Good news for all fans of absurdist comedy rock. Tenacious D will return - according to Jack Black, anyway.
In an interview with Variety’s Marc Malkin at the premiere of Borderlands last night, Black said: “We need to take a break. Everybody needs a break sometime. And we’ll be back.”
The band - or rather Black’s bandmate Kyle Gass - caused a rumpus on their Australian tour last month with some flippant remarks in reference to the attempt on Donald Trump’s life. It happened at a gig in Sydney on the occasion of Gass’s 64th birthday. Black started off a chorus of Happy Birthday before asking him to make a wish, to which Gass replied: "Don’t miss Trump next time".
It led to Australian federal senator Ralph Babet calling for the band’s deportation. The band’s Spicy Meatball tour was cut short and all future creative plans were ‘put on hold’. Gass himself was dropped by his agent and in a statement at the time Black said: “I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”
When asked last night if he and Gass had talked since the tour’s cancellation, Black replied: “Yeah, we’re friends. That hasn’t changed. These things take time sometimes… And we’ll be back when it feels right.”
He added that, “I love Tenacious D. It’s probably my favourite job, if you can call it that. It’s a work of art, it’s my baby.”
The beleaguered comedy rock duo received some support from a long time friend over the weekend when the Foo Fighters covered Tribute, an early Tenacious D song, at their show in Denver, Colorado. Dave Grohl drummed on the band’s first album and indeed was unable to finish the song at the Denver gig because he admitted he didn’t know all the words.
Black is currently promoting Borderlands, a sci fi comedy in which he voices a robot named Claptrap. The movie, which also features the likes of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jamie Lee Curtis, is out in the US this coming Friday.
