

was one Hit Wonders, Where

30:09

Alan kick the guys that say

30:11

Macarena, Tiny

30:13

Tim Maybe the McArthur part

30:16

person. But everyone's associated

30:18

with the movement. You look at the Police, Okay,

30:20

they were part of that post punk punk

30:22

movement, early new wave movement. Talking

30:24

heads like even if they don't

30:26

do it by design, we as consumers

30:29

think that. So we had to grow on crops.

30:31

So as a result, m these

30:34

three years of having the

30:36

chef the Jam sessions week

30:39

by week, Um, suddenly

30:42

we were writing the story of

30:45

the next millennium of soul. So that's

30:47

explains Erica Bado D'Angelo.

30:52

Uh, most def tali

30:54

quality basically the

30:56

fourteen or fifteen or so platinum

30:59

based artists in the future

31:01

of course. Uh, starting

31:03

in our living room and then expanding

31:06

having their own careerson my words yours.

31:08

But but if if London is graduate

31:11

school, if you all decide to

31:13

stop. We found

31:16

success by our

31:18

fourth album, and then you

31:21

know, the one thing that we didn't

31:24

plan on was succeeding.

31:27

Everyone got successful, so we stopped

31:29

paying it for it. Like suddenly

31:31

it's like, oh, we don't need the Jam sessence no more, Like we're

31:34

an MTV every week, Like that's that's

31:36

what the mentality was. And then

31:39

it all came to I'm not saying it

31:41

came to a screeching halt. But

31:43

people often asked me, what

31:46

do I talk. There's there's a movie we did with

31:48

Michelle Gandry and Dave

31:50

Chappelle in two thousand four called

31:52

Black Party. It was Dave Chappelle's

31:55

version of

31:57

of watch Stacks. It was

31:59

Dave Chappell's version of Woodstock, which

32:02

was basically kind of the alternative,

32:06

the alternative hip hop gathering

32:11

you know of in Brooklyn, of

32:13

all the great acts Kanye

32:15

West, Uh, the Roots,

32:18

Dead preys Erica, Baudoo,

32:20

common Um, all

32:23

the all the people that are under our umbrella. And

32:26

something happened that day and

32:28

I realized, just like, Okay,

32:30

if you look at wood Stock, wood

32:33

Stock is not the beginning. You would think like, oh,

32:35

what Stock. All these new acts I've never heard of, They're

32:37

going to be big. Wood Stock was the

32:40

end of the sentence. People think that what stocks

32:42

at the beginning of the sentence? What Stocks? The end

32:45

of the love movement? Because next was

32:47

Altamont and Pay the

32:49

seventies, the club

32:52

everyone diing, Uh, Saturday Night

32:54

Fever. People think the right about disco.

32:56

Nope, that was the end of disco.

32:58

By the time Hollywood puts to on screen, it's over right,

33:01

It's over. So this was that

33:03

morning. I was like, ah,

33:06

this is how it all ends, and you

33:09

know, it's like a brace. It was. It was a

33:12

the mentality that you have, which how am I going

33:14

to survive the next four years? Well, not you

33:16

personally, put for the average American,

33:19

like I gotta hang on tight. I don't know what's

33:21

gonna happen. That's the feeling I had.

33:23

I mean, on on screen it

33:25

looked very beautiful, like Mischelle Gandry is one of the

33:27

best directors of all time, and you know it.

33:29

It looked like a beautiful celebration. But in my

33:31

mind, I was like, well,

33:34

this is where you know, I once held

33:36

the baton and now this youngster

33:38

named Kanye West is going to take over the reins

33:40

and he's going

33:43

to be a new leader. And then I'm

33:46

um, he yeah,

33:48

at the time, he was the new leader because when he

33:51

arrived on the set, suddenly and

33:53

I looked in everyone's eyes, any anyone

33:55

that was on the set that was like under nineteen

33:58

suddenly came at attention and

34:01

all the energy and attention went to his direction

34:03

and he was just there like stand outside for a second

34:06

and looking, but he was new.

34:08

He just got it. Well. He he sort of came

34:10

in his wolf in Sheep's clothing

34:13

approaches is kind of brilliant. I really

34:15

regret, like we tried to hide

34:17

our true aspirations and our true

34:20

heart because we didn't want to upset the

34:22

system. So our thing was like,

34:24

yes, we represent the everyday

34:26

man, the common man. I

34:28

mean, there's there's nothing in the Roots narrative

34:31

that looks appealing

34:33

to black

34:35

people, Like we don't have any tales

34:38

of there's no tales of

34:40

of of there's no look,

34:42

Mom made it, that's the narrative. Jay Z's

34:45

narrative is I made it.

34:47

I made it, like it's just it's a winning

34:49

lottery ticket. I made it. That

34:52

was never our narrative. So thus the

34:55

reason, I mean, the Roots are more known

34:58

to be Fish or the grateful dead of

35:00

hip hop than you

35:03

know, the winners of hip hop.

35:05

But you know, don't sleep. Fish is

35:08

a group that somehow still made eight

35:11

figures a year under the radar.

35:13

They didn't have to shake their ass in the video, they

35:15

didn't have to get mired in controversy.

35:18

They quietly sell out Madison Square Garden

35:21

three nights, and so that

35:24

for us was a better was a better way

35:26

of survival. Coming

35:29

up, quest Love explains the magic

35:31

of Jimmy Fallon and how Fallon

35:33

convinced the Routes to join him. On Late

35:36

nine TV explore

35:40

the Here's the Thing Archives, I

35:42

talked to Danny Bennett, who has spent

35:44

his life managing the career of another

35:47

musical giant, his dad, Tony.

35:49

I had this epiphany and I'm like,

35:51

I'm gonna run. I'm gonna do this like I'm running

35:54

for president. And I went to him and I said,

35:56

you know, presidents would not go to Iowa

35:58

if they didn't have to go to and and

36:01

you know, shake the hands I go instead

36:04

of having people come to you in Vegas. I said,

36:06

your music transcends,

36:09

right, He's reinventing himself. He's

36:12

really kicking ass. I mean in terms of like

36:14

taking chances. There's a transcendent

36:16

quality and great art that that, like

36:19

he says, defies demographics.

36:21

Take a listen at Here's the Thing dot

36:24

Org. This

36:34

is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to

36:36

Here's the Thing. My guest today

36:38

is a mere quest Love Thompson. While

36:41

he's best known as the drummer and music

36:43

director for The Roots, the house band

36:45

on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He's

36:48

also sat in for Erica Badou, Fiona

36:50

Apple, jay Z, saxophonist

36:53

Joshua Redman, and he's managed

36:55

to put out several books. While

36:57

some people were surprised when The Roots took

37:00

the Fallon gig, quest love is a man who

37:02

has a lot he wants to accomplish.

37:04

People think it's money, money, money, and

37:07

because it's not money, money money, you

37:09

run and do something that frees you so you

37:11

can go do this other thing. And

37:13

was this gig with Jimmy frees you

37:16

can? I ask you go for it. I hate to be the guy

37:18

that answers your question with the with the

37:20

question. Okay, so

37:23

when your first approached

37:25

to do thirty Rock, I mean

37:28

this is the tail the tail in of of Scorsese

37:31

film Baby

37:33

Eater, No, No, No, even um

37:36

um the

37:38

Cops Boston departed.

37:41

Yeah, so even on the tail into that, like

37:45

anyone else, I feel, I mean, this is

37:47

why imire you so much. Anyone

37:50

else would have overthought the situation

37:53

and defiantly been like no, like

37:56

you know, the particular

37:59

legacy. I want to read leave behind is

38:02

this and that? Or you know, I don't know if you're

38:04

thinking about your Wikipedia entry

38:07

as you do this. I'm all, no,

38:09

see, I'm obsessed with how's

38:12

this going to look on my Wikipedia? Because

38:14

you say that, trust me? Critic

38:17

critics. One critic actually said, you know,

38:19

the sad the sad

38:21

thing about listening to a Roots record is that I can

38:23

hear quest Love imagining

38:25

his Wikipedia entry as each song is

38:29

right exactly. So I

38:31

mean, how easy was it for

38:33

you to make that transition? Because people say

38:35

to me, like I didn't

38:37

have posters of Shaffer or

38:40

Doc Steverson on my walls, like one

38:42

day I'm gonna do this, and

38:44

then it's like you've met

38:46

with the opportunity and it

38:50

it was it

38:53

was a no brainer. But it

38:55

was also on

38:57

the other hand, I was very

39:00

it's just about it, and

39:02

my manager at the time said, look,

39:05

this is what's gonna happen. The

39:08

critics that have been

39:10

and you have to understand how the Roots are perceived

39:13

in the critical community.

39:16

And we kind of unfortunately paying yourself

39:18

in this corner where you know, they just thought like

39:20

we were oh so serious, and you

39:23

know, you know, like a surface

39:25

person will look at Bono and think like he just

39:27

thinks of himself too seriously and that sort

39:29

of thing, and like overthinks

39:31

everything. That's what critics were thinking about

39:34

us. And there he was like, we

39:36

need this because what

39:38

what we'll do is it will help break

39:40

the perception of the

39:42

political seriousness of The Roots.

39:46

And I was like, yeah, but you know, like I

39:49

had dreams of of doing

39:51

what he does, like selling out stadiums

39:54

and producing, you know, releasing

39:57

other records and da da da da da, And he was just conventional

39:59

goal we all have. Yeah, this is

40:02

a lot there's a lot of good there as well. I don't want to put it

40:04

down to be decaprio. There's a lot of great things

40:06

about being Decaprio. It is, but

40:08

I was I so fought

40:10

it, and he says, look, this is like

40:13

some critics

40:15

going to snark you, and

40:17

we've got to use it as our motivation

40:19

to really come back. And I was like

40:21

okay, And sure enough it happened. The

40:24

first blur news

40:27

blur about the Roots are

40:29

actually going to be a late night band. The

40:31

guy says, this is the most depressing news

40:34

I've heard. It's the equivalent

40:36

of Miles Davis being a

40:38

uh subway a street subway.

40:40

Uh busker busker,

40:43

yes, exactly, which ironically is how the

40:45

route started. Um. It's like it's

40:47

like watching Miles David busking the subway

40:50

and he's like, there

40:52

you have it. Like we've always been in the position

40:55

where we are always and that's the thing. We've

40:57

always been underestimated, Like

41:00

these guys walking in with these instruments, they're

41:03

not real, they're not real hip hop. You know, we've

41:05

always been in the underdog. What

41:08

are you guys gonna do? And

41:11

he's like, just repeat it again, use it

41:13

to your advantage, Like we should

41:15

define and redefine the

41:18

coolness of it all, not to

41:20

say that oh, you know, they're same or corniness

41:23

associated with the

41:25

position of being a late night band, but

41:28

it was our chance to make it and

41:31

for us at least, the coolest thing ever. And

41:35

that's basically what it was like. We

41:38

weren't even really going to accept the position,

41:41

and then Jimmy did something that

41:44

no other human being was able to do.

41:47

Uh. With us, by this point we

41:50

were like the complete opposite

41:52

of what we were in ninety two. This is like two thousand

41:54

seven, you know, two tour buses,

41:56

you know, high off the hog and everything

41:59

and in our glory,

42:01

and uh, we just thought, okay, well, yeah,

42:04

come to the show, Jimmy. We just figured like, at least

42:06

we'll have a friend on television so

42:08

that when we release records, we can be on his show

42:11

and promote it. But we're not going to accept

42:13

this gig. And the funniest

42:15

thing happened. I went away for five

42:17

minutes to do. We were in U c l A

42:19

campus. I want to do a quick, uh

42:22

interview with the campus newspaper

42:25

in my dressing room. And

42:27

when it was over six minutes later, I opened

42:29

the door and

42:32

on the on the field grass, Jimmy

42:36

and all eight members of the Roots

42:39

we're in the eight is Enough human

42:42

pyramid stands and

42:45

I looked at my manager and

42:48

we are the most cynical, snarkiest,

42:51

smartass know it all. You're we're the

42:53

smartest guys in the room and not you. We

42:55

just looked at each other and we're

42:58

like, we're not getting rim this guy or and

43:00

he just looked like, no, we're

43:03

not. And what Jimmy

43:05

managed to do was disarm

43:08

us in less

43:10

than ten minutes. Like

43:13

Tarik alone, anything that Tarik wears

43:16

is worth twenty dollars,

43:19

like he's not driving a spark

43:21

was on. Yeah, I mean Tarik drives before

43:23

he wears like ten thousand dollar Japanese

43:27

denim. You know what I mean. He

43:29

was on the bottom, like Tarik with

43:31

nerve put his

43:34

jeans on on the dirty I'm

43:38

like, what did this guy do to

43:41

talk? What did he do? What did he do?

43:44

I don't I'm still trying to figure it. He has

43:47

he's that guy. He's that guy like

43:50

when you watch the movie and the the

43:54

guys are trying to dissemble the bomb.

43:56

In like point three seconds,

43:59

he as the leg of the draw. He

44:01

knows exactly how

44:03

did disarm. He literally disarmed

44:07

us and showed us the prose of the situation.

44:10

It was as if we agreed to it already and forgot.

44:12

Well. But but let me let me say that this that I

44:15

worshiped, Jimmy I adored. And the thing is, Jimmy

44:18

is guileless. Jimmy's

44:20

a kid, and and that freedom and that

44:22

Jimmy's gonna flow with the ground. But we're all kids,

44:25

right. But what's great is you guys in behind him

44:28

with I'm not gonna say cynicism. But there's a

44:30

gravity, you guys, there's a balance exactly,

44:32

there's a great there's a great balance there.

44:34

There's a great balance there. What I what I

44:37

discovered the first month in first

44:40

of all, what I discovered about myself

44:43

and about the band um

44:48

starters for a band that sat

44:52

and Rolling Stones twenty

44:54

best band Live Bands of All Time list.

44:59

I noticed that we never ever practice

45:02

as a band because

45:04

our shows are Springsteen

45:07

length, three hours every night,

45:10

and we we did two hundred shows a night.

45:13

Like every show was

45:15

like its own. I never wanted

45:17

to snack before the meal,

45:20

you know, you don't wanna before

45:22

the orgy whatever. Uh

45:27

right, And so when we

45:29

got there and we were

45:31

in this closed in room,

45:34

eight of us looking at each other, it

45:36

was the hardest thing in the world to do because we

45:39

never did this before, and like I had to call my manager,

45:41

like yo, we

45:44

did not know how to It was like being naked in public

45:47

or something like. It took three weeks,

45:49

but suddenly we

45:52

rehearsed and became better musicians. We

45:54

became better songwriters, became

45:57

better producers because they it's all

45:59

these challenge is of Okay, I need

46:01

a ten seconds sting for d Da Da Da da Da.

46:03

Here's the name of the song now, and

46:06

it made us more focused song like

46:08

we're now. I felt like we've

46:10

robbed our fan base those

46:12

initial fifteen years because

46:15

we're so much wiser now at

46:20

songwriting, at being musicians,

46:22

at entertaining. Like

46:25

there's so much knowledge that we've gotten that

46:27

we didn't know. I thought it was gonna be a cushy retirement

46:29

gig. Okay, we'll just set off

46:31

in the sunset. I'll be fine. My

46:33

mom's house will be paid off, my b that'll

46:36

be cool. But that

46:39

was foolish. I was made

46:41

for this gig and didn't realize

46:43

it yet. Are you guys gonna tour perform any

46:45

time? Thinking about it?

46:47

We what was once

46:50

thirty eight weeks on the road is now

46:52

a normal two

46:55

days on the road is now We're

46:59

gonna go out again, which is normal. We

47:02

do weekends, We have hiatuses,

47:04

talk about your books. Yeah,

47:07

well it's the

47:10

first you find time for that. Well.

47:13

The thing is, I'm I'm a serial

47:15

tweeter, which is why I know, like

47:18

people are ragging our

47:20

current president elect about you know, why

47:22

do you get up at three and and five that's the best

47:24

times to tweet. Ever, I don't

47:26

want to defend him publicly that way, but trust

47:31

me too. I got the pad next to my bed

47:34

lighting scenes down for TV shows. So

47:36

um because of the the

47:40

paragraph nature of all my instagrams

47:43

and and thoughts. Um,

47:47

they were basically like, well, why don't you

47:49

just write a book already? And at first

47:51

I was resistant to it because I was like, how many ideas

47:53

do I have in me? But um,

47:56

so far, I've written three books and I'm kind

47:58

of proud of it. The first book, Momento

48:00

Blues, is kind of a

48:03

a music memoir where I talk

48:05

about life and music, and

48:07

the second one was a passion project.

48:10

Uh. I'm very obsessed with the show Soul

48:12

Train, so I wrote the Ultimate

48:14

Coffee table book about Soul Train

48:17

and uh my my last book was something

48:19

the Food, about which is I discovered

48:21

that comedians and

48:24

uh chefs are kind

48:27

of onor on a parallel creative level as

48:29

musicians. That's what I learned in in fallon

48:32

watching I'm observing David Chang and

48:35

Dominique Ganzel and all

48:37

these these great chefs when

48:39

they're preparing foods for our show.

48:42

I started to notice that they

48:45

think like musicians and became friends

48:47

with them and then did a kind

48:50

of observational study at their

48:52

creative methods. Um, and

48:56

I guess the next book I'm gonna work

48:58

on is also about creativity and

49:00

creativity. Well,

49:03

I'm I'm the guy that doesn't

49:06

necessarily I

49:09

don't marvel at the

49:11

vehicle more than I'm marvel at

49:14

the machinery that makes it

49:16

run. And I'm

49:19

always curious about the

49:22

preparation process, Like I

49:24

beg Higgins daily

49:28

to let me sit in on that, Like can

49:30

I I want to enter in at SNL so

49:33

I can be And Lauren is

49:35

not having none of this, by the way, uh

49:38

too be there

49:40

on the pitch meetings, like to

49:42

to when I watched the show on

49:44

Saturday. I'm always wondering

49:47

what was the pitch, like, like how

49:49

do they pitch this? And how did it

49:52

morph into what I'm watching right now?

49:55

I want to know what it's like in the beginning, So

49:57

like I'm always sneaking around on the seventeen floor

49:59

trying to figure out, you know, how

50:02

SNL works, So like between steps and

50:04

Comedians, I'm trying

50:06

to inspire myself with the

50:08

restless the creative process. Yes,

50:10

and I'm also wrestling. Well, the thing I admire

50:13

and the thing I'm so drawn to about you and

50:15

that's so attractive about you is there's

50:17

this discipline, there's this sense of

50:19

history and at the same time, like Tony

50:21

Bennett, who I always

50:24

use him as the standard of this, it's like, but we also

50:26

have to have a good time. This is what we dreamed

50:28

of doing, we dreamed of being here.

50:31

Let's have a good time, yes,

50:34

and enjoy it because this is what we wanted.

50:37

And I get that. I get the two from you. I get the discipline

50:40

and and and and and the the

50:42

the the professionalism,

50:44

if you will, But I also get where you're like, let's

50:48

I enjoy it. Well, I enjoy it now. Before

50:51

uh maybe five years ago,

50:54

I didn't enjoy it because

50:57

you're so immersed in the work. But uh

51:00

um, a lot of it. Well,

51:02

I discovered meditating because

51:07

well, yeah, I mean I hate to

51:09

be so more of it. But it was like, you know, again,

51:12

growing up in hip hop culture, the

51:14

number one fear in your twenties is like bullets

51:17

in the club, So it's like, stay off the club.

51:20

But then at

51:22

the age of like strokes became a new

51:24

bullet. So it's like insulin. Yes,

51:27

I I had to make

51:29

a choice. So yes, having a

51:31

clear mind and

51:35

clear thoughts helps, and

51:37

I know it's it's such a hard sell. It

51:41

saves my life, Like there's no way

51:43

that you can have my rigorous schedule. I

51:47

feel so bit like my inner circle of

51:49

nine people, I'm the only person without

51:52

gray hair, and I look

51:54

at them like, wow, I pay you people to

51:57

take the gray hair that I

52:00

I'm not getting. Well, let me just say

52:02

this that you're not married now, I

52:04

have a girlfriend, no kids, no,

52:07

no, So here's what I want to here's what I want to

52:09

try to close with. If I'm if I'm able, do

52:11

you want to raise kids as well? Absolutely,

52:14

that'd be so cool. You would be such

52:16

a great parents. Anybody that

52:18

would have you as a parent would be so lucky.

52:21

Well, yeah, thank you. It's weird.

52:23

I'm bad with compliments like yeah.

52:27

I feel as though everything

52:29

that I'm doing is eventually to pass

52:31

it on and pass the love to to

52:34

someone. Drummer,

52:37

DJ author and fingers

52:39

crossed Future of Father a mere

52:42

quest Love Thompson. This

52:45

is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to

52:47

here's the thing