Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is only 2 weeks away from it’s first airing (March 2nd), and a lot of people are curious about what the Roots have planned for their surprise stint as a Late Night house band; a role not usually played by groups known for their original music. In a Q&A with Rollingstone, Roots drummer ?uestlove calmed any fears their fans may have of them becoming a cover band.
Apparently, NBC claims they can’t afford to pay for any published music for the Roots. “We have to write 200 new songs, which will probably last about a year,” ?uestlove said. “We’ve written about 55 so far.”
The original songs don’t have to be long, thankfully, as they only need to provide segues for Fallon’s show. ?uestlove doesn’t call them “segues” though: “Some people call them beds or bumpers,” he said. “I call them sandwiches. If the song sounds like the Meters, then we call it a po boy sandwich. If it’s pop, i call it the Subway sandwich. Disco or Philly soul, we call it a cheese steak. When we’re referencing some UK rock sh*t, that’s the Marmite sandwich. If it has a didgeridoo, then it’s a Vegemite sandwich.”