"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" was on hiatus last week when the news broke that Prince had passed away at the age of 57. Over the weekend, Fallon took part in "Saturday night Live's" special hour-long tribute to Prince, but when "The Tonight Show" returned on Monday night, Fallon and Questlove took the chance to remember Prince and recalled a memorable ping pong game with the late singer.
"Prince is one of these guys - he's an icon, he's legendary, he's very mysterious. So much mystique around him," Fallon recalled. "There are these famous stories that you hear that you don't think are real, but they're real."
"Here's what happened. Sit down for this," Fallon said.
Fallon said that he booked Prince on his show as a musical guest after he saw him live at Madison Square Garden. Fallon and Prince's people both went back and forth between deciding if they were going to play the game on "The Tonight Show" or not. The two did not end up playing when Prince was on that show, but he later called The Roots' Questlove to re-challenge Fallon at ping pong at Susan Sarandon's ping pong bar, SPiN, in New York City.
Questlove recalled that Fallon's wife had just gave birth to their first daughter, but Prince seemed unfazed and declared he would be at the ping pong bar at 12:30. Fallon did not end up meeting up with the singer that night but got a text in which Prince challenged him to a ping pong match yet again. This time, Fallon dropped everything he was doing and showed up to SPiN to play.
"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, 'Are you ready to do this?'" Fallon recalled, in a hilarious impression of the singer.
Not only did Prince go on to absolutely slaughter Fallon, but he talked smack to the host the entire time. Fallon also said that the late singer hit a stunning game-winning shot that perfectly hit the corner of the table. Fallon went to retrieve the ball, and when he stood up, Prince was gone. Questlove then cut in and said he arrived at the ping pong bar when Prince was leaving.
"I run up to the car and Grey Poupon style, the window rolls down," Questlove said. "I said, 'What happened? What happened?' He said, 'Ask your boy.'"
Check out Fallon and Questlove recount the entire story below:
