As a longtime devoted metalhead, actor/musician Jason Momoa (‘Aquaman‘, ‘Game Of Thrones‘) had the honor of serving as the host of the farewell show from Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne last July in Birmingham, UK. Despite his high profile status, he also had no qualms about getting in the mosh pit at that landmark sendoff, as seen in this footage from Pantera‘s set during that fateful day.
Over the years, Momoa has been vocal about his love of the likes of Black Sabbath, Pantera, Primus and more, and has even managed to spend time with many of his metal heroes. As such, his metal knowledge was recently put to the test on the latest episode of Track Star*, in which he was tasked with identifying various tracks from a number of heavy metal titans.
That challenge started off with an obvious softball in Black Sabbath‘s 1970 staple “Iron Man“. Momoa had no problem identifying the track, labeling Black Sabbath as his “favorite band.” He went on to say of the pioneering heavy metal outfit [transcribed by theprp.com], “I don’t know how to tell you why I love Black Sabbath. They’re just… that’s my heartbeat. I love them with every ounce of my soul.”
As he went on to reveal though, his eventual discovery of Sabbath came through Metallica. He stated:
“I actually found Sabbath through Metallica. I grew up with a single mother who raised me on Motown, so it was definitely all Motown and blues and jazz… So I experienced… like I found funk like Primus and Red Hot Chili Peppers and that kind of stuff through skateboarding and then Metallica; just like when you see MTV, when it was — I know that’s not around anymore — when it was, seeing [the music video for] “One“, the first metal video — I think it was one of the first metal videos — it blew my mind. And then through Metallica [I discovered Black Sabbath].”
Momoa later went on to describe Metallica as his “pals” and listed their first three albums “Kill ‘Em All“, “Ride The Lightning” and “Master Of Puppets” as his personal favorite records of his. The rest of his challenge saw him sharing his thoughts and admiration on rap-metal pioneers Rage Against The Machine, grunge stars Alice In Chains, industrial metal legends Nine Inch Nails, alternative metal juggernauts Tool, new wave of British heavy metal standard-bearers Iron Maiden and nü-metal pioneers Korn, among others.
Momoa nearly had a perfect streak with hischallenge, only getting stumped by the biggest single from one gold-certified influential alternative metal band.
