Ashlee Simpson’s SNL Meltdown Revisited in New Documentary

NEW YORK, NY — Ashlee Simpson’s infamous performance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 2004 is once again in the spotlight, thanks to the new documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, directed by Questlove and Oz Rodriguez. The documentary reveals the chaos behind the scenes during Simpson’s live show on October 23, 2004, when a technical failure turned her performance into a memorable disaster.

In the newly released footage, SNL producer Marci Klein recounted the hours leading up to the show, noting that there were concerns about Simpson’s health as she had a sore throat. “It was decreed that she would lip sync for the second song just to save her voice,” confirmed SNL music mixer Josiah Gluck. However, the plan changed, leading to a mix-up that turned catastrophic during her second performance of “Autobiography.”

After a smooth rendition of her first song, “Pieces of Me,” things unraveled when Simpson’s band began to play the wrong track. The pre-recorded vocals of her first song started playing alongside her band, causing confusion and panic. “I heard the director say something like, ‘Holy s—,'” Gluck recalled. “It was just like those old movies of two locomotives hitting each other, full bore.”

Amid the technical mess, Simpson improvised with a few seconds of a hoedown dance before SNL swiftly cut to a commercial break. “I was in my basement, 13 years old [and] sexually confused because Jude Law was the host. In the moment of it happening, you weren’t really sure what was going on,” future cast member Bowen Yang said, recounting the chaos.

Despite being the victim of a technical error, Simpson faced backlash for publicly blaming her band during the show’s Goodnights segment. “My band started playing the wrong song, and I didn’t know what to do, so I thought I’d do a hoedown. I’m sorry,” she shrugged at the time. Reflecting on the incident years later, Simpson acknowledged that she wasn’t comfortable at that moment, recalling her anxiety leading up to the live performance.

Confirming further details during her appearance on the podcast Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen, Simpson revealed that she suffered from “two nodules beating against each other” prior to her SNL show but felt pressured to perform. “It was a humbling moment for me. I had the number one song; everything was about to go somewhere, and then it was just like, whoa. It was hard to make sense of what grown folks would say about me,” she admitted.

In a twist of fate, Simpson returned to SNL on October 8, 2005, for a do-over. Her performances of “Catch Me When I Fall” and “Boyfriend” went off without a hitch, demonstrating her growth and resilience as an artist.

As SNL prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary on February 16, 2025, audiences are reminded of both iconic moments and unprecedented blunders that have shaped the show’s legacy. The documentary aims to provide fans with an inside look at the production challenges that come with performing live, keeping viewers engaged as the series continues to evolve.