Conan O'Brien drops the needle on a vinyl record

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Conan O'Brien may have missed his calling.

The once and future late night television host laid down a scorching rockabilly-flavored set Thursday night at Jack White's Third Man Records and plans to release a vinyl album of the show.

"This is probably the most fun I've had in show business," a sweat-soaked O'Brien told a crowd of about 300 before launching into a fiery finale of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" with White.

O'Brien has been riding a bus around the country with his band on "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour," a music- and comedy-filled variety show, while waiting for his new hosting gig at TBS to start. He left "The Tonight Show" earlier this year after NBC reinstalled former host Jay Leno.

O'Brien ripped through a rockin' set with his ace band behind him and The Cocettes singing backup. White, the leader of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, introduced O'Brien as "a rockabilly legend in the making." White's Third Man Records has a concert space as well as reel-to-reel recording equipment.

O'Brien wore all black, his unemployment beard and a light blue Fender electric guitar. He was comfortable and confident, using the kind of salty language you can't get away with on TV as he joked about himself, White and members of his band.

He told the audience that in six months he's gone from hosting "the greatest franchise in television history" to touring the country in a bus to making a vinyl record.

"I'm going back in time," he joked. "Next week I'll be playing Vaudeville and then I'm going to be a steamboat captain."

O'Brien played it straight on about half his songs, leading the band through strong renditions of several classics, though he did add comedic lyrics to a handful of songs.

He opened the set with Elvis Presley's "Blue Moon," burned through The Stray Cats' "Rock This Town" and laid a comedy routine about his middle class upbringing over Presley's "Poke Salad Annie."

The redheaded host used The Redheaded Stranger Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again" to poke fun at his situation, singing, "My old show again/I just can't wait to get my old show again." He changed the next chorus to, "Off the road again, dear God please get me off the road again," before finishing the song with, "Thank you TBS for giving me a show."