Knocked Loose Knocks Jimmy Kimmel’s Audience For a Loop

There was once a time when late-night TV was subversive. Late-night hosts were the breeding ground for daredevil comedy acts, weirdoes, and outsider artists. David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and, to a degree, Craig Ferguson took the tired, old playbook of the late-night talk show and used their platforms to push the envelope of what people were willing to consume. Letterman was the place for rock and roll bands to break. Because of his love of music, Letterman constantly pushed for talented new bands to get a mainstream crack at an audience bigger than anything on MTV.

But now, we have the late-night talk shows of 2024: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel. And considering the “outrage” Kimmel faces, the news is fit to print: Jimmy Kimmel is as counter-culture as Lawrence Welk.

The scandal? Hardcore band Knocked Loose performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this past Tuesday (November 26), and people on Facebook took offense. According to The Mirror, one Facebook user wrote, “I was sitting on the couch with my son who is an ADOLESCENT waiting to see the musical guest because we like the nice music the show usually books. By the third or fourth ‘JUNT’ from the guitars, my son was in tears. He doesn’t like scary things, and quite frankly, I think the Kimmel show and its staff should make a formal apology.”

Another chimed in, “If I have to read the lyrics, I’ll just read them and not listen to someone yell them,” while a self-proclaimed “music expert” scoffed, “Sounds like a screaming frenzy to me! Actually starting to hurt my ears! People who listen to this have no room to complain about crying babies. Unreal!”

Knocked Loose’s singer Bryan Garris leaned into the hubbub with a sense of humility and gratitude, remembering they’re still kids from Kentucky who hit a lick.

“You may have seen it already, you may have not. I’ve been lucky enough that my timeline is flooded with so much support that I see it every time I open my phone. But I wanted a chance to post about it myself. The other day Knocked Loose performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! For a long time now, our goal has been to see how far we could squeeze this band into places where we don’t fit, and I think this may be the biggest one. National television. It feels like the ceiling gets higher for EVERYONE every single day. We celebrate this together. Thank you so much.

“Walking down the hallway as we were escorted to stage, I looked to my left and right and saw photos of all the celebrities that have been on the show over the years. Presidents, actors, musicians, etc. I leaned over to [Knocked Loose guitarist Isaac Hale] and said, ‘This started in your garage.’ He grabbed onto me and squeezed as hard as he could. That’s a moment I’ll never forget.

“PS if it scared you, good.”

Does the comment section affect the band? Not really. The band’s recent release, Suffocate, earned a nomination for the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, putting them in the same category as heavy metal luminaries like Metallica, Slipknot, Judas Priest, and Gojira.

And because of the “controversy,” the performance reached 1.7 million people, with almost 2 million more watching online. Once a proving ground for the offbeat and daring, late-night TV has become a nursery for sanitized entertainment. Letterman broke rock bands; Kimmel breaks Facebook comment sections.

Maybe Kimmel needs to book Dinah Shore with some poodles who dance. Apparently, the days of daring late-night television are long gone.

Would anyone like a highball? Maybe catch the latest talkie at the movie house? Whatever your milquetoast taste may desire, scary boys screaming isn’t for middle America, despite the Grammy nod, the album sales, or their Kentucky charm.