Questlove has broken his silence over the death of his longtime collaborator and friend, D'Angelo.
The Roots drummer wrote a tribute to the artist in Rolling Stone published on Thursday (Oct. 30). D'Angelo, a four-time Grammy winner, died earlier this month at age 51 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
In the article, Questlove revealed that D'Angelo appeared to be in pain during rehearsals for the 2025 Roots Picnic. The headliner backed out of the performance last minute and was replaced with Maxwell.
"We rehearsed two weeks out. He was famously secretive, but something felt different," Quest recalled.
"The first clue: Rehearsals started late. Nothing new in his world, but this was ridiculous," he continued. "I scheduled 10 p.m., but the first note hit at 3 a.m. By 7, I had to leave for the airport. He looked wounded. 'Where you going? We only did a few hours.'"
The musician added that in retrospect, D'Angelo's schedule was "health-shifted."
"He struggled to hold his guitar, preferring to sit at keys. I thought it was an aesthetic choice—a throwback ’95 vibe," Quest wrote. "I didn’t realize the medical truth unfolding. When asked, he said he’d been through something but was on the mend."
The drummer, who worked with D'Angelo on his iconic 2000 album Voodoo, revealed that the rehearsal felt "final."
"I started thinking to myself, 'Why do I feel like this is the last time I’m gonna play this song with him?'" Quest mused.
Elsewhere, Quest said that the last weeks he spent with D'Angelo "were probably the best" of their friendship.
"Music was always the template for our communication," he wrote. "Now here we were in the hospital—no soundproof separation booths, no drums, no keys, no instruments, no musicians. Nothing but just the two of us talking."
In an Instagram post, Quest said that the Rolling Stone article would be the first installment of a two-part piece he wrote in dedication to his late friend, calling it one of the "hardest" things he's written.
The musician also recalled his first time being introduced to D'Angelo as "Mike" and briefly speaking to him passing before realizing his abilities upon listening to Brown Sugar.
Questlove joins numerous artists, including Beyoncé, Tyler, the Creator and Daniel Caesar, in tributing D'Angelo. The vocalist died seven months after singer-songwriter Angie Stone, the mother of his oldest child, died in a car accident in Montgomery, Alabama.