Lil Nas X says SNL almost ‘saw everything’ when trousers split during iconic performance
Lil Nas X ripped his leather trousers while pole dancing live on SNL. (NBC)
Lil Nas X revealed SNL almost “saw everything” when his leather trousers split during a truly iconic pole dance routine.
The singer performed “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” and his new song “Sun Goes Down” on the final episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL)‘s 46th season on Saturday night (22 May) – but his slot took a sudden turn when the seam in his trousers gave up the fight.
What was supposed to be a very racy pole dance performance quickly came to a grinding halt when Lil Nas X tried to do a “little sexy drop down”. A hilarious clip shows the singer looking shocked and covering his crotch as the full reality of the tear dawned on him.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show on Monday (24 May), the singer confessed that he came close to bearing all to the cameras when the dramatic incident occurred.
Lil Nas X knew something was wrong when he ‘felt air’
“OK. So I was pretty much going down the pole, doing my little sexy drop down, and boom, I feel air,” Lil Nas X told Jimmy Fallon and guest co-host Dave Grohl.
“I’m like, there’s definitely a breeze going on. And I also felt some popping still happening while I was down there, so I was like, ‘Oh god, just please don’t be on TV already.’ And SNL is actually live.”
“I was pretty much going down, doing my little sexy dropdown, and boom, I feel air!”
From a pants rip to dancers with COVID, @LilNasX breaks down the many obstacles he ran into during his @NBCSNL performance. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/GsjoFYEg4b
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) May 25, 2021
Lil Nas X joked: “You know what the worst part is? At the end of the performance the dancers are supposed to touch me and tug on me or whatever and they were tugging on the pants, and I was like, ‘please God no.’
After managing to get through the performance, Lil Nas X was confronted with the challenge of successfully getting off the stage without flashing the entire set.
“Everybody was leaving the stage and the SNL people, a lot of them still didn’t know, so everybody was leaving the stage, all the dancers, and they’re like, ‘Come on Nas, you have to get ready for the next performance.’ I’m like, ‘I literally cannot leave or everybody here would see everything.’
In the end, producers had to fetch a towel for him to wrap around himself so he could get off the stage without causing an incident.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lil Nas X revealed that his team of dancers had to be replaced at the last minute after one tested positive for COVID-19.
He had spent two weeks rehearsing with the dancers when the unfortunate incident occurred, meaning he had just 24 hours to work with a new team for the SNL performance.
