Ashlee Simpson’s career took a dramatic turn on October 23, 2004, when her musical performance on Saturday Night Live went completely off the rails.
During the live broadcast, a major mishap occurred when the wrong lip sync track for her hit song “Pieces of Me” began playing at an inopportune moment. The 7th Heaven actress was understandably thrown off by the technical blunder and responded in an unexpected way—by performing a hoedown-style dance.
Now, nearly 21 years later, Saturday Night Live’s production team has shed light on the behind-the-scenes chaos of Simpson’s infamous performance in the new Peacock documentary, Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music.
The special, co-directed by Questlove of The Roots and Oz Rodriguez, offers an inside look at what went wrong that night, including never-before-seen footage from backstage.
SNL producer Marci Klein revealed in the documentary that prior to the show, there had been murmurs about Simpson feeling unwell.
“I’d heard rumblings that Ashlee had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well,” Klein recalled. The dress rehearsal was meant to be an opportunity for Simpson to test both tracks before going live.
SNL music mixer Josiah Gluck explained that, initially, Simpson was only set to lip sync her second song during the live broadcast to conserve her voice. “Somehow, between dress and air, it was decided that she would lip sync both songs,” Gluck noted.
During the live performance, Simpson successfully got through her first song, “Pieces of Me,” without any visible issues. However, things unraveled when host Jude Law introduced her second track, “Autobiography.”
As Simpson prepared to perform, the pre-recorded vocals for “Pieces of Me” mistakenly began playing again—despite the fact that she was holding the microphone at her side. The lip sync track was quickly cut, but by then, her band had already started playing “Pieces of Me” in an attempt to cover up the mistake.
“I heard the director say something like, ‘Holy s—,'” Gluck recalled. “It was like watching an old movie where two locomotives collide at full speed.”
On stage, Simpson attempted to salvage the moment by dancing awkwardly for a few seconds before Saturday Night Live abruptly cut away. Among the viewers left bewildered at home was future cast member Bowen Yang.
Ashlee Simpson on SNL“I was in my basement, 13 years old, sexually confused because Jude Law was the host,” Yang shared. “In the moment, it wasn’t entirely clear what was happening.”
Despite the technical failure being out of her control, Simpson faced backlash for incorrectly blaming her band during SNL’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 told viewers with a shrug.
In the years that followed, Simpson acknowledged the incident as a turning point, teaching her to stand firm in situations where she felt uncomfortable.
“I’ve never really talked about it, but I’ve learned that as a woman, as an artist, or just as a human, when you say no, it should mean no,” Simpson shared on the Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen podcast in March 2024. “That day, I said, ‘I will not go on. I can’t speak.’ But ultimately, I went live because I was afraid of the consequences of canceling last-minute.”
At the time, Simpson had been diagnosed with vocal cord nodules, which made performing difficult. However, she felt pressure to proceed despite her condition.
“It was a humbling experience for me,” she admitted. “I had the number one song, and everything felt like it was moving forward—until, suddenly, it wasn’t. The harsh reality of what grown adults were saying about me afterward was brutal.”
Simpson later had the opportunity to redeem herself when Saturday Night Live invited her back as a musical guest on October 8, 2005. Her performances of “Catch Me When I Fall” and “Boyfriend” went smoothly, without incident.
The Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special airs on Sunday, February 16, with a red carpet pre-show streaming live on Peacock at 7 p.m. ET, followed by the live broadcast on NBC at 8 p.m. ET.
