Jimmy Kimmel found himself in a pickle last night: James Taylor was supposed to be the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! yesterday, but he was forced to cancel last-minute due to illness. Fortunately, Kimmel was able to leverage his Las Vegas connections and made something happen. The show is being hosted in Vegas for the week, where Kimmel grew up and where The Killers formed. Brandon Flowers and company performed on the Monday episode of the show, so Kimmel asked them to come back to fill in for Taylor on Tuesday, and they did.
The Killers had a treat for fans hoping to see Taylor by covering one of his songs, “Carolina In My Mind,” delivering an appropriately twangy and stripped-back rendition. Before last night, The Killers had a couple of preexisting connections to Taylor. They previously covered “Carolina In My Mind” in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2013, and years ago, The Killers had a tour bus that they named “James Taylor.”
The band goes way back with Kimmel, too. They’ve bonded over their shared Vegas origins, and the band has appeared on the show, both to perform and in other capacities, many times over the years. One of the oldest and funniest examples is the time in 2006 when Kimmel got to know the group by driving around with them and learning why they call themselves The Killers (jokingly, of course).
Watch The Killers perform “Carolina In My Mind” above, and revisit their Monday performances of “Land Of The Free” and “All These Things That I’ve Done” below.
