Since 2009, Jimmy Fallon has been one of the top talk show hosts in the world. Currently the focus of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the former Saturday Night Live star has definitely developed a significant fan following. Despite that, there have also been a lot of observers who've called his talk show overly safe largely due to his hosting style.
While Fallon almost always hosts his talk show with a huge smile on his face, he occasionally shows another side of himself when he gives his fans more of an inside look at his life. One recent example of that was when Fallon gave a heartbreaking update on a loss he suffered. Fans have also been given another look at what Fallon is like behind the scenes when someone recently revealed that The Tonight Show's host stalked a group of people for a great reason.
Jimmy Fallon stalked The Roots to get them to be his talk show's band
Over the last several decades, many of the top talk shows have had an in-house band that plays music throughout each episode. When Late Night with Jimmy Fallon premiered in March 2009, The Roots was named that talk show's house band. The Roots remained in that role when that talk show's host was promoted to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
From the moment that The Roots became famous, they have been widely respected for their incredible musical talents. As a result, it seemed shocking that the group would be willing to be the house band for a talk show. With that in mind, it is fascinating to learn what led to the band agreeing to be part of Jimmy Fallon's talk shows.
In October 2025, The Roots' Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter spoke to the rapper Reginald "Redman" Noble for a conversation that was chronicled in a Rolling Stone article. As a part of that discussion, Trotter was asked how The Roots became the house band for Fallon's shows. In response, Trotter revealed that Fallon asked The Roots to be his show's band, but they didn't take him seriously at first.
"Man, the way we got the gig, Jimmy was always a huge music nerd. He’s a huge, huge Beastie Boys fan. That’s the first band that took the Roots on tour. We learned the ropes from them. When everything changed in ’07, ’08, [after] Napster hit and the way people were receiving their music changed, Jimmy came around and said, “I’m thinking about doing the Late Night show, and I need a band. Would you guys be interested in doing it?” We thought it was [expletive] until he kept coming around."
From there, Trotter revealed that Fallon stalked The Roots for more than a year in an attempt to woo them to be his talk show's house band. As Trotter explained, Fallon kept showing up and continuing to express his interest in working with the respected band.
"It was a year and some change. We would show up at a gig, and he’d be in our dressing room, like, 'Hey, hey, what’s up? I was serious about what we talked about.' He was dedicated. He showed up a bunch of times pitching it. This was around the time that we had just got done working on Dave Chappelle’s show. It was so much uncertainty at that time that it sounded good to have a day job. But we didn’t want it to mean the end of the Roots."
While the word stalking has always had a negative connotation for very valid reasons, Trotter seemed to look back at being followed by Fallon in a very positive light. Not only that, it was Fallon's persistence that resulted in him building a relationship with The Roots that has lasted ever since.