'90s Rockers Were Banned From 'SNL' After Career-Making Performance

When Counting Crows played Saturday Night Live in in January of 1994, it helped launch the band to superstardom…but despite the popularity of their performance, that was the last time they would ever be asked to appear on the show. So what happened?

As revealed in the documentary Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately (now streaming on HBO), Counting Crows caught the attention of SNL producer Marci Klein when she saw their opening set for Cracker in November of 1993, a few months after the release of their debut album, August and Everything After (which went on to hit multi-platinum status). Not long after, the band got a call about going on the show. This was a huge deal, of course, but the invitation came a caveat: They had to play “Mr. Jones” as their first song, and both songs they played would have to be cut to fit SNL‘s format.

“You know, there are two songs on Saturday Night Live,” frontman Adam Duritz explained in the doc, per Ultimate Classic Rock. “The difference in viewership is massive. I really wanted to play ‘Round Here’ [first] and I wanted to play the whole song. I thought it was the thing that would define us for people. ‘Mr. Jones’ is a great song, but it’s like a lot of other songs. ‘Round Here’ is not like anything.”

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SNL Host Sara Gilbert, Musical Guest Counting Crows, If they aren’t your cup of tea is ok but, hey! what a performance! (01-15-1994) #snl #snlmusicalguest #universalplus #universalplusafrica #universalpluslatinoamerica #90s #90skids #90smusic #snlseason19 #malaysiatiktok #philippinestiktok #tiktokindia #tiktkokphilippines #tiktokaustralia #fyp #fypシ゚viral #tiktokbrasil#thealmanac77 #countingcrows #mrjones #90srock

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After a bit of back-and-forth, the show agreed to let Counting Crows play “Round Here” first and said they wouldn’t have to shorten the length of either song. But once rehearsals started, that arrangement didn’t stick.

“Basically, everything we’d agreed on was thrown out the window,” Duritz said.

The band threatened to bail on their appearance, but finally the show let them go ahead and play the songs in the order they wanted, at their original lengths. While the performance was a big hit, it didn’t turn everybody into a fan.

“I thought we’d just played a f—king spectacular version of that song,” he said (referring to “Round Here”). “Marci Klein was up in the balcony with Gary [Gersh, the band’s A&R person at the time] when we played it. She said, ‘Boy, your band…they’re really great. Your friend Adam…he’s a f—king a—hole.’ And we’ve never been on Saturday Night Live again. Never. But it made our career.”

Considering SNL is still going strong, maybe there’s still hope Counting Crows will make a return.

Related: ‘90s Rock Icons Crown a New Alt Rock King by Covering His Hit Song