Just by looking at Jason Momoa, you can kinda figure out he's a metalhead. And we love it.
It's safe to say that if acting hadn't worked out for him, he probably would've given music a shot and slashed some strings alongside his biggest heroes. But that doesn't mean he can't jump on stage occasionally and show off his sick playing.
Momoa has a hard time containing his excitement about a lot of things, but music gets him riled up like nothing else. It's hilarious, but he's the ultimate fanboy for his favorite genre, and just mentioning people like Flea or Slash will earn you hours of conversation with the actor. Here's a closer look at Momoa's obsession with heavy metal.
He Loves Posting About His Favorite Music
If you've been following Momoa since he first got his Instagram, you'll know that he loves posting about music, playing music, going to concerts, or getting some of the most coveted instruments from Fender, etc., and even some of his idols themselves.
He's often seen at guitar shops around the world looking at a lot of different types of instruments and their makes. Momoa doesn't just look at the shiny instruments, though, he often jams out on them too.
Momoa has a lot of musician friends. He hangs out with Guns & Roses, Metallica, Primus, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Slayer, just to name a few.
He hung out with Slash this past September and wrote on his Instagram how nervous he was to interview him for Fender. Back in 2017, he bought a pair of Gibson Custom Slash Signature Firebirds for his guitar collection. He's also met legends like Alice Cooper as well. He's taken his twins to meet his idols too.
The kids were seen backstage at a Chili Peppers concert a couple of times. "The one the only Legend FLEA. And My baby girl. Fan boy f***ing lost my s***. Tried to keep it together. Didn't happen but I got this shot. Mahalo dan weiss and Peter. GOT perks. DROGO perks," he wrote when his daughter met Flea.
He has another photo of his son holding the setlist for a Chili Pepper's concert, where he wrote, "Bucket list check."
Momoa has also posted pictures of him jamming out with his Justice League co-star Ezra Miller and Gal Gadot. Momoa played guitar while Miller and Gadot swapped sitting behind the drums.
Apparently, he doesn't go anywhere without one of his guitars, a record player, and a mini Marshal app speaker, which sit comfortably in his dressing room.
Bass Is His Favorite
Bass has become Momoa's favorite recently. He said that his love for bass really came out when he was on the set of Aquaman. It was his assistant's birthday and since she's a Tool fan, he borrowed a bass and played her "Sober" with his kids on drums and guitar.
"I always knew I wanted to play bass. After that I wanted to play standup, so I bought one and now it’s a passion for me, with how it makes me feel and how it sounds," Momoa told Guitar World. "I studied and studied and studied bass, and I was like ‘My God, I wish I would have done this when I was young.’ I wish that I had that opportunity –but I’m making up for lost time."
Now his idol Les Claypool has taught him a few lessons and even gave him his own bass, and more recently, he jumped on stage with the Mike Hayes Band.
In 2019, Momoa joined Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals onstage for a cover of Pantera's "This Love." The performance came during Slayer's final show at the Forum in Los Angeles.
This past summer he once again represented the Chili Peppers when he got a new Fender Precision Bass for his birthday from Vincent Van Trigt, a Master Builder with the Fender Custom Shop.
Of course, when he went to test it out, the first song that came to mind was Chili Peppers' cover of Stevie Wonder's song "Higher Ground."
Momoa said jamming out and acting gives him a similar high, but he uses bass "as a tool to help me be calm and to not sit in my mind too much. It’s much like a painter, probably – to get to disappear into a kind of space that isn’t like time. I love being in that state of mind.
"I feel like it’s ageless, and it’s fun, the more I can learn about music theory, which I’d like to spend more time with – learning that language. Bass is like a moving meditation. I love it and I love the way the bass sounds, even when it’s not plugged in."
When he's not jamming with friends and idols, he's using those idols as an influence for his characters.
Back in 2018, Momoa told Metal Hammer that he used the combined forces of metal bands Tool, Metallica, and Black Sabbath to help him to get into character for Aquaman.
"Aquaman's pretty metal. I know no one thinks that, but Aquaman's metal," he said. "I kind of build my characters off of metal songs. Conan (The Barbarian) was really heavy Pantera, I'd say Aquaman was probably mostly built out of Tool and (Metallica's) Kill 'Em All. "Ticks and Leeches," if I want to get specific. There's a lot of Sabbath in there too."
We love seeing Momoa getting excited about music and playing music. Everything he does is just so badass, we can't contain our excitement. Now we want to learn bass.