Cobra Kai’s Tanner Buchanan used to play guitar in a death-metal band named Acidosis

On Cobra Kai, the character of sensei Johnny Lawrence may be a true-blue, forever-loyal Ratt and Poison fan, but Tanner Buchanan, the actor who plays Lawrence’s son Robby Keene, is apparently more of an extreme-metal maniac at heart.

In a new interview with At Large, the 22-year-old Ohio native reveals his love for Gojira and Pantera, as well as the fact that he once played electric guitar in a death metal band named Acidosis.

“We played a lot of Gojira covers,” Buchanan said, “which I’m super-excited about because Cobra Kai posted the show playlists on Instagram. Now my all-time favorite band is Pantera. But my second all-time is Gojira, a French-prog metal band. They ended up following me on Instagram and I had a freak-out moment. I had been listening to them since I was 12.”

Acidosis, he continued, “Played all their songs. And they followed me on Instagram. I had this out-of-body experience like, 'Gojira, they know who I am. They know who I am! This is my childhood right here.”

As for the musician he’d most like to meet?

“I just want to be Dave Grohl’s best friend because he’s such an awesome guy,” Buchanan said. “Same thing with Corey Taylor, Slipknot. He’s another guy I would just super-freak out about if I ever got to meet.”

Regarding Taylor, he continued, “The Slipknot set up is very interesting. Him going from Stone Sour to then Slipknot, it was definitely a change in pace. A band of four or five to a band of, what, nine or ten? And they’re all wearing masks. You’re like, what is going on? But I do enjoy the music. I just like Corey Taylor a lot. Corey Taylor’s my guy.”

When the interviewer pointed out that Slipknot “have this one percussionist whose specialty is just smacking a beer keg with a baseball bat,” Buchanan responded, “Yes. Oh, God, I love metal so much.”

As for Acidosis, he continued, “That’s probably why our band didn’t ever go anywhere. We were missing our baseball bat-keg guy.”