Questlove: NBC clearing Roots songs for Fallon

[December 09, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC is now checking the songs the Roots play on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" after the band performed an off-color song during Michele Bachmann's show appearance last month.

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of The Roots says now he's "gotta clear a lot of the song choices" with the network.

"It's still a comedy show, so they promise not to step on my toes or that type of thing, but they definitely want to know the title of the song, the subject matter of the song, can it be seen as an insult?" he said in an interview Thursday.

When the Republican presidential candidate appeared on the Nov. 22 show, house band The Roots played a snippet of a 1985 Fishbone song called "Lyin' Ass B----." A day later the Minnesota congresswoman received a personal letter from NBC's vice president for late night programming, Doug Vaughan; Fallon also apologized.

"It was kind of wrong for me to throw (NBC) under the bus without telling them what it was, so I understand from a business standpoint," Thompson said.

The drummer and frontman of The Roots said after the incident, he heard from members of Fishbone. The veteran rock band is the subject of a recent documentary, "Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone," so for them, the controversy likely helped.

"They have a movie out, so I guess for them at least the stars were aligned," he said. "They're one of my favorite bands, like I tip my hat to those guys."

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Online:

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/

[Associated Press; By MESFIN FEKADU]

Mesfin Fekadu covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/musicmesfin.

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