Americana legend James Taylor paid a visit to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Wednesday night (November 18) to perform a hilarious rendition of his classic song "Fire and Rain" alongside the late night television host, adding calzones, Star Wars, and many other things James has seen over the years to the lyrics. Notably absent though was one of Colbert's favorite topics, 'The Lord of the Rings,' or anything Tolkien related.
"I consider my songs to be living things; they're always growing. For example, I'm still working on 'Fire and Rain,'" said Taylor before launching into the new rendition. "The thing is, I wrote that song in 1970, I just hadn't seen that much back then, mostly fire and rain. So that's why I keep saying it over and over again since then."
Colbert expresses his excitement and curiosity for what the new version will sound like, but Taylor immediately squashes his comment, comically reminding him that they rehearsed the duet before the show. The two add a whole slew of things and experiences that have occurred since 1970, including Fifty Shades of Grey, Snakes on a Plane, and front-and-center, those yummy tomato-sauce-and-cheese-filled goodies, calzones.
The lyrics to one of Taylor's first verses plays out something like, "I've seen fire and I've rain / I've seen the rise and fall of the Beanie Babies trend / I've seen man buns, MySpace and the Baha Men / But I never thought I'd see a new Star Wars again." When the two wrap up their reinterpretation of the iconic track, Taylor jokingly comments that he has 75 more verses but Colbert quickly stops him, amusingly hinting that the two have sung more than enough.
Taylor recently hit his first No. 1 record in his 45-year career on the Billboard 200 with his latest, seventeenth studio album, Before This World, which sold 97,000 copies this past June. The singer also recently opened up about his drug addiction during a podcast.
