-It's always good to see you, pal.
-You too. Thanks for having me.
-Thanks for being here. Last time, it was on Zoom.
And I appreciate you just doing that because, really,
I mean, you did me a solid there.
You did me a favor. Thanks for being here.
-Always a treat, man. -I gotta say, I went to see
the Bond movie on the big screen, and to hear your --
the theme, "No Time to Die," and it was unbelievable.
-Thanks, man. -It was fantastic.
-That was cool. [ Cheers and applause ]
-It was beautiful. Beautifully done.
Beautifully shot. Were you excited?
Eventually -- the movie's been pushed three times.
-I know. We talked about it when I was here two years ago.
-Yeah. Daniel Craig came on the show
three times for the same movie.
[ Laughter ] It was unbelievable.
-I thought he was buffer every time he came on.
-Yeah, he kept getting in more and more shape.
-By the last time, he was like -- he was huge.
-He was just -- yeah. -Yeah.
-Yeah, we had nothing to talk about the third time.
I'm like, "We've already talked about the whole movie."
-Just showing every clip. -Yeah, we showed everything.
-The whole movie in clips.
-But did you get to go to the premiere?
-We went to the premiere, which was at
the Royal Albert Hall in London.
-Wait. With the royal family and everything?
-The royal family, yeah.
-What'd it feel like? -It was crazy.
We're Americans, so we're not prepped on all
the sort of customs with royalty.
And we were told by our publicist
right before we went out, like,
"You don't really look at them in the eye.
And they talk first. You don't speak first.
You bow your head." And then --
Like, this is all real stuff.
And you refer to them as "Your Royal Highness."
-Every one of them? -Yeah. All of --
They're all "Your Royal Highnesses."
-Wow. [ Laughter ]
-And so we're like, "Okay."
And then after that, you can say ma'am or sir or whatever.
And so we're, like, standing there, we're all nervous.
And they come in, and they're just like, "Hello."
And they were so casual. And they, like, shook hands,
and no one else was doing the Your Royal Highness stuff.
But we didn't know if that was 'cause they were English
and we were American, so we were like -- we were like,
"It's lovely to meet you, Your Royal Highness."
[ Laughter ] Like we whispered --
Like, we were like -- You know what I mean?
-You just kind of tune it out. But what a treat.
-It's so cool. -Speaking of other
English treats, how is that for a segue?
-I like it. -You got a --
You won a Grammy for the second year in a row.
[ Cheers and applause ]
For Record of the Year. -Crazy.
-And presented to you by the one and only Ringo Starr.
-I know. A Beatle.
-What's it like to be handed a Grammy from a Beatle?
-So, it was the very end of the ceremony,
which, you've been there -- they're long.
They're many, many -- -Yes.
-They're hours and hours long. So you're like --
you're hungry at the time. [ Laughter ]
-And at this point, are you a winner or are you --
-We'd already won a song -- a Grammy way earlier
in the night for the Bond song. -Yes.
-And this was the final category of the night.
It was Record of the Year. I mean, there's always
steep competition, but this year, it was like,
you know, Megan Thee Stallion, Beyoncé.
[ Cheers ] It was steep.
And Billie and I were just like --
just had loved Megan Thee Stallion so much
that year that we were just like, "She's gonna sweep.
Like, no question." -Yeah.
-And so Ringo walks out. And I'm like,
"Damn, Megan Thee Stallion gets to meet Ringo Starr.
That's pretty cool." [ Laughter ]
-"I always wanted to meet him." Yeah.
-And then they called our name, and I was like,
"I get to meet Ringo Starr!" I was so excited.
[ Cheers and applause ] -I mean, come on. Right?
And did you -- What did he say?
Did you talk to him at all? Did you get to really --
Did you bond? -Ringo loves this.
This is, like, a big Ringo thing.
-Of course, "peace and love." -Peace and love.
-That's right. [ Laughter ]
-And he said -- he said something really sweet to us.
You know, very casually, "Congratulations,"
and, you know, whatever, "Lovely to meet you."
And I said -- I said, "Aw, man, it's such an honor."
And he turned, and he walked away.
[ Laughter ] Um...
-No, you have to say "Your Highness" to Ringo Starr.
That's why it happened. -That's true.
-He was like, "Well, you don't know the rules."
[ Laughter and applause ]
-That's true. -"You don't know the rules."
Yeah, that's right. You learn.
You got to live and learn, right?
I follow you on the socials, 'cause I think you're very funny
and interesting as well as a great musician and producer
and everything, but you tweet things out
where I go, like, "Man."
And they just make me think sometimes.
They make me laugh most of the time.
-Thanks, man. -But here's one.
Well, let's just -- There's a couple here.
This one says -- how about this? --
"A funeral but the person isn't dead,
and you all just get together and talk about everything
they've done that annoyed you."
[ Laughter ]
Why would you think about that?
-Because I was thinking about funerals,
and I was thinking about how everybody just cries
and talks about how wonderful the person was
and how they were full of light and love.
And I would be in the back like,
"Also, one time, they didn't return my CD."
[ Laughter ]
-They all say it -- "They weren't perfect."
-And so, that's not acceptable
to do at a funeral, I don't think.
-Of course. How about this?
This one here says, "I F'ing love the subway in New York."
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Do you remember doing that? -I don't know why the actual
New Yorkers in the room clapped
because the New Yorkers online booed that tweet.
They did not like that tweet at all.
-Really? -Yeah.
It's better than the public transit
in every other city in America.
-This last one here, I'll just show.
This one's a video, because you posted a lot videos, as well.
He's a good follow, as I said. -Thanks, man.
-And this one is not a video you shot on your phone.
-No. -Or a camera or with anyone on.
This was your backyard? -It's my security camera.
I was, like, refilling the pool one day,
and, like, looked over and saw something.
And I was -- I -- Do you want to just show --
Do you want to just show the video?
[ Laughter ] -I just think it's great.
Well, no. I want to set it up
a little bit more because what's funny is, uh...
you fell in the pool. [ Laughter ]
And you're talking to Billie.
You're talking to your sister. -Yeah.
-And you go, "Dude, the weirdest thing, man.
I fell in the pool today." -Yeah. That's right.
-And she goes, "Did you get it on video?"
You go -- -I was like,
"No, I wasn't filming."
-"I'm not doing this for a thing."
-Yeah. I just -- it was an accident.
-And she goes -- -She's like,
"We have security cameras." -"Check the security camera."
-"Check the security footage." -So here's security footage
of Finneas refilling his pool.
Check this out.
Yeah, there's you.
-Yeah, holding the hose. -Yeah.
-Just doing my job. -Yeah, just hanging out.
Yeah. [ Laughter and applause ]
♪♪
Dude, there's no way.
You can't act that. You can't act that.
It's like...
'Cause you almost tried to save yourself at one point.
-Oh, yeah. -At one point you're like,
"I got this. I'm not going in."
[ Laughter ]
So you tried to save yourself, then you're like, "Oh, man.
I just went in." -I totally --
I was trying to correct. -Yeah.
-Like I was on ice skates where you're like,
"A-ha-ha-ha! Not today." [ Laughter ]
-No, and, gosh, it was fantastic.
Thank you for letting us show that.
I want to talk about your debut album, "Optimist."
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-There you go.
You're performing here on the show tonight...
-Yeah. -...which thank you so much.
-Thanks for having me. -Which song are you
playing tonight? -I'm doing a song called
"Only a Lifetime" tonight. [ Cheers ]
-"Only a Lifetime," tonight.
And you have an interesting story
about the first time you performed on our show.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I came for some answers tonight, if that's okay.
[ Laughter ] -Wow.
-Okay. So I'll set the scene briefly.
It's 2018. -Mm-hmm.
-I think it was like March 2018. -Yeah.
-We get the call. Billie gets to play
on the "Tonight Show" for the first time.
-Yeah. -This is a huge deal for us.
It still is every time, but the first time is like nothing else.
-Yeah. -And so we're super nervous.
We're excited. You come in the dressing room.
You say hi to her. You're very sweet.
We go out -- Again, we're like --
We're not seasoned yet.
We've only done, like, one tour so far.
We're doing her song "Bellyache."
It's me. I was playing acoustic guitar,
we had a drummer, and then Billie.
We're all in, like, jumpsuits. Like --
Like, we looked like painters. [ Light laughter ]
We look like people who paint. -Yeah.
-And we're onstage, we do our song, and I'm like --
My heart's kind of pounding through the song.
-I think it went well.
-And we felt pretty good about it.
We were like, "You know, we didn't bomb.
All right." And you come over,
and The Roots start jamming, and they're crushing it.
You come over. You're taller
than I thought you would be. [ Laughter ]
I didn't think you'd be short, but you're -- he's --
Like, you're tall, I think, in my opinion.
-Yeah, I think -- Well, I'm behind a desk,
so everyone just kind of assumes that I'm like about 3 feet tall.
[ Laughter ]
I'm like a Muppet. When they meet me, they're like,
"Elmo is much taller, yeah." [ Laughter ]
-So, you're taller than I thought,
so I'm a little thrown off. But I'm like, "Great.
We'll roll with it. It's fine."
-Yep. -"I was expecting shorter.
It's fine." [ Laughter ]
And you're like, you know, "Good night, everybody!
Thanks for watching."
The Roots are just killing it, just rocking out.
I've watched the show since you started the show.
I'm so excited, and I'm clapping.
I'm looking over, and you guys do your crescendo at the end.
-Yeah. -And I'm just, like, smiling
and clapping, looking at Quest.
And Quest he put his sticks in one hand,
and he pointed right at me, and he flipped me the bird.
[ Laughter ]
And then -- -Wait. What?
-And then they all left. [ Laughter ]
They all left, and I was standing there, like, clapping,
and Questlove, who I'd never met,
had just flipped me the bird, and everybody left.
-Are you sure I didn't do this?
-No, that's Ringo, dude. That's -- Ringo does that.
-It was not peace or love. [ Laughter ]
[ Sad trombone plays ]
-Hey! -And so I'm shocked.
And then your producer goes,
"We're gonna just do the song one more time."
And so -- And I think they aired the second take,
and we're like -- I looked like I've seen a --
I look like I've seen a ghost. -Questlove.
[ Laughter ] -And I'm --
I just -- I'm curious. -Really?
Uh...eh...
[ Laughter ]
-Never, never, never.
Guys, Finneas is here. He would never...
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Optimist" is out right now.
Stream it, pick it up wherever you buy records.