When they’re not covering Daft Punk or in the studio recording their new album, iconic Irish rockers U2 have been prepping for their spot as the first musical guest when Jimmy Fallon takes over “The Tonight Show” on February 17. Will Smith will also guest on the episode.
Show booker Jonathan Cohen broke the news on Twitter Sunday night.
“Thrilled that @U2 will be the first musical guest on the new Tonight Show with @jimmyfallon, premiering Feb. 17,” he wrote.
The band also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song last week, and are putting the final touches on a new album, their first since 2009’s No Line on the Horizon, in April.
The band worked with producer Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley, Beck) at Electric Lady Studios in New York.
“He’s on it. He’s excited,” bassist Adam Clayton says of Danger Mouse’s involvement. “It’s a great team and feels very liberating at the moment — anything goes. We have an abundance of riches, we could make three or four different records and justify that to ourselves, but to make the best record you can, you have to steer away from the ones you can make easily. We’re really trying to get into territory that we’re not comfortable in. If that makes sense…”
Bono has gone on record as well calling the upcoming album a special one, and vital to the presence of the band in the world today. “They’re mad for it at the moment and they really want to make a new record,” he said of his bandmates. “And they don’t care if it takes 10 years – they don’t care if it never happens again, they just want to get it right.”
