Tonight, The Tonight Show contains a musician who was about three weeks ago ready to look for a new job. Thad Cockrell will perform his song ‘Swingin’, with a bit of accompaniment from the Roots, in a performance that was discussed because Jimmy Fallon accidentally bought a light switch at the right hardware store at the right time.
The unexpected discussion is one of those classic fairy tales from rock and roll: Cockrell has worked as a musician for the past two decades, releasing several albums under his own name and Leagues, while also pursuing his career as a professional songwriter in Nashville. He endured countless ups and downs in his quest for that big breakthrough, but by the end of 2020, after dropping his sixth album, If you feel the same in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cockrell admits he was ready to name it.
‘[The album] come out, and you know, it does what it can, but it’s as flat as anything can be, ”he says Rolling clip. “I’ve been doing it for a long time, but to be able to do it at a viable level, enough people need to sign up for the conversation.”
In a story he shared on Instagram, which has since gone viral – and which Fallon told again The Tonight Show last week – Cockrell has spent the first few days of 2021 writing down his goals and intentions for the new year. This includes finding a way to release all the music he recorded during the pandemic, but also: “Looking for a new career.”
He was not sure exactly what he would do: he obtained his master’s degree in family therapy and counseling and could always return to it. He was an avid cook and was also considering doing restaurant work or bottling and selling the homemade sauce he had been making to friends for almost a decade. “I was actually just trying to figure it out,” Cockrell says.
When Cockrell sent his list to his management team, he had already predicted that they would be ready to let him go anyway. But telephonically he is greeted with the news that Fallon has heard ‘Swingin’ and booked him for it The Tonight Show.
“It’s hard to explain,” Cockrell said of the whip. ‘Like, maybe it does day and night, but there’s sunshine somewhere. I could not speak. I was like, ‘Are you screwing me?’ And they said, Nay. And I just started sticking my eyes out. ‘
Fallon’s side of the story took place late last year.
A light switch in his house broke and he ventured to a hardware store to pick up the necessary supplies. “Oh, I know how to do this thing,” Fallon says. “I think I learned it with basic electricity or something when I was in high school.” Cockrell’s song comes over the speakers, causing Fallon to stop shopping and immediately pull out his phone to identify the track.
“It felt like this George Harrison-y, or ELO, Jeff Lynne-type vibes,” Fallon says Rolling clip of Cockrell’s ‘Swingin’. ” ‘I was just standing there listening to the whole song. I was enchanted … I was just listening to it. It’s a great song to turn in the car on the way home. ”
Fallon sent an email soon Tonight Show music booker Julie Gurovitsch, and asked if they could get Cockrell in the show. Just after Cockrell was confirmed and he shared his story on Instagram, Fallon learned that his musical guest was about to change careers.
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An aura of fate surrounded If you feel the same virtually from the foundation, though it took until this month before it was fully realized. The album is a few years old and its creation and release was largely spurred on by Cockrell’s girlfriend, artist Becca Mancari, who happened to be playing some Cockrell songs for her Bermuda Triangle bandmate Brittany Howard. Howard fell in love with Cockrell’s music and connected with ATO Records, who released the album in June last year; she also gave her voice to the album “Higher”.
Cockrell began work on the album in Nashville and then drove to Los Angeles to finish it. While unable to make contact with his dream producer, Blake Mills, he eventually worked with Tony Berg – who happened to share a studio space with Mills. Although Mills, a skilled solo artist and producer on his own, does little session work these days, he still contributed a bit of guitar to If you feel the same.
Cockrell describes If you feel the same as a love letter to all the music I grew up on. ‘Each song pays homage to a different set of artists, and he adds,’ It sounds like a mixtape, because it’s supposed to do that. I was a song person, not a genre person. I would not write ‘Swingin’ without David Bowie and Arcade Fire. ”
‘Swingin’ ‘contains the fighting spirit that Cockrell learned to accept during a career that taught him a lot about disappointment and perseverance. “I think that’s what makes the record connect,” he says. ‘Because even if you did not earn money to do something, if you make a record as if it made you a millionaire – I think that’s the only way to do it. It’s like fighting your own cynicism. ”
In this way, it makes sense that Fallon would stick to ‘Swingin’. As Cockrell himself put it in his viral Instagram video, Fallon is the ‘king of the uncynical’. His deed is about the laughter of great tents; it is broad, stupid and hearty, a little sardonic and brutal, but never misanthropic or disillusioned. Perhaps then, it is no surprise that music – a form that is mostly more serious and heart-on-sleeve than comedy – has always been such a big component of his career.
“I would make impressions of bands, and that was good for me because I had to open up to a lot of them,” Fallon recalls of his rise days. ‘I opened for the Monkees and Air Supply, Counting Crows, Fiona Apple. I played Woodstock! I think every comedian has that rock star thing somewhere in their brain, like, ‘Man, I wish I could go out there and do this.’ “He adds,”You just want that reaction, and I think that’s what music gets you – a great reaction. ‘
While Cockrell may be the first Tonight Show as a guest booked thanks to a casual trip to a hardware store, Fallon has always kept his ears open for emerging and lesser known acts. In 2011 she Late night Odd Future’s national TV debut was known as host (it ended with Tyler, the Creator jumping on Fallon’s back), while Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats, Alessia Cara and Julia Michaels all made their late TV debuts on The Tonight Show (Rateliff and Cara in 2015, Michaels in 2017). Just last year, Irish post-punk band Fontaines DC played The Tonight Show after Fallon heard them on Seattle’s famous radio station, KEXP.
For Fallon, these performances offer a unique joy, one that Cockrell will experience tonight: ‘It’s those moments where you want to:’ Yeah, man, I know it’s hard, the grind is tough! ‘, Says Fallon. “But it just shows, do not give up.”