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Lil Nas X hilariously details what he was thinking during 'SNL' wardrobe malfunction

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 5/25/21

The saying goes that you never forget your first time, and Lil Nas X got a two-for-one discount in that department over the weekend: making his Saturday Night Live debut and ripping his pants for the first time on national television.

The "Old Town Road" star experienced a wardrobe malfunction while performing his second career Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)." The 22-year-old walked Jimmy Fallon and guest co-host Dave Grohl through what he was thinking while visiting The Tonight Show last night:

"I was pretty much going down on the pole, you know, doing my little sexy drop-down, and boom, I feel air. I was like, there's definitely a breeze going on. And I also felt, like, some popping, like, still happening while I was down there. So, I was like, oh God, I hope it's not—I was like, just please don't be on TV already. You know? And SNL is actually live, so. You know what the worst part is? At the end of the performance, the dancers are supposed to, like, touch me and tug on me or whatever. And they were tugging on the pants!"

Lil Nas X's very tight pants ripped in the, um, crotch area toward the end of his approximately three-minute performance, but he still had to put his hand over the exposed area for the final 50 seconds to avoid total embarrassment.

"It was perfect timing," the two-time Grammy winner added to Fallon. "If that would have ripped any other time during the performance, everything—over."

Because Nas handled it so seamlessly, even adding in a cheeky smirk, some viewers initially speculated that the malfunction was planned. He promptly shut that down on Twitter and separately tweeted that he "will never trust pants again!":

at first i was afraid to even perform. then we rehearsed for 2 weeks, then all of the dancers got removed because one had covid and new ones had to learn the routine in 24 hours, and then i ended up ripping my pants and couldn’t finish. everything happens for a reason tho lol
— nope (@LilNasX) May 23, 2021