20 years ago today, singer and reality TV star Ashlee Simpson went from living the elder millennial dream to navigating a PR nightmare as she became the first (and to date only) musician to terminate their own Saturday Night Live performance.
The massive popularity of Simpson’s debut album, Autobiography, and its lead single, “Pieces of Me,” made her an obvious choice to perform during SNL’s 30th season. Having spent the preceding summer successfully setting herself apart from her older sister, Jessica, the 20-year-old was more than ready to advance her thriving career on October 23, 2004.
That night, her rendition of “Pieces of Me” went off without a hitch, but things changed forever just five segments later. Following an introduction by host Jude Law, what should have been a performance of her soon-to-be-released single “Autobiography” devolved into disaster as a “Pieces of Me” backing track (featuring conspicuous guide vocals) began playing instead.
Since they evidently had no way of stopping the track themselves, Simpson’s band simply played to it, but she wasn’t on board with the idea of singing the song a second time. After half a minute of awkwardly wandering and dancing around the stage, she seemed to realize that the segment was irrevocably derailed and thus slinked off the set and into infamy.
After Simpson bailed, her band was shown halfheartedly playing “Pieces of Me” for about 20 more seconds until the show cut to commercial. At the end of the night, the singer was afforded a chance to defend herself alongside a supportive Law, who quipped, “Ladies and gentlemen, what can I say? Live TV.”
“Exactly,” Simpson added. “I feel so bad. 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. Live TV. Things happen.”
In that moment, as Simpson smiled and was warmly embraced by cast members like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, it seemed like all was well and that the incident might just blow over. However, the pop star learned the next morning (and over many subsequent weeks) that large swaths of unforgiving viewers had plenty of hate to lob in her direction.
In an effort to reassure her concerned fans, Simpson called into TRL the following Monday and explained that since she had been experiencing serious vocal issues during SNL rehearsals, her father and agent devised a way for her to lip sync. He did not inform showrunner Lorne Michaels, who has since clarified that he would have nixed the plan if he had known about it.
Less than 48 hours after the incident, Simpson delivered a rendition of “Autobiography” at the Radio Music Awards that began with a “Pieces of Me” fake out. Almost a full year later, she further redeemed herself by serving as the musical guest in an SNL episode that, fortunately for her, has fallen into obscurity.
When asked by Andy Cohen in 2018 who was to blame for her SNL debacle, Simpson was quick to take full responsibility. “I had a vocal problem,” she explained. “I should have said, ‘No, I will not go on. I will not do this.”
Simpson has frequently described the media frenzy sparked by her lip syncing fail as a humbling experience that ultimately strengthened her resolve. Although her career (which has slowed down significantly since she began focusing on motherhood) will always include a sizable blemish, it will never be purely defined by it.