Keanu Reeves has long been one of the A-list actors in Hollywood. However, acting is not all he does to entertain his fans. The Constantine actor is also a member of a musical band named Dogstar. The band was active from the middle of the 1990s to the early 2000s. It was moderately successful and grabbed the media’s attention due to Reeves’ popularity as an actor.
Almost two decades later, Dogstar reformed and made a comeback in May 2023 with a performance at BottleRock Napa Valley music festival. Much like Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves is also shifting his focus from acting to music-making. Dogstar released a new album named Somewhere Between the Power Lines and the Palm Trees in October of 2023. The band is going on tour this summer and will be headlining 13 shows in total.
Keanu Reeves Is Shifting His Focus Towards Music
Keanu Reeves is best known for his acting skills. Over the years, he has established himself as an action star with movies like Speed, The Matrix, and the John Wick franchise. His career had a downtime with a string of commercial failures between 2005 and 2013, but he made a strong comeback in 2014 as the protagonist of the John Wick franchise.
Reeves’ band Dogstar was initially called Small Fecal Matter. They went through another name change before finally landing on Dogstar after band member Robert Mailhouse found the name in Henry Miller’s book Sexus. The band’s original three members were Reeves, Mailhouse, and Gregg Miller, the lead guitarist.
However, Miller parted ways with the band in 1995. Dogstar had just finished touring as the opening act for Bon Jovi’s on their These Days – Crossroads Tour in Australia and New Zealand. The band was joined by Bret Domrose as an additional guitarist and vocalist in 1994. Domrose has returned as a member of the band last year.
Recently, Dogstar took to Instagram to announce that they are touring Europe and the UK from May 30 to June 30 this year. Keanu Reeves plays the bass in the alternative rock band, Mailhouse plays the drums, and Domrose is the singer. The band will also play festivals like Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Rock For People in the Czech Republic, and Rock Im Park in Germany.
Keanu Reeves Claimed Dogstar Was Never A Grunge Band
It is no secret that Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp also has a music band. It is a rock band called Hollywood Vampires and features Depp, Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Tommy Henriksen. Last summer, the band went on a tour of Europe.
This year it is Reeves’ band Dogstar’s turn to keep the concert-lovers of Europe entertained. In the 1990s, Dogstar had gained the reputation of a grunge band. Reeves, however, would beg to disagree. In an interview with Variety, he said:
“We were never a grunge band. Dogstar never chased a sound; we never chased being like anybody else. And we certainly weren’t grunge, ever.”
Domrose went on to say that this had been assumed of the band because they had recorded their first EP with Rick Parashar, a producer from Seattle, and grunge was the norm at the time.
