When Lil Nas X performed “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” on Saturday Night Live last month, he suffered a wardrobe malfunction. But according to the boundary-pushing rapper, that wasn’t the worst thing to happen to him that night.
In a new profile from New York Times Magazine, the “Old Town Road” artist revealed that he felt so confident after his SNL experience, that he decided to shoot his shot with a guy he had been speaking with. This is despite the fact his pants split onstage mid-performance, which he addressed on Twitter and TikTok by laughing off the experience.
Unfortunately for X, his confidence post-SNL didn’t work out in his favor. The person revealed that he had a boyfriend, and Nas explained that he appreciated the honesty. “I was like, Damn, you’re that loyal?” he shared. “I love it. You forget sometimes that people are, like, really loyal, and it’s like, I want to do that.”
While it was obviously not the outcome he wanted, he said it acted as a reminder to himself that “no matter what I do or accomplish in this life or whatever, I’m never going to get everything I want.”
He shared that in the past, he would “cry himself to sleep” over such rejection. After this experience, something changed, however. “I was like, hold on,” he said. “We’re not doing this this time.” So instead, he planned to give himself a pep talk after leaving the SNL afterparty. Despite his plans, he admitted he fell asleep on the toilet in his hotel room instead. Regardless, he came out of the situation feeling better than he might have in the past.
In an appearance on The Tonight Show in May, Lil Nas X opened up about the wardrobe malfunction. “I was pretty much just going down the pole, doing my little sexy dropdown, and boom—I feel air,” he told Fallon and guest co-host Dave Grohl. “I was like, there is definitely a breeze going on. I also felt, like, some popping still happening while I was down there. I was like, oh god. I was like, just please don’t be on TV already. And SNL is actually live.”
Thankfully, the timing of his pants splitting meant that he was able to “contain” the situation before he could accidently expose himself on live TV. “If I would have ripped [my pants] any other time during the performance, everything’s over.” Following the ordeal, he informed his fans that he did not trust pants anymore.
Another TV performance of Lil Nas X’s made headlines recently after he kissed one of his dancers at the BET Awards. Despite some of the homophobic comments about his appearance on the show shared on Twitter, TMZ reports that the Federal Communications Commission only received three complaints.
“I was very disturbed to see 2 men pratically having sexual in the stage when the awards show is supposed to be a family show,” wrote one person who complained, forgetting that plenty of women have expressed their sexuality on the show in the past. “It’s ridiculous and children and adults are being forced to endure this. Unacceptable and I will be unsubscribing from BET network.”
It’s hard to see any of this bothering Lil Nas X all that much, especially after he caused conservative meltdowns by giving Satan a lapdance in the “Montero” video.
