25 April 2016, California, Los Angeles, USA
He's booked to come on the show, and his people say, ‘Prince really wants to play ping pong against Jimmy’,
So I go, ‘beer pong?’
And they go, ‘no, ping pong.’
And we don’t play ping on the show. So I say, ‘okay, sure’
And they call back and say, ‘no Prince does not want to play ping pong’
We go, ‘okay’
They call back and say, ‘we’ve rethought it, Prince really wants to play ping pong’.
Sure, as long as Prince wants to play music. I mean that’s where it’s at. That’s what we want him to do. Whatever’s going to make him happy.
They call back, ‘he doesn’t want to play ping pong’
‘Okay, fine, we’ll have it set up, just in case he feels like playing ping pong. ‘
This is a real story.
So they call back and say, ‘he wants to play ping pong, but not on camera’
So I go, ‘why ?’
And they go, “Prince thinks Jimmy will be fun to play ping pong with.’
I go, right, let’s bring it on man, he comes to the show, doesn’t even look at the ping pong table, performs that night, destroys it, has the greatest show ever, Kirk lent him his guitar and he broke it ... he paid for it, right?
So then Prince leaves and I’m thinking, what was this ping pong thing all about.
So ... [throws to Questlove]
Questlove: He calls me and says, I’ll be there, at 12.30, and I tell him you just had a baby, and he says, ‘yeah, that’s nice, tell him I’ll be there at 12.30. And I’m saying, what part of baby does he not get?
No no no, he doesn’t get it. He's Prince.
...
I'm at dinner and I'm like, 'I gotta go. Prince just challenged me to a game of ping pong.' So I show up and I go to this ping pong place and I go down the stairs and I go, 'uh hey,' I don't even know how to ask ... and she goes, 'You're here to see Prince? Right this way, he's behind that curtain.' So I open the curtain and Prince is standing there with a double breasted crushed blue velvet suit holding a ping pong paddle and he goes, 'You ready to do this?'