Owl guitarist Jason Achilles Mezilis, may be based in Los Angeles, but his heart clearly belongs to Skywalker Ranch in Marin. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, Mezilis not only knows his trivia, but he once played guitar dressed as a Tusken Raider.
StarWars.com chats with Mezilis about his favorite LEGO Star Wars collectibles, how the music of Star Wars affected him and why he'll never like Ewoks, even if they eat people.
What is your first Star Wars memory?
I remember going to Return of the Jedi at the theater with my mom. I had never seen a line go around a theater like a rock concert. As we watched in the audience, the scene where they blow up Jabba's barge came on everyone started cheering and clapping. I'd never experienced anything like that in the theater before where people cheered at what was happening on the screen. That was my first strong impression of the film. Though I also remember burying my Chewbacca action figure in the sandbox.
What is your funniest Star Wars memory?
In my first band, I was around 20, we played a Halloween show and I dressed as a Tusken Raider. I got the full latex mask, and my mom helped me make a burlap sack for the outfit. It was so intolerably hard to breathe in, let alone try to sing background vocals or see my fingers. It was just horrific, but I looked really, really cool.
At some point during the show did you lift your guitar up over your head like a Tusken Raider's staff?
That would have been cool! Where were you?! I think halfway through the set I couldn't take it anymore and I took the mask off. Not only is your whole face covered by latex, but the eyes really aren't in the same place. So you have eye holes where your cheeks are.
Did you ever dress up as other Star Wars characters for Halloween?
As a kid I was usually a dinosaur. But as an adult I did dress up as Darth Vader for the big celebration in West Hollywood one year. I had the helmet with the voice changer on it, so I would walk around and breathe into people. I didn't have the whole outfit though. I think I wore the helmet with a bathrobe, so I was more like "Vader Goes to the Sauna."
Do you collect any Star Wars stuff?
I've been really getting into the new Star Wars LEGOs that have been coming out. I have a few displayed in a glass case in my living room like the AT-AT. When LEGO Mindstorms put out that remote-control R2-D2 with the brain in it, I got that. The problem is that the boxes look so nice that I don't want to open them. So I have a few that I haven't taken out of the boxes because they almost look better in there. I still want to get the interactive Falcon and Destroyer where you can open them up. I want to play with them!
LEGO is the single greatest toy ever made. I had the sci-fi themed LEGOs as a kid. I'd build Transformers out of them with hinges. I love what Star Wars does with LEGOs. Back in the day, whatever kit you bought after you played with it got thrown into your collection. But now the pieces get too specialized.
I thought you were supposed to be able to easily mix and match pieces, so if you wanted to have a SpongeBob Squarepants vs. Star Wars vs. pirates vs. Indiana Jones battle, you could?
Yeah but the color schemes are so much more different. There used to be four basic colors. But there was still a lot of stuff where you could do exactly what you're talking about. But you weren't going to use yellow gates on your space station.
Perhaps you weren't. I always liked mixing Lincoln Logs in with my LEGOs.
I had Lincoln Logs with my Transformers. The command base for the Transformers would be made from Lincoln Logs.
So Wild West Transformers, then?
Well, no. I guess. Yeah. (laughs) It was supposed to be a real secure strong fortress, it wasn't really supposed to be made out of logs.
What other toys did you collect as a kid?
All the toys I had as a kid were destroyed. Any Star Wars toys I had ended up buried in the sandbox.
Why do kids do that!?
You guys were the ones who made up the Sarlacc pit!
Chewbacca never ended up in the Sarlacc!
Well, he is now. (laughs) The only one I still have now is the old Yoda with the felt and the snake around his neck, and he sits on top of my computer speakers. He keeps me in line.
