Eric Clapton to Team With Bruce Hornsby For "Jay Leno Show"

Bruce Hornsby and his band the Noisemakers will be joined by Eric Clapton for a September 17th performance during the inaugural week of the new Jay Leno Show. Clapton will team with Hornsby for "Space is the Place" off Hornsby's upcoming album Levitate; he previously contributed to a few songs off Hornsby's last LP with the Noisemakers, 2004's Halcyon Days. As Rock Daily previously reported, the September 14th premiere of Leno's 10 p.m. show will feature another noteworthy collaboration, as Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kanye West will take the stage together for their Blueprint 3 single "Run This Town." Jerry Seinfeld will be Leno's first guest.

The Jay Leno Show will operate differently than Leno's previous gig on The Tonight Show when it comes to the music. While most late-night programs book musical guests every night, the Leno show will only broadcast one or two performances a week, the Wall Street Journal reports. The logic is, in this age of YouTube, the impact of the musical guests has been watered down, so Leno will instead focus on the more unique performances like "Run This Town" and the Hornsby/Clapton collaboration. Additionally, the musical guests will be moved to the middle of the hour-long program instead of squeezing them in before the final credits roll.

Rolling Stone spoke to Leno about his shift to the 10PM hour, and what advice he gave to new Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien. For more on that story, check out our interview with Leno here:
• Jay Leno: Conan O'Brien Doesn't Need My Advice

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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