D’Angelo is back.
Reclusive R&B singer D’Angelo made his first live U.S. appearance in 12 years at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival early Sunday morning, surprising a few thousand fans during “The Roots'” Questlove” Superjam session.
“I’ve been waiting 12 years to say this — ladies and gentlemen, D’Angelo!,” Questlove said as the crowd screamed.
It was his first U.S. show since 2000 and a prelude to an appearance at July’s Essence Music Festival and a European tour with many of the same players who backed him Sunday morning. D’Angelo played live in Europe earlier this year.
D’Angelo and his all-star band performed a 90-minute jam session Sunday morning that included Jimi Hendrix’s “Have You Ever Been to Electric Ladyland,” Parliament Funkadelic’s “Funky Dollar Bill,” and The Beatles’ “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” but no new music.
When the Bonnaroo crowd chanted “One more song! One more song!” after D’Angelo’s set, Questlove told fans they hadn’t learned any others to play.
When asked if he would be interested in an interview after the show, D’Angelo said “not yet.” His only recent public comments were made in a GQ article last month.
Switching between keyboards and his guitar, D’Angelo’s only verbal interaction with the crowd came near the end of the night when he shouted: “Do y’all want us to go home yet?”
Questlove said he wanted to prove D’Angelo was still in fighting shape.
“I wanted him to see that,” he said. “That’s a green light. Me doing it wasn’t, like, running out of jam partners. Me doing it was basically showing him, ‘Look, you are so missed you don’t even realize how much you are missed,’ hoping that this will be the adrenaline boost that will finally get him to turn his record into the label. It’s done, it’s brilliant. I played on it. I know it’s brilliant. Now it’s just time to let his kids go and show it to the world. That’s what I’m here for.”
