Last month, it was revealed that The Weeknd would debut a new song on an episode of American Dad! he co-wrote. Ahead of the premiere of the episode, which will air on Monday on TBS, he sat down for an interview with Variety to talk about how the collaboration came about.
In the lead-up to the episode airing, the "Blinding Lights" singer has continually hyped it up on social media. "I'm a longtime fan of the show," Weeknd explained. "I’ve been watching since high school, but I really appreciated it about seven years ago. It’s been running for so long, and I feel like it has a real cult following. To really enjoy the show in its entirety, you have to really know the characters." He added that his favorite episodes are "The One That Got Away," "The 'American Dad' After School Special," and "Dope and Faith."
He didn't give away too much in regards to what fans can expect from the episode, but he did give a shout-out to Asa Taccone of The Lonely Island for co-writing the song he made for the episode. "Definitely will be collaborating with him more in the future," he said, adding that he's a "fucking genius." He added that the song was written "specifically for the show," and isn't an outtake from his recent album, After Hours.
"I always wanted to play a character that was the opposite of the public's perception of me," he said, noting that he's game to "make fun of myself." He also commented on how he's playing a fictional version of himself in the show, which he also did recently in Uncut Gems. "I want to continue to create different Weeknds in alternate universes," he remarked. When the singer told writer-producer Joel Hurwitz, whom he co-wrote the episode with, that he "loved doing voices," he was taken to the Robot Chicken studio. "I totally geeked out and he actually let me do multiple voices on an episode coming out soon," he said, revealing that he's got another cartoon cameo on the way. "The cartoon nerd in me jumped out that day."
While he said he doesn't have any other acting roles on the way anytime soon, he said that it's a bucket list dream of his to appear on The Simpsons. "If they're reading this, I actually have a pretty cool idea if they're down," he said.
Read the full interview with The Weeknd and check out a trailer for the episode here.
