Lil Nas X Talks 'SNL' Pants Malfunction, Shares Dress Rehearsal Footage

Lil Nas X, whose debut full-length studio album Montero is out this summer, returned to NBC on Monday night to walk fans through the experience of having a wardrobe malfunction during an already physically challenging Saturday Night Live performance.

Speaking with Jimmy Fallon and special Tonight Show co-host Dave Grohl, X was asked about the wardrobe incident, which saw him accidentally rip his pants during a key moment in the choreography.

“I was pretty much just going down the pole, doing my little sexy dropdown, and boom—I feel air,” X recalled. “I was like, there is definitely a breeze going on. I also felt, like, some popping still happening while I was down there. I was like, oh god. I was like, just please don’t be on TV already. And SNL is actually live.”

The worst part, X noted, was that the end of the performance was designed to have the dancers approach touch him and tug on him, but his wardrobe incident complicated that. “They were tugging on the pants and I was like, please god, no,” X said.

After the performance, everyone left the stage, leaving X to inform someone on staff that he would now need a towel in order to successfully make an exit.

“It was perfect timing,” X explained. “If I would have ripped [my pants] any other time during the performance, everything’s over.”

Of course, thanks to that rip, X wasn’t able to finish the “big ending” of this portion of the dance. Given that SNL and Tonight Show are both NBC productions, Fallon was able to get his hands on dress rehearsal footage, which shows the performance how X originally intended (i.e. free of wardrobe malfunctions).

“I want everybody who thought it was a publicity stunt to see that,” X said. “It was not. I would never, like, rip my pants in public … on purpose.”