Mumford And Sons Bring Hozier Back to Studio 8H for Surprise 'Rubber Band Man' on SNL

Mumford and sons returned to Saturday Night Live on Feb. 28, making their fourth appearance on the late-night stage and performing two songs from their new album Prizefighter. The televised set matters because the band used the Studio 8H slot to showcase high-profile collaborators and to promote Prizefighter, which was released on Feb. 20.

Mumford And Sons Return to Studio 8H

The English folk-rock group took the Studio 8H stage on Feb. 28 for its first SNL appearance since 2018. The night marked their fourth overall visit to the program; the band’s prior trip in 2018 was tied to the promotion of the album Delta. Their return came eight years after that earlier appearance and featured material drawn from Prizefighter, the record released on Feb. 20.

"Rubber Band Man" Features Hozier and Aaron Dessner

The set opened with "Rubber Band Man, " a collaboration that features Irish musician Hozier and that was co-written by Brandi Carlile. Hozier walked out to join the live performance, and co-producer Aaron Dessner of the National also joined on stage. The single has spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart, and Hozier’s surprise entrance gave the Studio 8H crowd a noticeable jolt.

"Here, " Chris Stapleton and Sierra Ferrell on the Opening Track

The band’s second televised song was "Here, " the opening track of Prizefighter, which features Chris Stapleton. For that performance, Dessner and singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell were also onstage with the group. Beyond those two songs, the band performed additional material from Prizefighter, including tracks cited in promotion as "The Banjo Song. "

Marcus Mumford and Ted Dwane on Prizefighter and Production

Marcus Mumford, 39, described Prizefighter several months before its release as his favorite album to date and said it felt like "the straightest talking record" the band had made; he framed it as closer to the band's essence. Bassist Ted Dwane, 41, praised Aaron Dessner’s production work, calling Dessner "a real ally, " and noted the band had been fans of The National and first met him while preparing their third record, Wilder Mind.

Lineup Changes, Recent Releases and Tour Plans

Prizefighter is the band’s second album in less than a year following Rushmere, which was released last March and was their first record as a trio after guitarist and banjoist Winston Marshall left the band in part because of political differences with his bandmates. The group has scheduled tours that will take them to Australia and New Zealand in April, then to North America in June before moving on to Europe; they will be back in the United States through October and are listed as headlining Louisville, Kentucky’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival.

Host Connor Storrie, Olympic Hockey Cameos and Rockefeller Sketch

The episode was hosted by Connor Storrie, a 26-year-old Canadian actor best known for playing Shane Hollander on HBO Max’s Heated Rivalry, and it was Storrie’s SNL debut. During his opening monologue he brought out members of the U. S. women’s Olympic hockey team, who recently won gold, alongside the U. S. men’s squad to play up the contrast between the women’s recent triumph and the men’s 40-plus-year gold medal drought. A late-night sketch filmed on location at the Rink at Rockefeller Center featured an unannounced cameo from Hudson Williams; Williams and Storrie, who play rival hockey players on Heated Rivalry, skated together in the sketch and Williams later returned to Studio 8H to help introduce the band.

What makes this notable is the way the televised appearance combined chart success, high-profile collaborators and a deliberate promotional push: Prizefighter’s release on Feb. 20 was followed within days by a Studio 8H showcase that included established names such as Hozier, Chris Stapleton and Aaron Dessner. For mumford and sons, the combination of collaborators onstage and the episode’s broader moments — from the Olympic hockey cameo to the Rockefeller sketch — amplified the band’s return to late-night television and served the promotional timeline for two albums released within a year.