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I don’t know what could have been so important on a Friday night that you weren’t watching Conan last night, but the closing of his final show was a sight to behold. After appearances by Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Neil Young and a heartfelt speech in which Conan O’Brien thanked NBC for the last 20 years, he joined a star-studded cast of buddies on stage for a fitting goodbye song: the one and only “Free Bird”.
The cast? How about Will Ferrell and his pregnant wife Viveca Paulin, dressed as Lynyrd Skynyrd-era hillbillies, a suit-clad Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Ben Harper and Beck? Will Ferrell took over Ronnie Van Zant duties, with Gibbons, Beck and O’Brien on guitar, Harper with a lap slide guitar, and the Tonight Show Band filling out the rest. They jammed for a good seven minutes in front of a wall-sized American flag. It was quite the sendoff; if only we could all go out jamming with celebrities.
Gibbons expectedly plays a mean solo here, and Conan does about as well as you could expect following with one of his own. Conan was close to tears earlier in the show, but here he is all smiles. For all the drama that’s gone down this month, this performance was a much-needed reminder that it’s just entertainment – just good, clean fun. A long-haired Will Ferrell furiously beating his cowbell as the credits rolled summed that sentiment up nicely.
TAGGED AS: Beck, Ben Harper, Conan O'Brien, Glee Cast, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, Tibet House, ZZ Top
comments (23)
The author is stupid. Farrell’s wife isn’t dressed like a hillbilly from the ’70s. She’s dressed like a hippie from the ’70s.
He is so sexy. No matter what he’s doing. Conan is just…. SEXY.
wow, my fav talk show host! he’s funny and he can play guitar! respect
Mr. Farrel can’t sing. He spoiled great song. Why Conan didn’t take real singer.
Young played Sweet Home Alabama in honour of Skynard and Ronnie after the crash. they weren’t enemies
Awesome ending to a show that should not have been leaving the airwaves. I agree with the person who said Beck deserved more face time though.
I meant to say Ronnie would have been barefoot!
Ronnie would not have been barefoot!
Fare thee well, Conan!
NBC has been furiously taking down any YouTube clip of Conan.
“You will always be the host of the Tonight Show to me.” – Tom Hanks to Conan last night (paraphrase)
Me, too, Coco.
as i was trying to figure out who was playing, i saw this young looking guy with a hat… and i thought “david spade? kenneth from 30 rock? its beck!”
and nick, i too was sort of expecting jack white to just start singing in the middle of the song and play the guitar solo. cant believe the white stripes werent on this week, seeing as they did a whole week’s show back in late night. too bad.
coco! coco! coco!
Ferrell was dressed as Ronnie Van Zant was dressed in a 1977 concert in Oakland Ca. Van Zant and Young actually did like each other which is why Van Zant often wore a Neil Young t-shirt. If you go on youtube and search “Free Bird Oakland” you can see the outfit Van Zant was wearing. Ferrell actually was dressed exactly like him.
neil young and ronnie van zant were actually close friends. they had high mututal admiration for each other. ’sweet home alabama’ is laced with irony as the ‘put down’ of neil young was in truth a support to young’s anti-racist stance. if anything, ferrell was paying tribute to their friendship.
Not likely Neil would have participated in doing a Skynard cover given the history between him and the band. “Well, I hope Neil Young will remember a southern man don’t need him around anyhow.” which was their response to his song Southern Man.
With that in mind, it was sort of bad form for Ferell to wear the Neil Young shirt.
lets hope this is the last last conan show event thing. its getting redundant.
Sasquatch Headliner?
this was epic in all the right ways, but was anyone else expecting at least a Jack White appearance?
Help me out here. I’ve never encountered anyone who doesn’t think leno is a total idiot. Watching my toenails grow is funnier than his show. How can this tool and the NBC morons take the best entertainer on television off the air. I’m WITH COCO.
now that’s a supergroup
Loved the performance, but the whole time I was wondering, where the hell is Uncle Neil? I mean hell, Will Ferrell was wearing a shirt with his face on it.
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