Tenacious D Interview
By: R. Burke |
Monday November 20, 2006 |
| It comes down to the fact that the fun has gone out of music right now in part because the devil's gone. We're trying to bring him back. |
| R. Burke: Did you see the album?
Jack Black: Nice. Can you take responsibility for the album cover? JB: Of course, we had to be involved in every stage of the design. We're producers. Kyle Gass: We had to make the first 150. What does it feel like to finally get this project completed? JB: It feels like we've crossed the finish line right in the nick of time, before I had a heart attack. KG: It feels like we had the baby with a real comfortable cesarean. Do you feel like it's done? JB: Was there anything that I would've gone back and tweaked? No. We nailed it. Nailed it. Have either of you ever had a pick of destiny? JB: I do have a favorite pick, but no, I've never had a lucky...one time I had a lucky coin. It was a Chinese silver dollar, and a dude bought it off of me at the casino. I never should've sold it to him. I sold it to him for 25 bucks. KG: That's a lot for a buck. JB: And my life's never been the same. A lot of people play guitar with a coin, the best electric guitar players. What are the humble beginnings of this friendship? What keeps it together and keeps it going? KG: You didn't see the movie, then, is that what you're saying? Or you just didn't believe the movie? JB: All right. Maybe we should call off the interview. I'm just so depressed now. When you guys started the band, what made you say to yourselves, 'Yes, we can rock out with acoustic guitars. We don't need a band'? KG: Yeah, why was that? JB: Because we didn't...it was just...we didn't have a lot of... KG: Like equipment and stuff. JB: Yeah, it was easy. It was just me and you, and we'd just show up. KG: And we were playing smaller clubs. JB: Who wants to deal with a band? What a pain in the ass. KG: I remember I tried at Pedro's once. I played an electric. I thought, 'This is it. I'm busting it up.' But it didn't sound as good. JB: I think we would've gone out and gotten a drummer and a bass player if we thought it was going to make it funnier. KG: But I think we knew right off that it was the lyrics and the comedy. JB: Yeah, the less the better. Did the animosity we see in the film exist when you guys first met? KG: I think I was a little bit threatened at first, even though I was older. It was just, like, you know, kind of the new guy is pretty talented, kind of stepping into my territory. So yeah, I had a little watchful eye on him. What was Tim Robbins' role in bringing you guys together? JB: He didn't bring us together. He and Kyle were in a theater company together in the 80's, and I was in high school and college, and I was coming to all the shows. I wanted to be in the theater troupe, The Actor's Gang, and basically just by being persistent and annoying, I got into the company. And that's where I formed a bond with Kage. KG: There was kind of a UCLA pipeline into the Actor's Gang where people would just kind of matriculate in. JB: It wasn't that easy, dude. I knew a lot of people at UCLA that wanted to matriculate in. KG: Well, how did JR get in? JB: You gotta get pulled in. How did you guys hook up with Liam Lynch? JB: And Kyle didn't pull me in, by the way. I got in another way. He was gonna give me a wall of ice, and finally I chipped away at it and got through to the soft, gooey center. Whose idea was it to give Dave Grohl the role of Satan? JB: That was, I think, an executive at New Line thought that Dave Grohl would be a talented actor. No, we were friends with him and he did the drums for us on the first album. KG: It seemed a pretty easy idea, really. He'd done it before, played drums on the record. He's a funny actor. JB: He came to us, really, when we were doing a show at the Viper Room about five, six years ago, and he's like, 'You guys are funny.' And we were like, 'Damn, you’re the best.' KG: Wow, Dave Grohl thinks we're funny. What do we do now? JB: And then we played it cool. We didn't want to smother him with psycho fan sauce, so we didn't call him or do anything until it was time to do the record and then asked him if he would do it. With your initial success, did you do the whole sort of rock and roll excess thing? KG: I'm hoping this next tour. JB: The sex and drugs? How was it? The sex and drugs? We didn't do a lot of drugs, did we? Did we ever, like, do any rock and roll cocaine? Did you ever do any cocaine on the road? KG: No. JB: See, the thing is we got into it pretty late. I was 30. Kage was older than 30 when we first got it going, and we had already kind of got our hard partying out of our system. The sex [laughs]...I never kiss and tell, [to Kyle Gass] but let's just say you're magnificent. What about getting Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf? Did you know those guys already? What did it mean to have them in your movie? JB: What did it mean? KG: It was great. JB: Well, it meant a lot. I mean, he (Dio) was the top choice for us. When we wrote it, we were thinking Dio all the way, and we wrote the song with Dio in mind. And you may recognize some Dio melodies that we stole from him and put in the song that we wrote for him, and he had to do it or else we were gonna have to rewrite the song. KG: Yeah, that's kind of like that Being John Malkovich thing. JB: But we already had met him because we wrote a song about him earlier, about how we wanted him to pass us the heavy metal torch. And he called us and said, 'Hey, I like your song. Why don't you come and be in my music video?' We went down and bonded a little bit, so the tracks were greased already. And Meat Loaf was your dad? JB: Yes. Was that cool? JB: It's true. I guess the secret can come out. My real name if Jack Loaf. KG: It was thrilling, you know? It's just amazing that people like Dave Grohl...and I'm still not over that, that he plays drums on it. And all those guest stars. JB: They would call us Nervacious D, but the thing about Meat Loaf, he hasn't sung in a movie since Rocky Horror Picture Show, so that makes this kind of a sequel. KG: If I was Meat Loaf, I would fire your manager. He really should be singing in more movies. JB: But I don't think that's his manager's call. I think he wants to keep it separated. Thank goodness he's not. KG: Why? JB: Because then we're more special. If Tenacious D were to leave a legacy, would it be cock pushups or the power slide? KG: Hmm...I don't think we can really take credit for the power slide. JB: No, we gotta go cock pushup. That's ours. That's all ours. KG: Yeah, I've never seen it. Drop and give me twenty. JB: Dude, if you can give me one, you're a better man than me. What is it about heavy metal music that compels you to still play it and write a movie about it? I know the movie will be a hit. JB: Yeah? Do you? KG: I love your positivity. JB: I hope you're right. What is a hit, by the way? What do you consider to be a hit? That people will go see it again and again. JB: No, there's a certain number that you have to reach to mathematically be officially a hit. KG: A million! JB: One million dollars. KG: [laughs] Do you remember when that was a lot? What is it about heavy metal? KG: Yeah, there seems to be... JB: I don't really feel like the movie is really...it's not really a metal movie. It's not like Heavy Metal. KG: No, I think we talked a lot about Heavy Metal, though. I don't know if we... JB: There was a lot of metal talk, and there is some metal in there. KG: There's actually a lot more this time than there was last time. JB: But there's also a lot of like soft, sensitivo, some really anti-unmetal moments. KG: I think it's like any genre. I mean, it seems like genres never go away now. I mean, you still have like people with punk rock hairdos walking around, and classic rock and... JB: It's just the devil is fun, that's all. It comes down to the fact that the fun has gone out of music right now in part because, yeah, the devil's gone. We're trying to bring him back. What was the great...? KG: The Great Santini? Great Balls of Fire? The Great Wall of China? JB: You know who, what's his name? Darth Vader. He was the party in the 80's. He was the best villain of all time. Well, the devil was the great, uh, magical sauce in rock. Even though you look back at heavy metal devilry now and it all looks like a joke, there's just something really cartoony and funny and great about it. How did you arrive at the name of the band? KG: We have failed. JB: What are you talking about? KG: He wants to know how we came up with the name. JB: Tenacious D? KG: Yeah. JB: Yeah, it's in the movie. Why do you ask? Is it really just birthmarks on your ass, or did you sit down and got through a list of names? JB: It’s our...we have birthmarks on our ass. KG: Should we show them? JB: No, I'm not showing my ass mark. Are you guys more excited about the movie coming out or going out on tour? KG: It's kind of all a big burrito. It's all pretty fun. I'm looking forward to seeing how it does. You know, you just never can know how...it's like getting a report card to see how you sort of did. I think. And we want to make enough so we can make another one. JB: Yeah, it's gonna have to make some money if we're gonna make another one, though. Jack, it's got to be exciting for you to be getting roles that don't require you to be the Jack Black character. JB: Yeah, you know, I don't know if there's any movies that I've ever done that didn't have a little bit of singing in them, but that's okay with me. I love to sing. I love to act. It's all good. I can't answer which one I like better. I can't. I don’t know. Tell people why they should go see this movie when it comes out. KG: Because it's the best comedy of the last 45 years. JB: Yeah, what was funny 47 years ago? KG: I don't remember. JB: What's funny ever? What's ever been funny? The Marx Brothers? KG: I don't know. Mars Attacks was funny. JB: Thanks, dude. That was 47 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. |
|
|
|
|