Jason Momoa Puts His Metal Cred To The Test On ‘Track Star’

Jason Momoa might be best known for swinging swords and throwing punches on screen, but put a pair of headphones on him and it doesn’t take long to realise the guy knows his metal.

The actor recently appeared on the popular YouTube and social media trivia series Track Star, where guests are challenged to identify songs while listening through headphones, what starts as a fairly standard celebrity interview quickly turns into something more genuine, with Momoa visibly loosening up as the clips roll on.

By the end of the video, he seems genuinely invested in the whole thing, even stopping to ask the host, “What’s the name of your show?” before adding, “One day, I’m going to watch it.” (per Metal Injection)

The format itself is simple, songs play, guesses are made, and casual questions fill the gaps, but Momoa’s episode stands out thanks to how naturally he talks about discovering heavy music and the winding path that led him there.

Watch it below:

Metallica came first

Balancing between well worn classic metal cuts and more general conversation, Momoa explains that Black Sabbath didn’t come first for him, Metallica did.

“I actually found Sabbath through Metallica,” he said, before unpacking his upbringing. He grew up with a single mother and recalls that his early musical education leaned far from distortion pedals and down-tuned riffs.

“I grew up with a single mother who raised [him] on Motown, so it was definitely all Motown and blues and jazz…”

From there, things shifted through skate culture and MTV, funkier, heavier sounds started creeping in:

“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… 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].”

The playlist itself leans heavily into canonical territory, running through tracks by Black Sabbath, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Alice In Chains, Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, Iron Maiden, Korn, Misfits, and Helmet.

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