O'Brien's set included appearances by Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff, Brittany Howard, and others.
The last guest During Conan O'Brien's star-studded set Sunday night at the Newport Folk Festival, his podcast buddy and friend Jack White was on hand. The two friends first performed a duet of the White Stripes classic “We're Going to Be Friends,” with White and O'Brien trading verses. White played electric guitar alongside O'Brien on acoustic guitar for “On Friendship,” according to White's introduction to the track.
The song has a long history with the comedian: It was the last song ever performed on O'Brien's late-night show on NBC, and O'Brien uses the song on his podcast.
O'Brien opened the show by introducing himself as “folk music legend Conan O'Brien” before explaining that he had shown up to close the historic festival as an exercise in destruction: “I'm here to prove I can destroy any genre,” he joked.
White was the final guest during O'Brien's set, which included an original song by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog about how bad O'Brien is at telling musical stories, such as one about O'Brien meeting Bob Dylan; classic rock covers from guests including Nathaniel Rateliff (“Let It Bleed”), Brittany Howard (“Come and Get Your Love”), and Taylor Goldsmith (“Ramblin' Man”); and a rousing performance from Mavis Staples, who sang an extended version of her signature Staples Singers' “I'll Take You There.”
After the White Stripes, White and O'Brien launched into a cover of Eddie Cochrane's rockabilly band “Twenty Flight Rock” before O'Brien called in a group of singers from around the day to join in Newport's closing chorus of the traditional “Midnight Special.”
