Just weeks after rumours of an Outkast reunion began to swirl, André 3000 has surprised fans after being spotted walking around a US airport and playing a flute.

Ask any musician, and they’ll agree that an important part of a musical career is ensuring that your skills are as sharp as ever at any given moment. Often, this means that you need to practice whenever and wherever you can – even if you might be at the airport.

In fact, this is exactly the position that Outkast’s André 3000 recently found himself in, with the rapper being spotted casually playing the flute at a Los Angeles airport.

Taking to Twitter recently, Antonia Cereijido – a producer for NPR’s Latino USA – explained how she had been waiting for her plane at the Los Angeles International Airport on Friday when she spied a man playing what turned out to be an Indigenous double flute.

“I saw a man walking around my terminal playing a flute for 40min and was losing my mind because I thought it was André 3000,” Cereijido explained. “And then it WAS André 3000!!!

“Of course I didn’t say anything good,” she explained. “Now I’m like… I should’ve talked about how good his verse on [Frank Ocean’s] ‘Solo’ is.

“And how my mom once had a dream he taught our family to dance the ‘Hey Ya’ dance and we had achieved the American Dream. W/E NO REGRETS.”

While this is just another example of how down to Earth (and often enigmatic) some musicians can be, last month saw fans of Outkast believe a reunion could be in the works after André 3000 was pictured with Big Boi at the latter’s son’s high school graduation.

Although the pair haven’t performed as Outkast since their 2014 reunion tour, fans are still hoping that we might receive the band’s first album since 2006’s Idlewild. Oh well, at least we know that if a new album does eventuate, it’ll likely feature an amazing flute section.

Check out Outkast’s ‘B.O.B.’:

YouTube VideoPlay

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine