Conan O’Brien Returns To The Tonight Show With A Pretty Good Prince Anecdote
As you may recall, things between Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show did not end well. In 2009, O’Brien took over for Jay Leno as the show’s host. It was a position that he’d long wanted, and it had been promised. After seven months, though, NBC launched a plan to bring Leno back for a half-hour show, pushing The Tonight Show into a spot that would start after midnight. O’Brien went out in a blaze of glory, clowning the network and Leno relentlessly, before departing for TBS. Last night, O’Brien returned to The Tonight Show to talk about Prince.
OK. I’m lying. Conan O’Brien did not return to The Tonight Show to talk about Prince. He made his first in-person appearance on that stage since 2010 to promote Conan O’Brien Must Go, his new travel show on Max. But he did talk about Prince. O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon, the person who ultimately took over for Jay Leno, immediately got to riffing with a minimum of awkwardness, and O’Brien told a fun story about hosting a benefit that Stevie Wonder headlined. In O’Brien’s telling, Prince, a surprise guest on that show, told Conan backstage that he would not come onstage in the brief second before he went onstage. Good shit! Conan O’Brien is great at telling stories like this, and you can watch him tell that one below.
If you like, you can watch the full Conan O’Brien/Jimmy Fallon conversation below.
The other guests on last night’s Tonight Show were Nicole Richie, who also told a Prince anecdote, and the duo of former Oasis singer and former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire. Gallagher and Squire released their collaborative album last month, and they performed their song “I’m A Wheel.” Watch that below.
Liam Gallagher John Squire is out now on Warner Music UK.