Former ‘Letterman’ band will step in for Questlove and company at the Grammys on Friday.
Thirty years after David letterman and Paul Shafer left NBC, the Late Night host and his longtime backup band are returning to 30 Rock to fill in for the Roots on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
The one-night-only show will take place on February 3rd when the Roots are in Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards.
“Paul Shaffer is one of the most important musical figures in late-night history,” Fallon tells Rolling Stone. “From SNL to Letterman, he’s done it all. I’m beyond honored and excited that they’re getting the band back together.”
Over the last several weeks, the idea of bringing Shaffer and his band back to NBC for the night surfaced. “What a lovely gesture on Jimmy’s part,” Shaffer tells Rolling Stone.
“Questlove has always been so nice about mentioning my work with Letterman to me. He and the guys have gone ahead and blasted it into the 21st century.”
Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band served as David Letterman’s house band from 1982 through 1993 on NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman.
They joined him at CBS for the premiere of The Late Show with David Letterman, however, they were renamed Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra. They restored their previous identity once the CBS show ended in 2016. They released an album on Sire Records in 2017.
Many band members have come and gone over the years, and Shaffer is still unsure of who will be performing with him on Fallon. “We are still working on that since people seem to be in four opposite corners of the world,” he says. “I do have the great Felicia Collins on guitar and the great Anton Fig on drums.”
