After more than 33 years on air, David Letterman is finally packing his Late Night bags.
At 68, Letterman has spent nearly half his life suited up behind the famed Late Night desk, and he’s provided one of the most coveted music stages around along the way.
Letterman’s Late Night, an update on Johnny Carson’s format and approach that paved the way for the current roster of late-night hosts, kicked off in February of 1982. Less than a year later, Letterman invited the b-boy troupe the Rock Steady Crew into the studio to perform. At that point, in 1983, the Rock Steady Crew’s performance was one of a handful of moments that helped fully assimilate Hip Hop into the mainstream. Letterman didn’t provide a consistent stage for the genre that hosts like Arsenio Hall and others did throughout the 1980s, but three decades later, part of Letterman’s legacy has been his open-armed attitude towards music of all types.