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Ahmir Thompson, most commonly known as Questlove of The Roots, spoke of his life and food's influence on his music.
Credit: Adelaide Powell“God, this is like therapy,” Ahmir Thompson, known by his professional name as Questlove, said.
Thompson is the joint frontman of The Roots, the in-house band of ”The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” On Sunday, the host of NPR’s ”Fresh Air” Terry Gross interviewed Thompson about his artistic projects and life at a live taping of the show at the Penn Museum.
Thompson talked about his new book ”Something to Food About: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs” and the connection food has to music. Gross asked about Thompson’s family influences on the book and his broader career path.
Fresh Air is broadcast out of Philadelphia’s public radio station WHYY, is listened to by millions of people every week on more than 600 NPR stations around the world and is consistently lauded as one of the most popular and best radio programs throughout the world. On Fresh Air, Gross interviews prominent people with the aim of provoking revelatory insights and illuminating universal questions.
Thompson said his parents were the kind to always go out to dinner, but his uncles would go hunting and he and his cousins would dare each other to look in the bag filled with trophies of the hunt and guess what was in Grandma’s stew later that night. Thompson’s parents were hard on him and would tell him that he had to home by the time the Oprah theme song came on.
Thompson talked about his relationship with his father and how it was somewhat strained, but that he was able to clear things up with him shortly before he passed. His father didn’t know The Roots existed until after their second album came out, Thompson admitted. Thompson said his father told him that “it’s every parent’s dream for their offspring to leave a permanent impact” and that he was proud of his son’s accomplishments.
The recently deceased musician Prince’s influence in Thompson’s life was very evident at the taping, beginning from a moment early in the show when some mechanical noises were heard and Thompson said, “Could have been Prince.”
While reminiscing about a time when Prince randomly challenged Jimmy Fallon to a ping-pong match, Thompson used his trademark hair pick to imitate Prince swinging around his gold racquet. Thompson also mentioned Prince’s penchant for making others donate their money to a swear jar after using vulgar words, and the time Prince gave a four hour lecture on religion to Thompson and rapper Common after swinging by a recording session.
The talk took on a somber tone when Gross mentioned the overwhelming amount of deaths in Thompson’s life recently, including those of his father and Prince. The performer had been at seven memorials in the last five weeks.
“It’s becoming numbing. I don’t want to get used to death,” he said. “This is seriously making me consider a life pattern change. I don’t think it’s a mistake that the constant wear and tear ran down [Prince’s] body...It’s like losing two fathers almost.”
Thompson repeatedly expressed his love for The Tonight Show throughout the talk.
“It’s the best job ever... Your dream job is the job you’re willing to wake up at 4:00 a.m. for,” Thompson said.
The musician noted he was certainly willing to get up in the early hours for his career, but that it might not be the healthiest routine to maintain.
Thompson also talked about the state of The Roots and their relationship to The Tonight Show. He delved into the perils of trying to write a theme song for the show, which culminated in Fallon serendipitously choosing the first of some 4,300 songs The Roots had ever performed at 30 Rock — a song they had only used for a sound check. Gross acknowledged that the current theme is a kind of homage to the first Tonight Show song, but funkier.
Thompson said there was once a time when The Roots’ relationship to The Tonight Show was uncertain. However, after he saw his bandmates and Fallon form a human pyramid during a trip to the University of California, Los Angeles, he remarked, “We’re stuck with this guy, aren’t we?”
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