Keanu Reeves has revealed that he once received a lesson in bass guitar from Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The John Wick star, who also plays bass in the Los Angeles grunge band Dogstar, spoke about the encounter in a video posted to Fender’s YouTube channel.
“I remember one time I was doing a film, and Flea was in it, or I was in a film with Flea,” he said. “And I remember there was a house, and there [were] amps and instruments and stuff like that.”
“And I was like, ‘Hey, Flea, can you give me a lesson?’ And he was like, ‘Sure, man!’ And he was like [gestures complex bass solo]. And I was like, ‘Alright, so?’ And he was like, ‘Just feel it, man. Just play.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’”
Reeves and Flea both appeared in the film My Own Private Idaho, directed by Gus Van Sant and released in 1991.
Dogstar were together for eleven years between 1991 and 2002, releasing two studio albums: ‘Our Little Visionary’ in 1996 and ‘Happy Ending’ in 2000. During the 2020 lockdowns, the band starting spending time together in quarantine, writing enough material to form a new album. They released their third full-length, ‘Somewhere Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees’, earlier this month.
They made their first live appearance in two decades at BottleRock Festival in Napa, California in May, debuting several of the new songs. See the remainder of their upcoming shows below.
Speaking about how he became a bassist, Reeves said, “I think I’m a wild animal playing with a piece of wood. I didn’t learn a lot of songs. I didn’t listen to a song and try and figure it out. Kids: I regret that. If you’re picking up an instrument, it’s cool to figure out what people have done before, but I wasn’t doing that. So I would just play. So I had no theory.”
He continued, “I was asked what was my first bass. I’ve been trying to remember, but I think it was like 1986. I went to the Hollywood Guitar Center with the daydream of getting a bass guitar.”
“I ended up… I don’t recall, but there was a guy there who was selling a bass. He was with a friend. Not at the store, it was like a parking lot sale. I had, like, a bass drug deal.”
John Wick: Chapter 4 was released in March this year, and Reeves reportedly asked for his title character to be “definitively” killed off. Director Chad Stahelski said in March that both he and Reeves are “done for the moment” with the franchise.
Keanu Reeves’ Dogstar will play:
NOVEMBER
30 – Los Angeles, CA, Troubadour
DECEMBER
3 – San Francisco, CA, The Great American Music Hall
5 – Sacramento, CA, Crest Theatre
7 – Chicago, IL, Thalia Hall
8 – Detroit, MI, The Majestic Theatre
9 – Toronto, ON, Lee’s Palace
11 – Brooklyn, NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
12 – Boston, MA, Paradise Rock Club
14 – Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts
15 – Washington, DC, The Howard Theatre
16 – Norfolk, VA, The NorVa
18 – Charlotte, NC, The Underground
19 – Atlanta, GA, Center Stage
20 – Nashville, TN, Brooklyn Bowl
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