Knuckles snagged Michael Bolton for Episode 4’s musical through a Lonely Island connection

There are a lot of things to love about Knuckles Episode 4, “The Flames of Disaster,” which sends Wade Whipple (Adam Pally) on a vision quest to discover his true power via the rock opera of the title. And one of them is that when Wade sings, it’s with the voice of none other than Michael Bolton. And yes, if you noticed Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone’s name in the directing credits, that is absolutely how Bolton ended up on the series.

“We've been fans of Jorma and the Lonely Island team for a really long time,” EP Toby Ascher told The Parent Watch. “Our DP Brandon Trost who directed Episode three, he was the DP on Popstar, which is a movie that I loved and thought musically and comedically was just amazing. And so when we were building out our directors for Knuckles Jorma was someone who we thought would fit really well with the tone that we build in the story. We brought him in specifically into this episode because we thought his tone fit the tone of the Sonic movies. But also because there is this sort of musical aspect to the episode.”

In the hour, Wade has been captured by his former best friend, and part-time bounty hunter played by Julian Barrett. In order to escape his prison, he travels to a mystical bowling alley where The Mighty Boosh star Barrett takes on the form of musical narrator, guiding Wade through the story of Knuckles’s (Idris Elba) adventures in the Sonic the Hedgehog theatrical movies, with a rock opera.

“We collaborated with Jorma and built out the song, ‘The Flames of Disaster,’” Ascher continued. “And we got to a point where we needed someone to be Wade's singing voice. There was a sketch that Jorma and the Lonely Island team did on Saturday Night Live called ‘Jack Sparrow.’ Which is this wonderful, subversive sketch where it starts off with Andy Sandberg in the club and it sounds like they're singing a rap song, and they bring Michael Bolton and it turns out Michael Bolton is just obsessed with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and starts singing these big dramatic hooks as Jack Sparrow. We love that video and all thought Michael Bolton would be an incredible choice for Wade's singing voice in this story.”

Thanks to Taccone’s connection to Bolton through that sketch, they were able to secure the singer’s involvement on Knuckles. “He was amazing,” Ascher said. “He said yes immediately and everything we asked him to do no matter how silly or goofy, he was on board with. And so we have this incredible episode now where Wade gets to go through the journey of Knuckles's story. And throughout the episode, his speaking voice is Idris Elba and his singing voice is Michael Bolton.”

Knuckles is now streaming on Paramount+.