Bands and Their Members

Natalie Merchant, of 10,000 Maniacs

Natalie Merchant is listed as a past member of 10,000 Maniacs in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Dionne Farris, of Arrested Development

Dionne Farris is listed as a past member of Arrested Development in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Deborah Harry, of Blondie

After Blondie played Steve Martin’s fifth season premiere on October 13, 1979, Deborah Harry hosted on February 14, 1981, and Blondie’s Chris Stein writes in his memoir Under a Rock that they played “Love TKO” by Teddy Pendergrass and “Come Back Jonee” by Devo. “But we got to pick a musical guest, as Debbie was the host,” Stein writes, and they asked the Funky Four Plus One. The group, in Stein’s words, “was the first hip-hop act on national television in the U.S.”; NBC calls them “the first rap group to perform on TV screens across America.” Harry introduced them as “the best street rappers in the country.” In the NBC documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, Sha-Rock of the group said: “Debbie Harry fought for us.”

Blondie broke up in 1983, Wayne Robins writes, introducing an interview he did with Harry in 1986 for a Newsday story ahead of her solo album Rockbird. Harry was musical guest on her own on January 24, 1987.

Deborah Harry is listed as a member of Blondie in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Chris Stein, “How Heroin Addiction Almost Crippled Blondie at Their Commercial Peak,” Rolling Stone, June 12, 2024, excerpted from Under a Rock: A Memoir (St. Martin’s Press)
• Kaitlin Kimont, “SNL Made Rap History with the Funky Four Plus One’s Live TV Performance in 1981,” NBC Insider, January 28, 2025
• Wayne Robins, “Debbie Harry Is Not Blondie,” Critical Conditions, January 9, 2025
• “Saturday Night Live, Steve Martin: October 13, 1979,” Peacock

Phoebe Bridgers, of Boygenius

Phoebe Bridgers is listed as a member of Boygenius in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Chris Martin, of Coldplay

Saturday Night Live aired its first at-home episode on April 11, 2020, with Tom Hanks hosting from afar. Coldplay’s Chris Martin was the unannounced musical act, playing from his in-home studio, which he had decorated to look like the show’s set. He sang Bob Dylan’s “Shelter From the Storm,” and the performance was just over three minutes, shot in black-and-white and all acoustic, Daniel Kohn wrote in Spin.

Andy Gensler of Pollstar wrote that the cover came as something of a surprise, with Coldplay’s album Everyday Life having come out only in November. He noted that Martin sang it with only an acoustic guitar, changing “fighting” to “praying”, “seemingly apropos of the times we face.” The same episode carried a tribute to Hal Willner, the show’s music producer, who had died the week before.

Chris Martin is listed as a member of Coldplay in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Alex Young, “Chris Martin Covers Bob Dylan’s ‘Shelter From the Storm’ on SNL: Watch,” Consequence, April 12, 2020
• Daniel Kohn, “Chris Martin Performs Bob Dylan’s ‘Shelter From the Storm’ on SNL,” Spin, April 12, 2020
• Andy Gensler, “SNL Pays Tribute to Hal Willner; Chris Martin Plays Dylan’s ‘Shelter From The Storm’ (Watch),” Pollstar, April 12, 2020
• James Rettig, “Watch Chris Martin Cover Bob Dylan’s ‘Shelter From The Storm’ On SNL At Home,” Stereogum, April 12, 2020

Dave Matthews, of Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews is listed as a member of Dave Matthews Band in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Beyoncé, of Destiny's Child

On November 15, 2008, Justin Timberlake danced in a leotard and high heels in a “Single Ladies” skit with Paul Rudd, who played the director of her music video. Timberlake told the story in the documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music: Andy Samberg texted him Bobby Moynihan’s idea, the three of them as Beyoncé’s background dancers. “She was very polite about it, but she was very hesitant. And when I say hesitant, I mean like, she was not having it,” he recalled. So he put on the leotard, the heels and the hose, knocked on her door and threw down his robe, “and she was like, ‘No you didn’t!’” She sang “Single Ladies” as musical guest that night, NBC notes, “this time with fully-qualified backup dancers.”

Before that night, Destiny’s Child played the show on May 5, 2001, among the television stops the Houston Chronicle listed for the week their album Survivor came out, and Columbia Records announced that Beyoncé would open the campaign for her debut solo album, Dangerously In Love, as musical guest on the season finale, May 17, 2003.

Beyoncé is listed as a past member of Destiny's Child in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Bruce Westbrook, “Destiny’s Child plans tour,” Houston Chronicle, May 3, 2001
• Columbia Records, “Beyonce’s Eagerly-Awaited Debut Solo Album, Dangerously In Love, In Stores Tuesday, July 8,” PR Newswire, May 7, 2003
• Jason Gregory, “Leotard Wearing Justin Timberlake And Beyonce Unite On SNL,” Gigwise, November 17, 2008
• Kaitlin Kimont, “How Justin Timberlake Convinced Beyoncé to Do SNL’s ‘Single Ladies’ Sketch,” NBC Insider, January 27, 2025

Kevin Rowland, of Dexys Midnight Runners

Kevin Rowland is listed as a member of Dexys Midnight Runners in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Puff Daddy, of Diddy-Dirty Money

Sean Combs, known professionally as Diddy and formerly as Puff Daddy, is listed as a past member of Diddy-Dirty Money in Wikipedia’s article on the band. The name is from Wikipedia’s article on the member.

Stevie Ray Vaughan, of Double Trouble

Stevie Ray Vaughan is listed as a past member of Double Trouble in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Bruce Springsteen, of E Street Band

On May 9, 1992, Springsteen came to the show with a new band. Greil Marcus, writing in Interview that August, called it “the first time Springsteen had ever done such a show, his first appearance with his new combo: one holdover from longtime comrades the E Street Band, and three faces no one had seen before.” The holdover was Roy Bittan on keyboards. Afterwards, Marcus wrote, he heard the set called boring; he liked it, and he credited lead guitarist Shane Fontayne with “taking ‘Lucky Town’ to places the man who wrote it hadn’t glimpsed.”

The site lists Springsteen and the E Street Band side by side on October 5, 2002; this site counts him and the band as separate acts, so that night is credited to each. When they were back on December 19, 2015, Nick DeRiso of Ultimate Classic Rock called it “the first SNL performance for the E Street Band since 2002,” and Paul McCartney joined them for “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.”

On December 12, 2020, the band played without bassist Garry Tallent. “We’ll be missing our great bass player Garry Tallent and our compatriot Soozie Tyrell on Saturday night due to COVID restrictions and concerns,” Springsteen posted beforehand, and Jack Daley of Little Steven’s Disciples of Soul played bass in Tallent’s place, Jay Lustig reported.

Bruce Springsteen is listed as a member of E Street Band in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Greil Marcus, “Days Between Stations,” Interview, August 1992, republished in Letter in the Ether, February 8, 2023
• Nick DeRiso, “Watch Paul McCartney Join Bruce Springsteen on ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Ultimate Classic Rock, December 20, 2015
• Jay Lustig, “Springsteen performs ‘Ghosts’ and ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’ on ‘SNL,’” NJArts.net, December 13, 2020

Edie Brickell, of Edie Brickell and New Bohemians

Edie Brickell is listed as a member of Edie Brickell and New Bohemians in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Annie Lennox, of Eurythmics

Annie Lennox is listed as a past member of Eurythmics in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Father John Misty, of Fleet Foxes

Josh Tillman was the drummer in Fleet Foxes when Seattle magazine profiled the band in April 2008, listed alongside Robin Pecknold, Skye Skjelset, Casey Wescott and Christian Wargo. The band were booked as musical guest for the show NBC aired on January 17, 2009, and Scott Lapatine of Stereogum wrote that the Seattle quintet’s performance of “Mykonos” and “Blue Ridge Mountains” “was the highlight of a night of lackluster topical comedy.”

In January 2012 Tillman announced he was leaving the band, SPIN reported, writing, “Back into the gaping maw of obscurity I go,” and “Tokyo is my last show with the Foxes.”

Tillman was musical guest on his own, as Father John Misty, on March 4, 2017, the night Octavia Spencer hosted, and Relix noted he appeared “with a lot less beard than we’re used to seeing.” He played a pair of songs from his forthcoming album Pure Comedy: first “Total Entertainment Forever,” which Relix called “a rather futuristic song about virtual reality sex (with Taylor Swift),” and later in the episode the title track.

Josh Tillman, who records as Father John Misty, is listed as a past member of Fleet Foxes in Wikipedia’s article on the band. The name is from Wikipedia’s article on the member.

• “Power 25: Fleet Foxes Expand the Seattle Sound,” Seattle magazine, April 2008
• “Fleet Foxes set for ‘Saturday Night Live’,” NME, January 12, 2009
• Scott Lapatine, “Fleet Foxes On SNL,” Stereogum, January 18, 2009
• Marc Hogan, “Fleet Foxes Lose One Beard: J. Tillman Exits Band,” SPIN, January 20, 2012
• “Father John Misty Brings New Look, New Songs to ‘SNL’ Debut,” Relix, March 5, 2017

50 Cent, of G-Unit

50 Cent is listed as a past member of G-Unit in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Cee Lo Green, of Gnarls Barkley

Cee Lo Green is listed as a member of Gnarls Barkley in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Nick Jonas, of Jonas Brothers

Nick Jonas is listed as a member of Jonas Brothers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Pharrell Williams, of N*E*R*D

Pharrell Williams is listed as a past member of N*E*R*D in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Justin Timberlake, of 'N Sync

Timberlake first played the show alongside his bandmates in ’N Sync on March 11, 2000, a night hosted by Joshua Jackson of Dawson’s Creek. He was back on October 11, 2003, as host and musical guest on the same night, and Jimmy Fallon was still a regular in the cast. “When Timberlake took his first turn as both host and musical guest in 2003,” Ree Hines wrote for Today, “the duo debuted their now-recurring bit, ‘The Barry Gibb Talk Show.’” In it, Rolling Stone later wrote, Fallon and Timberlake’s Barry and Robin Gibb welcome politicians and experts onto their show, despite the Bee Gees brothers having little understanding of politics.

The band itself came back as a punchline when Timberlake hosted on May 21, 2011. A spin on the sketch “What’s That Name?” turned on the name of “the most inconspicuous member of *NSYNC,” Myles McNutt wrote in The A.V. Club: Chris Kirkpatrick.

On December 21, 2013, Timberlake was “ostensibly the musical guest but really kind of a co-host,” David Sims wrote in The A.V. Club, and the talk show came with “a surprise appearance from Barry Gibb himself.” When Timberlake was musical guest for host Dakota Johnson on January 27, 2024, he and Fallon revived the sketch, the first since December 2013, Rolling Stone reported.

Justin Timberlake is listed as a past member of 'N Sync in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Ree Hines, “Forget ‘SexyBack’! Jimmy Fallon, Justin Timberlake bring old-school comedy chemistry back,” Today, December 20, 2013
• Andy Swift, “‘SNL’: Justin Timberlake Returning With Dakota Johnson — Host Schedule,” TVLine, January 19, 2024
• Myles McNutt, “Saturday Night Live: ‘Justin Timberlake/Lady Gaga,’” The A.V. Club, May 22, 2011
• David Sims, “Saturday Night Live: ‘Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake,’” The A.V. Club, December 22, 2013
• Loree Seitz, “‘SNL’: Dakota Johnson to Host Jan. 27 Episode With Musical Guest Justin Timberlake,” TheWrap, January 19, 2024
• Daniel Kreps, “‘SNL’: Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon Revive ‘Barry Gibb Talk Show’ For First Time in 10 Years,” Rolling Stone, January 28, 2024, via Yahoo Entertainment

Bobby Brown, of New Edition

Bobby Brown is listed as a member of New Edition in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Gwen Stefani, of No Doubt

Gwen Stefani is listed as a member of No Doubt in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Harry Styles, of One Direction

Harry Styles is listed as a past member of One Direction in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Niall Horan, of One Direction

Niall Horan is listed as a past member of One Direction in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

George Clinton, of Parliament-Funkadelic

George Clinton is listed as a member of Parliament-Funkadelic in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Johnny Clegg, of Savuka

Johnny Clegg is listed as a past member of Savuka in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

David Byrne, of Talking Heads

Talking Heads were on the show on February 10, 1979, performing “Take Me To The River” and “Artists Only,” and drummer Chris Frantz told WYEP in 2015 what went wrong in the studio. “We couldn’t hear the keyboard,” he said. “Somebody had tripped over the keyboard cable to the speaker.” The control room, he said, was still getting the keyboards direct, so the televised audience could hear them. “But in the studio, you could not hear any keyboards.” “We were playing ‘Take Me to the River’ but Jerry had to play just by sheer feel, like Braille,” Frantz said of Jerry Harrison. “Well, we got through it and it sounded fine.” The band saw little of most of the cast, Frantz said, “until the party afterwards at the Black Rhino Club,” which he said was owned by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi: “It was a derelict bar where they would have the after parties. And we went down to that.”

Byrne was back on his own on November 18, 1989, to celebrate the release of his album Rei Momo. For the show of February 29, 2020, which his label called “a very Happy Leap Day indeed,” he brought his Broadway show with him; the label announced that he would perform songs from his American Utopia on Broadway. With members of its cast he gave a barefoot performance of “Once in a Lifetime”, and he also played “Toe Jam,” his 2008 tune with Fatboy Slim. In the “Airport Sushi” sketch he played an all-knowing baggage handler, helping host John Mulaney steer Pete Davidson clear of La Guardia Airport sushi, and the sketch ended in a cast-wide performance of a spoof of “Road to Nowhere.”

David Byrne is listed as a past member of Talking Heads in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Mike Sauter, “Reflecting on Saturday Night Live’s musical performances over 50 years,” WYEP, October 14, 2025 (Chris Frantz)
• Luke Hanson, “David Byrne Performs ‘Toe Jam,’ ‘Once In A Lifetime’ And Spoofs ‘Road To Nowhere’ During Sketch On First Saturday Night Live Appearance In 31 Years,” mxdwn, March 2, 2020
• “David Byrne to Perform on ‘Saturday Night Live’ on February 29,” Nonesuch Records, February 6, 2020
• “Watch: David Byrne Performs on ‘Saturday Night Live’ with ‘American Utopia,’” Nonesuch Records, March 1, 2020
• Sandra Song, “Watch David Byrne perform Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a Lifetime’ on SNL,” The Fader, March 1, 2020

Levon Helm, of The Band

Robbie Robertson had not wanted to do the show. Lorne Michaels, he told Joshua Baer of Musician in 1982, “is from the same hometown and for a year and a half they called and bugged us about doing that show.” Michaels promised more cameras, more rehearsal, and more music from the group than anyone had played on the show before. “Which we did,” Robertson said. “And they tried.” The shots were worked out with “cameras up above and cameras underneath,” but to Robertson “it still wasn’t good enough.”

The Band was musical guest on October 30, 1976. Emmett Grogan, reporting from behind the scenes of the farewell concert for Oui, wrote that the group “had decided to perform only on live television,” and the show “is also telecast live.” Weeks later came what Grogan called “the Thanksgiving Day farewell performance,” The Last Waltz. Helm was back as musical guest on March 19, 1977.

Levon Helm is listed as a past member of The Band in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Joshua Baer, “The Band: The Robbie Robertson Interview,” Musician, May 1982 (reprinted at The Band website, archived copy)
• Emmett Grogan, “The Band’s Perfect Goodbye,” Oui, 1976/77 (reprinted at The Band website, archived copy)

Rick Danko, of The Band

Rick Danko is listed as a past member of The Band in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Robbie Robertson, of The Band

Robbie Robertson is listed as a past member of The Band in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Tom Scott, of The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers began as a warm-up. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd played Jake and Elwood, NPR’s Steve Inskeep said, characters they’d originally used to warm up the studio audience on the show. “They pretended to be the front men for a top-notch blues band.” The band was musical guest on April 22, 1978, when Steve Martin returned with musical guest The Blues Brothers. “Their first in-person appearance was on Saturday Night Live, where they did the blues thing,” saxophonist Tom Scott recalled.

Later that summer, Scott said, the band was signed on as the opening act with Martin. Scott came on as a sub for trombonist Tom Malone, whose wife was due to give birth that week, and met and rehearsed with Belushi and Aykroyd on the Monday of that week at the Universal Amphitheatre. Malone flew in from New York on the Wednesday, and Scott thought he would just drive to the gig and thank him. “I got there, and John Belushi says to me: ‘Listen, Tom, we’re just going to make it four horns instead of three. From now on, you’re a Blues Brother.’” The act, Inskeep said, led to a best-selling album and concerts as the joke became real.

On February 9, 1980, Chevy Chase hosted with musical guest Marianne Faithfull and performed “16 Tons” with Tom Scott.

Tom Scott is listed as a member of The Blues Brothers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Steve Inskeep, “Blues Brothers, 25 Years Later,” NPR, June 19, 2005
• Eoghan Lyng, “George, Joni, and Paul: An Interview with Tom Scott,” CultureSonar, March 26, 2024
• NBC, episode listings for April 22, 1978, and February 9, 1980, Peacock: Steve Martin and Chevy Chase

Ric Ocasek, of The Cars

Ric Ocasek is listed as a past member of The Cars in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Lionel Richie, of The Commodores

Lionel Richie is listed as a past member of The Commodores in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Michael McDonald, of The Doobie Brothers

Michael McDonald is listed as a member of The Doobie Brothers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Jeff Beck, of The Honeydrippers

Beck played on the Honeydrippers’ EP, whose story is told in Jimmy Page’s entry. On May 19, 2012, Beck joined Mick Jagger for a new song. Chad Childers reported for Diffuser that Jagger told the audience he had started off as a blues man and written a track about the presidential election, then asked Beck to join him. “My roots are in blues music,” Jagger said, “I love the blues because in any era, the blues talked about what was on people’s minds.” The song, “Tea Party,” took jabs at political fundraising and at Mitt Romney, Jacob Hall wrote in ScreenCrush.

Jeff Beck is listed as a past member of The Honeydrippers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Martin Kielty, “Robert Plant Recalls Being Told to Stop Singing ‘Weird S—’,” Ultimate Classic Rock, August 12, 2019
• Chad Childers, “Mick Jagger Joined by Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters + Jeff Beck on ‘Saturday Night Live’ Season Finale,” Diffuser, May 20, 2012
• Jacob Hall, “SNL: Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck Get Political,” ScreenCrush, May 20, 2012

Jimmy Page, of The Honeydrippers

The Honeydrippers were, as Noel Murray puts it in The A.V. Club, “the makeshift oldies/R&B band that former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant threw together for a few live performances and a platinum-selling EP back in the mid-’80s.” Plant traced the idea to a night out in New York with Ahmet Ertegun and Phil Spector: “We decided it was time to sing the outros of famous vocal music from the late ’50s and early ’60s.” The EP, The Honeydrippers: Volume One, featured Page alongside Jeff Beck and Nile Rodgers. When the band was musical guest on December 15, 1984, Murray writes, Plant sang about Santa Claus, “flanked by Brian Setzer and Paul Shaffer.”

On May 9, 1998, Page showed up to perform with Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, as Jeff Giles writes in Ultimate Classic Rock. Their song, “Come With Me,” from the soundtrack to Godzilla, was based on Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir,” Gil Kaufman reported for MTV News that week. Tom Morello, who also played on the track, explained how Page came to it: “Puffy and I arranged it and Jimmy [Page] had to learn our arrangement and then he recorded his part in England.” Page missed the first run-through at the studio that Thursday. Brett Rothfeld, the Fuzzbubble bassist who was to join them, told MTV News the performance would feature an orchestra and called himself a “huge Zeppelin fan growing up.”

Jimmy Page is listed as a past member of The Honeydrippers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Noel Murray, “Saturday Night Live, Dec. 15, 1984 (Host: Eddie Murphy),” The A.V. Club, May 31, 2012
• Martin Kielty, “Robert Plant Recalls Being Told to Stop Singing ‘Weird S—’,” Ultimate Classic Rock, August 12, 2019
• Jeff Giles, “When Jimmy Page Joined Puff Daddy on ‘Saturday Night Live’ For Some Reason,” Ultimate Classic Rock, May 9, 2023
• Gil Kaufman, “Puff Daddy Rocks ‘SNL’ With Guitar Legend Jimmy Page,” MTV News, May 7, 1998

Peter Wolf, of The J. Geils Band

Peter Wolf is listed as a past member of The J. Geils Band in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Aaron Neville, of The Neville Brothers

Aaron Neville is listed as a past member of The Neville Brothers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Mark Knopfler, of The Notting Hillbillies

Mark Knopfler is listed as a past member of The Notting Hillbillies in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Paul Westerberg, of The Replacements

The band’s night of January 18, 1986 is told among the banned musical guests. Westerberg came back on his own on December 4, 1993, and Bob Mehr tells that week in Trouble Boys. During rehearsals, Mehr writes, A&R man Michael Hill told Westerberg’s band members to keep quiet about his having been in the Replacements, because no one wanted to risk Lorne Michaels’s wrath.

The show, with Charlton Heston hosting, was “relatively uneventful,” in Mehr’s words: Westerberg played “Knockin’ on Mine” and the Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” with a full horn section. After the credits, a stern-looking Michaels made a beeline for Westerberg, who held his breath. “But Lorne was nice to me,” Westerberg said. “I told him, ‘See, I didn’t break anything, I didn’t swear.’ And he patted me on the shoulder and said, ‘You grew up, you learned.’”

Paul Westerberg is listed as a past member of The Replacements in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Bob Mehr, Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements (Da Capo Press, 2016)

Keith Richards, of The Rolling Stones

Keith Richards is listed as a member of The Rolling Stones in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Mick Jagger, of The Rolling Stones

The show opened its fourth season on October 7, 1978, with the Rolling Stones as both host and musical guest, and author Susan Morrison tells the night in her book Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, in an excerpt shared with Entertainment Weekly. A memo about recruiting the audience, a directive from the Stones, asked for “no showbiz folks, just young rock and roll fans.” Jagger was interviewed by Aykroyd as Tom Snyder, and the censor, Morrison writes, “waged a failed campaign to get the costume people to ask Jagger to wear underpants beneath his tight, stretchy orange trousers.” Keith Richards’s parts were cut when, Morrison writes, “in rehearsal, he didn’t appear to know where he was.” Afterwards Jagger arranged a private plane to take Michaels to Toronto to testify as a character witness at Richards’s heroin trial, where Michaels called Richards “the catalyst of the band.” Richards got a suspended sentence and an order to play a benefit concert for the blind.

On December 16, 1978, Jagger sang with Peter Tosh. The photographer Peter Simon, who photographed Richards, Jagger and Tosh “just before a rare performance on Saturday Night Live,” writes that Tosh, then signed to the Rolling Stones’ record label, “performed his famous duet with Mick.”

On May 19, 2012, the season finale, Jagger was host and musical guest, and NBC New York reported that it was the first time he had hosted the show solo. Arcade Fire, the Foo Fighters and Jeff Beck took turns backing him; Beck’s part of the night is told under Jeff Beck. In the final sketch of the season he played a headmaster saying goodbye to “one particular student,” played by Kristen Wiig.

Mick Jagger is listed as a member of The Rolling Stones in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Jillian Sederholm, “How Lorne Michaels helped keep Keith Richards from a life sentence after the Rolling Stones hosted ‘SNL’,” Entertainment Weekly, via AOL, February 18, 2025
• Peter Simon, “Rolling Stones & Peter Tosh, 1978,” Peter Simon Photography
• “Jagger Brings Satisfaction to ‘SNL’ Season Finale,” NBC New York, May 20, 2012
• “Mick Jagger Teams Up with Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters and Jeff Beck on Saturday Night Live,” Jambands, May 20, 2012

Björk, of The Sugarcubes

The Sugarcubes broke out of Iceland with Life’s Too Good, and, as Lorraine Ali wrote in Us, the album “landed the group on mainstream outlets like Saturday Night Live.” They were musical guest on October 15, 1988. The band’s Einar told Mat Snow of Q that he and Siggi were going back to their hotel after the rehearsal when a man came running toward their car to ask for an autograph. When Siggi asked whether he knew who they were, the fan replied, Einar recalled, “you’re that famous band, The Sugarkings.” People were star-struck, Einar said, “because you’re walking out of the NBC building in New York into a limo.”

Björk was musical guest on her own on October 18, 1997. On April 21, 2007, with Scarlett Johansson hosting, she was slated to perform songs from her forthcoming album, Volta, NME reported the day before. Party Ben of Mother Jones called it “a highly anticipated performance,” “her first on the show in almost ten years,” and, with Björk due at Coachella that Friday, took it as a “sneak preview” of the new material live: “I’m not sure all the bugs are worked out.” During “Earth Intruders,” he wrote, “the insistent beat was a little overwhelming,” and when the backup singers “started blowing on horns, the effect was grating.”

Björk is listed as a past member of The Sugarcubes in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Lorraine Ali, “Björk,” Us, October 1995
• Mat Snow, Sugarcubes interview, Q, as transcribed by John Kortink
• “Bjork set for ‘Saturday Night Live’,” NME, April 20, 2007
• Party Ben, “Bjork on SNL: Hmm, B-minus?,” Mother Jones, April 23, 2007

Morris Day, of The Time

Morris Day is listed as a member of The Time in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

Jack White, of The White Stripes

The White Stripes played October 19, 2002, the night Senator John McCain hosted, and it was McCain who brought them on: “Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give it up for the White Stripes.” Jack and Meg White played “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” and “We’re Going to Be Friends.”

White’s October 10, 2020 night was a late booking. Morgan Wallen had been uninvited from the show after a video surfaced of him partying without a mask, and Lorne Michaels named White as the fill-in on Today, less than two days before air. “It has to be people who are ready to go,” Michaels said. “He’s always good on the show, just always good.”

Eddie Van Halen had died just days before. For “Lazaretto,” White used a guitar Van Halen had designed, and he explained on Instagram, as Consequence printed it: “eddie was very kind to me and saw to it that this guitar was made for me to my specs.” He would not, he wrote, “insult the man’s talent by trying to play one of his songs tonight,” but he briefly played a finger-tapping solo.

Jack White is listed as a past member of The White Stripes in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Kaitlin Kimont, “Watch Jack White’s Electric First Saturday Night Live Performances from 2002,” NBC Insider, February 14, 2025
• Sajae Elder, “Jack White to replace Morgan Wallen as SNL musical guest,” The Fader, October 9, 2020
• Scott Stump, “Lorne Michaels reveals new ‘SNL’ musical guest after Morgan Wallen is dropped,” Today, October 9, 2020
• Zach Seemayer, “‘Saturday Night Live’: How Jack White Honored Eddie Van Halen During Performance,” Entertainment Tonight, October 10, 2020
• Chad Childers, “Watch Jack White Use Eddie Van Halen-Designed Guitar on ‘Saturday Night Live’,” Loudwire, October 11, 2020
• Alex Young, “Jack White Reworks ‘Ball and Biscuit’, Plays Eddie Van Halen Guitar on SNL: Watch,” Consequence, October 11, 2020

David Bowie, of Tin Machine

Joey Arias tells how it began, in a first-person piece for Out. He and Klaus Nomi were at the Mudd Club in 1979 when someone said, “Won’t you say hello to David?” “It turned out the David was David Bowie, and before you knew it, he and Klaus were jamming away like old friends.” Nomi later told Arias they had decided to do Saturday Night Live and wanted him along. Bowie had ideas for the costumes, Arias writes: a Bauhaus outfit for “The Man Who Sold the World,” a Chinese airline stewardess with a pink poodle for “TVC 15,” and puppets for “Boys Keep Swinging.”

On December 15, 1979, with Martin Sheen hosting, Nomi and Arias lifted Bowie and set him in front of the microphone in a costume that left him unable to move, and sang behind him. For “Boys Keep Swinging” he worked a puppet against a green screen. “The night of the performance, the vibe was so intense it felt like all of New York was standing still,” Arias recalled.

When Bowie came back on November 23, 1991, it was as a member of Tin Machine. Reeves Gabrels told Premier Guitar what Bowie said to him early on, in the studio, during what became the band: “It’s like, basically, we’re all equals in here, but as soon as we get outside, it’s gonna be all about me.”

David Bowie is listed as a past member of Tin Machine in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Joey Arias, “My Saturday Night (Live) With Bowie,” Out, March 22, 2013 (dated January 11, 2016 on the current page)
• Mark Adams, “How Bowie Ushered in the 80s on SNL 35 Years Ago,” DavidBowie.com, December 15, 2014
• Ted Drozdowski, “Reeves Gabrels Revisits His Bowie Years,” Premier Guitar, October 23, 2018

Tom Petty, of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Petty’s drummer on November 19, 1994 was Dave Grohl, who, Ultimate Classic Rock wrote, “was still struggling to deal with the recent death of Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain”. The invitation came from Petty’s management. “I did Saturday Night Live with Tom Petty, and we had so much fun and we all got along so well,” Grohl told Howard Stern. “I was like, ‘Wait, why would it be me?’ … He could get like a world-class drummer, like any dude,” he said.

After the show, Grohl said, Petty told him: “Man, that was good. It would be a shame if that’s the only time we do it.” Then Petty called him at home with an offer: “Well, look, if you want, here’s how we’d do it: You get your own bus. We don’t tour too hard.”

Grohl said no. “I’d just started doing this thing,” he said, meaning Foo Fighters, and going back to the drums “would just have reminded me of being back in Nirvana.” “It would have been an emotional thing to be behind the drums every night and not have Kurt there,” he said. In an Associated Press story on his memoir, The Storyteller, he recalled: “When Tom Petty asked, I was not yet ready to go there.”

Tom Petty is listed as a past member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Wikipedia’s article on the band.

• Jax Miller, “How Many Times Has Dave Grohl Been on SNL? All of His Music and Sketch Appearances,” NBC Insider, January 27, 2025
• Martin Kielty, “Why Dave Grohl Didn’t Abandon the Foo Fighters for Tom Petty,” Ultimate Classic Rock, February 15, 2021, reporting Grohl’s interview on The Howard Stern Show
• Chad Childers, “Dave Grohl: Why I Turned Down Joining Tom Petty After Nirvana,” Loudwire, February 15, 2021
• David Bauder, “Grohl’s ‘Storyteller’ Reveals Long List of Famous Friends,” Associated Press, October 5, 2021, via NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth