Lorne Michaels says ‘SNL’ has “never banned” any music acts: “We’re way too crass and opportunistic”
Lorne Michaels has come out to say that Saturday Night Live has “never banned” any music acts, adding that he and his team are “way too crass and opportunistic” to do so.
The sketch comedy show creator is seen talking about this in the Peacock documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, which released on Monday (January 27).
Per Consequence, Michaels addressed in the documentary the long-standing rumours of music acts previously banned from appearing on the show again due to their controversial performances there – for example, Sinéad O’Connor‘s Pope photograph incident, along with Rage Against The Machine‘s upside-down flag stunt.
In the documentary, the latter band’s Tom Morello also claimed that they were locked in a room by the Secret Service after their performance.
“I’ll read it sometimes in the [New York Post], ‘So and so’s banned for life,’” said Michaels. “We’ve never banned anyone. We’re way too crass and opportunistic. If something’s hot, we’re going to go for it and have it on.”
This follows a similar debunking comment by Adrien Brody, whose 2003 appearance on the show had been widely rumoured to be his only one due to an improvised character he portrayed as host.
In the 40-second introduction, Brody went off-piste, diverting from the usual “Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Paul,” to repeat a number of stereotypical Jamaican phrases, a mention of Rastafari, and jokes about Paul’s family all being named various iterations of ‘Sean’.
In the two decades since, Brody – who stars in The Brutalist, out in the UK later this month – hasn’t appeared on SNL again, and it was thought that this moment could have been the reason why.
When asked by Vulture if he’s now banned, he said he wasn’t to his knowledge, but added a caveat: “I also have never been invited back on so I don’t know what to tell you.”
Timothée Chalamet hosted last weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live (January 25), and played a trio of Bob Dylan songs on the show to promote his new film A Complete Unknown.
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Daniel Peters
NME
