--- title: Billy Crystal Schooled James Corden on Hosting the Grammys description: Crystal has a memorable tale of Michael Jackson and a chimp at the Grammy Awards canonical: https://time.com/4593604/billy-crystal-on-james-corden/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-07T16:57:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:15.373Z og:title: Billy Crystal Schooled James Corden on Hosting the Grammys og:description: Crystal has a memorable tale of Michael Jackson and a chimp at the Grammy Awards og:url: https://time.com/4593604/billy-crystal-on-james-corden/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Billy Crystal Schooled James Corden on Hosting the Grammys twitter:description: Crystal has a memorable tale of Michael Jackson and a chimp at the Grammy Awards twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Billy Crystal School James Corden on Hosting the Grammys by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 7, 2016 4:57 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 7, 2016 4:57 PM UTC James Corden has done a lot over the course of his career—let [Stevie Wonder](http://time.com/4034562/stevie-wonder-james-corden/?iid=sr-link1) be his chauffeur, [played _Risky Business_ ](http://time.com/4538394/watch-tom-cruise-reenact-risky-business-top-gun-and-jerry-maguire-with-james-corden/?iid=sr-link2) with Tom Cruise, [twerked with Madonna](http://time.com/4591551/madonna-carpool-karaoke-james-corden/?iid=sr-link3), starred in [_Doctor Who_](http://time.com/4079724/corgi-doctor-who/?iid=sr-link1)_,_ but he has never hosted the Grammy Awards. Now that the _Late Late Show_ host has been tapped to host the 2017 iteration of the award show, he realized he needed some advice and brought in a ringer — Billy Crystal. The three-time Grammy Awards host shared plenty of advice for Corden, which he doled out on Tuesday night’s show. Crystal spun a cautionary tale about musicians, involving Michael Jackson, his pet chimpanzee, a tent, Russian maestro Vladimir Horowitz, and Radio City Music Hall that certainly put Corden on notice about what he can expect when he hosts the show in February. In short, he might want to bring an emergency supply of chimp Pull-Ups. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4593604/billy-crystal-on-james-corden/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4593604/billy-crystal-on-james-corden/"},"headline":"Watch Billy Crystal School James Corden on Hosting the Grammys","datePublished":"2016-12-07T16:57:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:15.373Z","description":"Crystal has a memorable tale of Michael Jackson and a chimp at the Grammy Awards","url":"https://time.com/4593604/billy-crystal-on-james-corden/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Late late show","james corden"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4593604/billy-crystal-on-james-corden/","name":"Watch Billy Crystal School James Corden on Hosting the Grammys"}}]}] ```