On SNL last night, March 7, Thor star Chris Hemsworth hosted for the first time to spoof Empire and Chris Cornell joined the Zac Brown Band onstage as they premiered their new sound and new music "Heavy Is the Head" and "Homegrown."
It was a night of firsts at Saturday Night Live. Actor Chris Hemsworth has not really had the opportunity to showcase his comedic chops until last night. He was game for just about everything, including a fake American Express commercial, falling in love with chicken in space and playing Thor, who really wants to take everyone to Dave & Buster's, after winning a major battle.
But SNL finally took a stab at Fox's popular show Empire with Hemsworth's help. Hemsworth plays a new khaki-wearing office manager at Empire to appeal to white Americans. His chipper attitude and organization gets him into trouble. He tries to get receipts for an expense report and gets the middle finger.
Later he interrupts an argument, "Hey guys, would you mind signing this card? It's Cookie's birthday."
Although it doesn't look like he will be lasting long at Empire, the skit ends with Cookie fighting Hemsworth with a broom while he defends himself with a trash can lid.
After those amusing skits, the Zac Brown Band took the SNL stage to premiere two new songs off their upcoming album Jekyll + Hyde. The band's first song was "Homegrown," which is similar to their previous music. Zac Brown played an acoustic guitar while singing about the benefits of hometowns. This song was most likely off the Jekyll side of the album.
For their second half of the performance, the Zac Brown Band recruited Soundgarden's Chris Cornell to premiere "Heavy Is the Head." The band defied genre restrictions and moved away from their pleasant country sound for heavy rock. Cornell sang the chorus and electric guitars, signalling that the Hyde side of Zac Brown Band's fourth album will be much different than their previous albums.
Jekyll + Hyde is out April 28.
