While watching late night talk shows, I noticed that the musical guests rarely get interviewed. Outside of living legends like Paul McCartney, even the most popular musical acts are lucky to get a minute’s worth of chat right after the interview. Why? You could say that movie and TV actors are more popular, but considering how obscure a lot of actors toward the tail end of a show are couldn’t they be replaced by famous musicians. I don’t think saying “they aren’t interesting subjects” count either, because the few exceptions (Fiona Apple on ABC’s late night show and Neil Young on Conan come to mind were great.
I’ve always assumed that there are x minutes available for the the second tier guests (i.e., the guests who are brought out second and third), and musicians use up those x minutes by playing. I haven’t actually timed any of them, but my guess is that if you compared the screentime of musicians vs. the screentime of second-tier actor/comedian, they end up about the same.
There’s a bit of truth in that middle clause. There are quite a few musicians, rock and otherwise, whose answers to questions make me wish they hadn’t spoken. Meltdown is probably right, too.
Crotalus [and Zappa] is right. The prefered way of expressing the creativity of a musician is through, well, music. I’ve interviewed a lot of musicians throughout my years as a reporter/journalist and it’s always incredibly boring. They really don’t have anything to say, in an interview situation.
Now, speaking with a usicians about the qualities of Studio W as compared to Studio Q, well then they’re realy talkative and for the trade magazines, it makes for great quotes and story. But that won’t be entertaining to the casual crowd.
Some pros, and those with good pr guys, realoize that by bullshitting the reporter and delivering enough likeable comments in print, it serves as good publicity. Otoh, many composers/musicians abhor that kind of superficial attention. Bottom line is: Let the band play its songs and keep it moving. An interview is more likely to subtract, not add, from the show.
I think a big part of the reason is that, from the guests’ point of view, most guests who appear on late night talk shows are there trying to promote their latest project, and/or win new fans and gain exposure with people who weren’t previously aware of them. An actor can best do this by talking about said project, and maybe showing a clip, but a musician (or stand-up comic) can best do it by performing. And from the shows’ point of view, their business is to entertain the audience, and usually, it’s more entertaining for musical artists to perform than for them to talk.
Musicians are best heard, not screened.
Zappa, of course, was a glaring exception to his own rule.
I have to wonder if it has to do with talk shows going from ninety minutes to sixty minutes in length. I’ve managed to see several episodes of ninety-minute talk shows (in particular the Tonight Shows of the 1960s and 1970s) in which interviews occur either before or after performance, and the tightening of time could be an issue.
Does anyone have a good enough memory of that far back to tell if it was the case, or if I’m just being led astray by the examples I’ve seen?
I think another reason is that many of the groups who perform have a hit song, but basically are still considered “one hit wonders” so far.
Thus, I can’t imagine it being all that interesting to hear some dude ramble on about how they finally got this song recorded and it went to number one.
Who knows if they will have another hit song, and I can’t say I would be all that interested in hearing their entire life story based upon a hit recording that might be their one and only.
Rarely do they have an actor or actress who has only been in one hit film (well, whatshername from Juno was an exception). Usually they like to interview people who might actually have some staying power and one hit song, or one hit film usually doesn’t exactly make someone a superstar worth interviewing.
Besides, when they do the pre-show promo for the guests, they don’t want television audiences to collectively go, “who the hell is that?!” when the name of the guest is announced.
As a musician and band member, I have to say that I’d generally prefer not to be interviewed by a talk show host. It’s not like I don’t have anything to say, it’s just that the talk show hosts would likely ask questions I either don’t care about or would answer flippantly and come off as a dick.
In terms of the memory of older shows, one I remember perhaps provides another reason they don’t interview musicians after they play. I saw Iggy Pop on some talk show back in the late 70s/early 80s and, being Iggy, totally rocked and was all over the stage the entire time. They brought him over to the chair for an interview, and he was panting. They asked him a question and he said something like “Sorry :: pant, pant ::, I get a bit inarticulate after I’ve been singing”. Even the imminently quotable and interesting Iggy didn’t really make for a good interview in that setting.
Because talk show hosts are still haunted by The Sex Pistols’ appearance on a British chat show back in the day.
If the writers’ strike isn’t settled soon, Jay Leno may well start interviewing musicians. He’s gone through every animal handler, politician, and news anchor.
Stephen Colbert’s interviewed a few of them – Barry Manilow and Tony Bennett, of course, and also Willie Nelson and the lead singer from from OK Go!.
Conan O’Brien had The White Stripes on for a whole week once, looks like he interviewed them a few times during that week. I missed it. 
Pete Townshend’s girlfriend, Rachel Fuller, had a webcast for a couple of years with just the kind of guests you’re talking about. Such as Foy Vance, The Flaming Lips, The Kooks,The Fratellis, Razorlight, Rose Hill Drive, The Zutons, The Eels, Editors,Minnie Driver, Martha Wainwright, The Raconteurs, Rachel Yamagata, Sean Lennon, Wolfmother, Death Cab for Cutie, and The Magic Numbers.
They set up a tiny studio in an airsteam trailer, and took it on the road during The Who’s 06-07 tour. Bands would wander in between sets, play a song or two, and chat about mundane pointless stuff. Pete would come in from time to time to jam with them. It was pretty funny at times, and had some nice performances. There was a rumor that MTV might pick it up, but it never happened.
Pete Townshend’s girlfriend, Rachel Fuller, had a webcast for a couple of years with just the kind of guests you’re talking about. It was called “In The Attic” and featured people like The Flaming Lips, The Kooks,The Fratellis, Razorlight, Rose Hill Drive, The Zutons, The Eels, Editors,Minnie Driver, Martha Wainwright, The Raconteurs, Rachel Yamagata, Sean Lennon, Wolfmother, Death Cab for Cutie, Foy Vance, and The Magic Numbers.
They set up a tiny TV studio in an airsteam trailer, and took it on the road during The Who’s 06-07 tour. Bands would wander in between sets, play a song or two, and chat about mundane pointless stuff. Pete would come in from time to time to jam with them. It was pretty funny at times, and had some nice performances. There was a rumor that MTV might pick it up, but it never happened.
I was too young to watch the shows when they were originally aired but, on occasion, there would be interviews of musicians on Johnny Carson and–more frequently–Dick Cavett. If you go to YouTube and do a search under “Cavett,” you’ll find snippets of his interviews with David Bowie, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. You can also find his infamous train-wreck of an interview with Sly Stone which likely served as an impetus for the trend against musicians being interviewed on most talk shows.
In Australia it is common for musicians to be interviewed on talk shows. Many overseas acts will appear on say Rove, do a lengthy interview during the show and then close the show with a song.