NBC to screen The Roots’ walk-in music following the Michele Bachmann debacle
This just in from New York Post:
Questlove has been ordered to have his song choices approved by NBC honchos after his musical attack on Michele Bachmann, when his band the Roots played the opening of “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” as she walked on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” Talking to Rolling Stone before the incident, Questlove admitted he was planning the number. “I’m gunning for Bachmann,” he said. “I want to try and do Fishbone’s ‘Lyin’ Ass Bitch.’ I just don’t know if I’m going to tell Jimmy.” (He says Fallon has vetoed only one song, “She Blinded Me With Science,” for Katie Holmes. Questlove laughed, “That would have been good.”) While Bachmann didn’t object on camera, the lyrical diss caused a huge stir and NBC had to apologize. Questlove tells the magazine he was awakened by a 9 a.m. call the next morning summoning him to 30 Rock, where he was told he must clear every song with three different NBC execs, and he was forbidden to tweet about the incident.
If Questlove and The Roots wanted to make some kind of on-air statement about their disapproval of Michele Bachmann—and there’s a lot to disapprove of—they certainly had plenty of songs to choose from. Buuut they made the decision of going with song that has a misogynistic title. And now here they are. On the plus side, at least they still have their jobs.