This is Why El Paso Was Name-Checked on ‘The Tonight Show’

It was a fleeting television moment.

Questlove, the drummer for The Tonight Show’s house band, name-checked El Paso at the beginning of the late-night show last Thursday (8/16).

As the pre-produced opening sequence featuring Jimmy Fallon running around New York City ended, the camera cut to the Roots crew whereupon Questlove shouted, “9-1-5, El Paso!” Well, he actually said El Payso, but that’s cool; we know he meant us.

Of course, Facebook and the Twitterverse lit up with mentions of his shout-out, but there was no explanation why he would randomly show El Paso some love. An on-air discussion on Mike & Tricia Mornings provided us with an answer.

Listener Tricia Gonzales hipped us to this little bit of Tonight Show knowledge: QLove shouts out that episode’s number at the beginning of every show. If that episode's number corresponds with a particular city's area codes, he’ll often mention it as well. A fact confirmed on the official Tumblr of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Since last Thursday’s episode was the show’s 915th and 915 is our area code, he acknowledged our little corner of the desert. Cool, huh? Thanks for the 3 seconds of national exposure Roots guy!