Culture

If you didn’t know any better you’d think Jason Momoa was a rock star rather than an actor. With his left arm tattoo sleeve and a similar triangular pattern on the left side of his head, his pumped physique, love of motorcycles and tendency to wear all black, Momoa looks like he could easily be the bassist in a heavy metal band.

And on Tuesday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Aquaman star revealed that one of his most popular big screen characters, Aquaman, was actually inspired by his rock and roll hero.

“I built Aquaman a little bit off of Slash. Look at the first Justice League,” Momoa told Kimmel about the 2018 DC action movie starring Momoa as the waterlogged superhero on a mission to stop his evil half-brother from uniting the seven underwater kingdoms in his quest to destroy the dry world. “I’m like, ‘That’s Slash.’ I mean, how do you dress up like you’re playing Aquaman? You’re not going to put him in a polo and some khakis. He was just rocking. The way that [executive producer] Zack [Snyder] designed him, wanted him to be was that he was rock ‘n’ roll. He punched Superman in the face and kissed Wonder Woman. He didn’t care.”

And, not for nothing, Momoa added, “Slash was so important in my life.”

Momoa gets his rock and roll fantasy card punched in his new 8-part Max travelogue series On the Roam — which airs on Thursdays — including an episode in which the actor interviews Slash. “I have to interview him for the first time and I’ve never done an interview,” Momoa said. Though they’d met before, Momoa copped to serious nerves asking the “Welcome to the Jungle” legend some of his most burning questions. “Hats off, because I was so nervous. And I’m also geeking out!… I can’t talk right and I’m so nervous.”

He got over the butterflies and the pair bonded when they visited Gibson to watch a luthier replicate one of Slash’s original guitars. Not only will Momoa and his kids get to watch Slash play one of the guitars he had made in concert, but they also crafted a second one that will be actioned off for charity. On the show Momoa also learns how to make everything from jewelry to knives, while trying his hand at woodworking and learning about vintage hill-climbing motorcycles.

The interview, which kicked off with Momoa rumbling onto the stage noisily on one of his vintage Harley Davidson Panhead motorcycles, also included the actor talking about how he got Metallica to let him use their thundering 1991 song “Wherever I May Roam” as the show’s theme song. “I love them. They’re awesome. They’re everything. I just love Metallica so I just asked them and begged them,” Momoa said, explaining that it made perfect sense for given the show’s title, which is also the name of the actor’s production company.

Kimmel wondered if Slash got jealous that Momoa asked Metallica for a theme and not GNR.

“As a single guitar player, Slash,” Momoa said of the distinction between his hard rock heroes. “As a group, Metallica.”

Watch Momoa on Kimmel below.