Jimmy Fallon went live after some sort of mysterious sporting event Sunday night, enlisting noted woodsman Justin Timberlake for a pair of performances and a "songversation." Timberlake also discussed his halftime medley at said sporting event, which featured a tribute to Minneapolis' own Prince.
"It's a moment for me if I'm being quite honest," Timberlake said around the 3:45 mark in the video up top. "[Prince has] always been the pinnacle of musicianship for me, and when we decided that, like, the serendipity and synergy that we would be in Minneapolis and that he's such a special thing here aside from what he is all over the world, I just felt like I wanted to do something for this city and something for him that would just be the ultimate homage to what I consider the G.O.A.T. of musicians."
After explaining how stoked he was to have the tribute receive a thumbs-up from Questlove, whom he considers the ultimate Prince "gatekeeper," Timberlake explained some of the technical achievements at the center of the performance. "We got the actual vocal stems from 'I Would Die 4 U,' the actual recording, and then we got uncut footage from his performance of it in Purple Rain and somehow, some way, by the grace of probably Prince looking down on us, it synced up," he said. "It was like this crazy serendipitous moment. I just wanted to use that opportunity to do something special for this city, but most of all, for my favorite musician of all time." Still, the tribute hasn't exactly been met with unanimous praise.
Timberlake closed out Sunday's special Tonight Show with a performance of his Chris Stapleton–featuring Man of the Woods single "Say Something."
Though Timberlake kept mostly mum about the impending Man of the Woods Tour Sunday night, he did tell Fallon that he was planning to "bring the outside in" with his stage design. Check the list of currently confirmed dates here.
