Rocking the Big Screen
Tenacious D tell RT-UK about their latest adventure.
Sitting upon a giant cow hide couch in London’s trendy Soho Hotel, Rotten Tomatoes UK waits patiently for today’s special guests. It’s not long before we’re rewarded by the large frames of Jack Black and Kyle Gass – aka Tenacious D – walking through the door. And it’s all we can do not to whoop and throw up devil’s horns.
So just why are two portly gentlemen, fast approaching middle age, exciting us so much? Aren’t they a little unfit to rock out? “We have been called the heavy metal Simon and Garfunkel,” suggests Black, although the statement is qualified with a “by us”. Quite simply, Tenacious D rock because they embrace how unqualified to rock they are. Their passion, their excitement and their f-bomb arsenal have earned them fans the world over.
Their 2001 self-titled debut album fast became a worldwide hit, featuring such classics as Tribute – a song about the Greatest Song in the World – and Lee in which the band sing the praises of their biggest fan by singing his name over and over again.
“Usually I feel kind-of normal and lame,” says Gass when Rotten Tomatoes UK asks the pair to explain their awesomeness, “and then I’ll go to the coffee shop and someone’ll say, ‘You rock!’ And then I’ll remember how awesome I am. And then it’s just back to normal.”
But Black has trouble pinning down a description for their work. “It’s not parody,” he says most definitely, “we don’t rip-off other bands’ exact songs and put new funny lyrics to them. We have our own music.”
According to Gass, their talents are accidental anyway, “We try to write the best songs ever and they kinda come out funny,” he explains, “We’ll just turn on the tape and riff around and Jack kind-of improvises some stuff.”
“I don’t turn on the tape, actually,” Jack insists, “I wait ’til I have the subject matter and then I press record.”
“But sometimes you miss something and then you’re upset about it.”
“Rarely.”
Throughout the interview, Black and Gass are constantly making each other laugh. Both are seasoned comedians, turning witty ripostes without a hint of effort, and they’re hoping it’ll show in their latest outing; Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny. They may have faces for radio, but they’re getting ready to tear up the big screen and the good news for fans of The D is that it’s set to some kick-*** music.
“We recorded a clean version of this soundtrack, actually,” says Gass.
“We did; for the children,” claims Black.
“Well, more for Walmart.”
Of the movie’s release, more than five years since their first and last album, Black says that, “it had to be perfect. All the planets had to align. We didn’t want to roll out a stinker and we didn’t have a time limit. This was our masterwork so we took our sweet-*** time about it.”
The script went through several stages of development. “We hired some top writers,” says Black, “Some top Thundersquad Bringers. But they squirted out something that was sub-par. No, it wasn’t bad; it was actually pretty good.”
“It was probably a good movie for someone else,” agrees Gass.
“It was Tenacious D saves the city of Atlantis and the devil was there and overlords and aliens… Actually, it sounds pretty good; maybe that’s the sequel? But at the time it wasn’t what we wanted. It wasn’t our sense of humour and we’d have had to nose-to-the-grindstone it. We sat down for five years and didn’t do any writing and in the last three weeks we wrote it.”
The film tells the origin story of the band – or, at least, their version of it. As Black arrives in Hollywood he stumbles across Gass rocking out to Bach on the boardwalk and, amazed by the scene, begs him to pass on his rock wisdom. Gass eventually agrees and a fat, balding Yoda is born.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been in an interview where someone hasn’t asked, ‘How did you guys get together?'” says Gass, “so we put it in the movie and answered the question forever.”
From here things get confusing. The pair happens upon a legend about a magical guitar pick that’ll give them the power to become the Gods of rock they believe they should be. Along the way they run into Sasquatch, the devil and Tim Robbins in a silly costume. The D are quite unwilling to tell us where they’ve blurred the lines of truth but we’re fairly certain it happens rather early on.
Regardless, the self-professed Greatest Band in the World rock long and hard in their big-screen debut and it seems certain to ensure their continued success. The film opens with a supercharged operatic rock anthem featuring Meat Loaf – as Black’s on-screen dad – and a singing poster of Ronnie James Dio from Black Sabbath, and how can you possibly go wrong with that?
See below for more from Jack Black and Kyle Gass, aka Tenacious D.
How would you describe the music of Tenacious D? Some have accused you of ripping off classic rock…
Kyle Gass: Whoa. Incendiary question…
Jack Black: Who do we rip off? I’ve ripped off a little Meat Loaf; his theatricality. He’s the king of the fat rockers.
KG: There’s probably some Zeppelin in there; probably most of the big dinosaurs of rock. A lot of the chords I use have been used before so if you start playing an A and a D you’re just going to run into some songs. It’s hard.
And those rock Gods that inspire you are clearly touched because many make cameo appearances in the film…
JB: Yeah, we’ve got three rock Gods. Satan, Sasquatch and… Meat Loaf. No, we’ve also got Ronnie James Dio and Dave Grohl. He played Satan. I don’t think he wanted us to say though; is he in the credits?
KG: Too late…
JB: I leaked it to the press!
Is it difficult being so awesome on a daily basis?
KG: A fine question indeed. Usually I feel kind-of normal and lame and then I’ll go to the coffee shop and then someone’ll say, “You rock!” And then I’ll remember how awesome I am. And then it’s just back to normal.
JB: I mostly just stay in my golden bubble cage. But, you know, I’ve just had a son and I took the kid in to the paediatrician. She was measuring him in all different places and she gave a percentage. Apparently he’s in the eighty sixth percentile of head sizes. That means only fourteen percent of the population has a bigger head than him, and that’s it. He’s got a huge head. And then she said, “Do you mind if I measure your head?” and she was shocked because I was in the hundredth percentile. Less than one percent of the world’s population has a bigger head than mine.
KG: I think that leaves Elephant Man and me…
JB: Do you have a bigger head than me?
KG: I have a big head dude. Oh, it’s big…
JB: But anyway, yeah… I guess that means I’m pretty full of myself or something. Or just that I have a huge brain.
Would you be keen to pass on the gift of rock to your kids?
KG: Is it a gift?
It is.
KG: Wrap it up. Give it to him for his first birthday.
JB: Yeah, you know, the thing is the kids seem like they always rebel against whatever the parents push on them so I’m going to pretend like I don’t want him to hear the rock. I’m going to listen to it only in my private chambers. He’ll hear echoes going, “What was that you were listening to Papa?” “Nothing my son%u2026 You’re not ready. You’re not ready for rock.” That’s how I’m going to do it.
KG: I like that. It’s a good strategy.
JB: Reverso.
Is being a dad going to change your lyrical choices?
KG: We recorded a clean version of this one, actually.
JB: We did; for the children. Well, really, the clean version we did was…
KG: More for Walmart. But…
JB: No, it’s for the adults that want to listen to it but they have a kid in the car so it’s the clean version with some ridiculous words.
KG: I think it’s funnier.
JB: Sometimes. Like you have to go out of your way to make it funnier.
KG: Do you have an example?
JB: I can’t think of anything right now…
Do you find that you have fans amongst people who are too young to buy your CDs?
KG: Yes.
And they’ll be off to see the film?
KG: Well, in our country, you have to be accompanied by an adult if you’re under eighteen.
JB: What rating is it in the UK? I don’t know that.
KG: But the thing is there’s no graphic sex or violence in our movie. Just Jack swearing all the time has got us an R-rating.
There is that send-up of the Catherine Zeta-Jones scene in Entrapment…
KG: Oh yeah…
JB: The laser deactivation scene… Yeah, I guess there’ve been a lot of them but this is different. It pushes the envelope. We’ve taken it to the next level…
KG: Probably that one scene got us the R.
JB: Yeah. They have this rule in the US about erect penises. They’re not allowed. You can’t see an erect penis. Flaccid penis, you can show ’em all day, no problem. But once you go erect it’s a taboo. But we sold it by covering it with tighty-whiteys. But there’s a mushroom cap…
KG: Did you notice how tight it fits around? I don’t think that’s possible!
Have you had any protests over the movie?
JB: We haven’t heard from the league yet. I wonder if the other shoe will drop…
KG: It’ll only help though, if they get involved. I remember when we were here at Brixton Academy we actually hired a priest to go out and complain.
JB: No, it wasn’t Brixton, it was before Brixton.
KG: Yeah. We thought that was important, though… “Stay out! SINNERS! Stay out!”
JB: You know you’ve made it if you can get a priest out there but they never came so we hired one and he got attacked. Someone threw something at his head.
A Tenacious D fan?
JB: Yeah, unfortunately.
KG: You can’t pick your fans…
JB: We don’t condone that kind of violence, but we’ve stopped hiring priests. Pretend priests; he’s an actor. But he was good, obviously.
KG: I ran over a Paparazzo in the airport this morning and if he sues me… I’m a little frightened.
JB: As soon as we came off the plane he was there taking pictures and, Kyle, you went into security mode didn’t you?
KG: Yeah, a lot of times I go into security mode but I’m just trying to get in the picture. I’m like, “No pictures,” but I’m posing.
JB: He steamrolled the guy. The guy didn’t see him coming.
KG: I ran right towards him.
JB: And then he immediately complained he had whiplash. [fake British accent] “Oww! Lower Lumbar! Help me! It hurt! Did anyone see that? I was attacked.”
KG: It’s rough out there. You guys are tough.
Who’s in your fantasy band, alive or dead?
KG: Wow. Good question.
JB: Yeah… Erm… Mozart on bass.
KG: Yeah, I’d go Beethoven on keys.
JB: Bach on… the clavicle.
KG: The first caveman on drums. And say, “Dude, you’re ON IT.” No, there are a lot of great musicians, it’s hard. Who’d you want?
JB: I don’t know. You gotta go Hendrix on the electrics.
KG: I’d really like Jaco Pastorius on bass.
JB: Isn’t he a jazz guy?
KG: Yeah. It’s kind-of a fusion band!
JB: It sounds horrible.
KG: I think we got the best drummer going. We got this guy, Brooks Wackerman, on drums.
JB: His name is Brooks Wackerman and he’s a drummer.
KG: His whole family plays drums and they’re named Wackerman. It’s like the bus driver called Larry Busman or Johnny Driver. But the weird thing is I wouldn’t be in my own band. I’d just be watching.
JB: You gotta put yourself in the fantasy band or else it’s someone else’s fantasy.
Who’d win a drum-off between John Bonham and Keith Moon?
JB: That’s the great conundrum. It’s controversial ’cause everyone’s going to say John Bonham, but I’m going to go Keith Moon.
KG: Wow.
JB: Why? He’s out of control. He’s right on the edge of barely being sane. I like that, I like the crazies. I always lean towards the crazies in all arts. Crazy people are right on.
KG: I think John Bonham. What can I say?
What can we expect from the upcoming UK tour?
JB: In the past we’ve gone on tour with just us, no production whatsoever. Just to hoard all of the money possible. We would just plug into a toaster oven. This time we’re really going all out. We’re actually losing money on the tour. Because we want to give back… to the fans…
KG: Yeah, it’s like this big Pink Floyd The Wall sort of thing.
JB: It’s going to be better than The Wall!
KG: [laughs] We’re going to build our own instruments during the concert!
JB: It starts off in Kyle’s apartment and it ends up in hell. We’ve recreated the entire landscape of hell.
KG: And then we pick up a band in hell. We’re in hell so we have our pick of any musicians.
JB: It’s kind-of theatrical. Actually Liam is going to be directing a little movie for it.
KG: We were able to get Colonel Sanders on drums.
JB: Dude I don’t think we should say the whole–
KG: He killed a billion chickens, people… of course he’s in hell…
JB: Alright, that’s enough, don’t start telling people things.
KG: OK. That’s a taste of who’s in the band.
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny is released day-and-date worldwide on 24th November.
