Jimmy Fallon Explains Why U2 Will Be His First "Tonight Show" Guest

On February 17, Jimmy Fallon will take over for Jay Leno as the host of NBC's Tonight Show, and his first musical guest that night will be U2. Fallon told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour over the weekend that landing the band is something he'd tried to do before, but failed.

"When I first started I tried to get U2 as a guest," said Fallon, speaking about his current stint as the host of NBC's Late Night. "And they didn't want to tell me, but at the time they had a secret thing with Letterman. They were doing a week on Letterman. So I couldn't get them. So instead I got the next best Irishman, which is Van Morrison and he came and he was my first musical guest."

"So now, hopefully, I have lucky times four," Fallon added.

U2's appearance on Fallon's show would seem to indicate that the band will be ramping up a media blitz for their long-awaited new album, which is reportedly due in April.

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