-Great to see you. -Good to see you, man.
-Do you know Dave Grohl? -Oh, we've met.
-We've met. -Yeah. We're cool.
-I wanted to talk to you about the new album
coming out this summer, "Montero,"
but I also want to talk to you about "Saturday Night Live."
-Oh, that was a good time.
-No, you were great on "Saturday Night Live."
Amazing on "Saturday Night Live."
Did anyone see it? [ Cheers and applause ]
But here -- -It was a good one.
It was a good one.
-But here's what I want to talk to you about.
During your performance, you had a wardrobe malfunction.
You split your --
[ Crowd cheering ] Please. You split your pants.
I don't get that reaction when I have my wardrobe malfunction.
Your pants split live on the show,
and you covered it.
You actually literally covered it,
but you covered it well.
When did you realize something happened?
-Um, okay.
So, I was pretty much, you know, going down the pole, you know,
doing my little sexy drop-down, and, boom, I feel air.
I'm like --
-"I feel air."
-Okay, I was like, "There is definitely a breeze going on."
And I also felt, like, some popping, like,
still happening while I was down there.
So, I was like, "Oh, God, I hope it's not" --
I was like, "Just please don't be on TV already."
You know?
And "SNL" is actually live, so...
-There goes that, yeah.
-You know what the worst part is?
At the end of the performance, the dancers are supposed to,
like, touch me, and, like, tug on me or whatever.
And they were tugging on the pants,
and I was like, "Please, God, no."
-As you're singing, you're like, "Stop pulling my pants down."
-I was like, "Please, God, no, don't let them."
And I couldn't say it, 'cause that would ruin the performance.
I was like, "Hey, guys, stop, please."
But I couldn't say it.
-Good for you for staying and just going,
"No, I got to get through this.
And then how did you leave the stage?
-How'd I leave the stage? Oh. [ Laughs ]
You know what's hilarious?
Everybody was leaving the stage, and the "SNL" people, like,
a lot of them still didn't didn't know.
So everybody was leaving the stage, all the dancers,
and they're like, "Come on, Nas.
You have to get ready for the next performance."
I'm like, "I literally cannot leave
or everybody here would see everything."
You know?
I was like, "Please bring me a towel."
So they brought me a towel, and -- Yeah.
-Yeah. But you had a pretty priceless expression
when it did happen.
Can we take a look at the clip of "Saturday Night Live"?
Not to make you relive it.
-♪ It's a whole lot of money in this mother ♪
-That was the rip. -Damn.
Yeah.
-You covered it right exactly in the beat.
-It was perfect.
It was perfect. It was perfect timing.
If that would have ripped any other time
during the performance, everything over.
-It almost sounded like I could hear the rip on beat, too.
-If you listen closely, you probably can hear the rip.
I wouldn't -- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-But because your pants split, you couldn't finish
the end of your dance, 'cause you had a big --
By the way, you had a big --
kind of a crazy thing with your dancers, right?
Coming in this week? -Oh, my God.
It was -- This week has been testing my patience a lot, okay?
So, you know, we rehearsed for two weeks,
and I was already afraid to even perform,
because, you know, since COVID, I haven't
performed in like a year, and I was like,
"Oh, God, I don't want to perform.
I don't want to do this."
But they were like -- You know, they encouraged me to do it,
so I did it.
And then, you know, I rehearsed with the dancers for two weeks.
We meet, we bond, we have a great time.
And then, one day before the performance,
one of the dancers catches COVID, right?
And then all the dancers have to not --
We can't see them anymore. -Yeah, that's right.
-And, plus, we can't see the choreographer in person anymore.
-They have to quarantine for two weeks or --
-Yeah. They're still in their hotel right now.
And then we have to get a whole group of new dancers
to learn the routine in 24 hours.
So, shout-out to them,
because they did a great job of learning everything.
-In 24 hours, and that's live. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah. -It was --
-That's wild. -It was really scary.
It was really scary. -Yeah.
-We made it through the week, though.
-I wanted to show, because you didn't get to finish your --
the big ending to your dance, and you practiced it.
Luckily, "SNL" has a dress rehearsal,
and we have video footage of dress rehearsal.
So here's the ending that no one has seen, Lil Nas X.
-♪ It's a whole lot of money in this mother ♪
♪ It's a whole lot of money in this mother ♪
-That's what I'm talking about. See? The split --
-But now I understand.
Now I can see why you didn't finish.
-Good thing, yeah.
-That would have been everywhere.
-It would have been finished.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Big Nas X. Yeah.
-I want everybody who thought it was a publicity stunt
to see that, you know?
'Cause it was not. It was not.
I would never, like, rip my pants in public, on person --
I mean, on purpose.
-We get it.
"Montero" this summer.
-Yeah. -What can people expect?
-"Montero." Oh, my God.
This is -- My entire life, like,
has led up to this moment of this album.
It's honest. It's 100% me.
Like, you know, 'cause last time,
I played so many different characters.
But, yeah, like, I'm exploring my sexuality, myself.
It's like a coming-of-age story. My heartbreaks.
There's been a lot of those in the past couple years.
It's everything, man.
And it's something everybody can vibe along to. Yeah.
-Good. I'm looking forward to it, bud.
And you always perform.
Even with split pants, you know how to perform, buddy.
Lil Nas X right there, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]