Jack Black’s five best covers of classic rock songs
As one of Hollywood’s most famous rockers who has spent 30 years fronting a band, Jack Black has become very familiar with mounting cover versions of classic songs.
It’s not that he needs to be restricted to his preferred genre, though. The actor and musician has performed everything from Britney Spears’ ‘Baby One More Time’ to Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ through Queen’s Flash Gordon theme song and System of a Down’s ‘Chop Suey’.
Black’s choice of cover versions has been every bit as eclectic as his onscreen choices, which have seen him earn Golden Globe nominations, voice pandas that love kung fu, and escape from a giant rampaging CGI ape that’s planning to wreak havoc on New York City.
There are plenty to choose from, but in terms of what they mean to Black on a personal level and the way he pulled them off, the following five are the cream of the cover-tastic crop.
Jack Black’s five greatest classic rock covers:
‘Big Balls’ – AC/DC
Black has made the most of his lifelong love for classic rock by touring the world with Tenacious D, but it was covering AC/DC’s ‘Big Balls’ that placed him at the stadium-sized summit.
Few bands have sold out arenas as regularly and for as long as AC/DC, while the Foo Fighters have long since been established as one of the modern era’s pre-eminent stadium acts. Put the two together and throw Black in the middle, and the results were never going to be any less than memorable.
Joining his close friend Dave Grohl and the gang onstage in Auckland, New Zealand, for a performance of the track pulled from AC/DC’s classic 1976 album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Black had a whale of a time emulating Bon Scott.
‘The Last in Line’ – Dio
The only major award of Tenacious D’s career came when they took home the Grammy for ‘Best Metal Performance’ after covering Dio’s ‘The Last in Line’, so there was no way it wasn’t going to make the cut.
Black’s cover was released as part of the This Is Your Life tribute album released four years after Ronny James Dio’s death in 2010, but it speaks volumes to the way Tenacious D poured every ounce of themselves into the cover version that it ended up winning them a Grammy.
He’d been a fan through Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, and supergroup Heaven & Hell, so Black was always going to pull out the stops to ensure he did justice to the legendary frontman he was paying tribute to.
‘Pinball Wizard’ – The Who
Technically ‘Pinball Wizard’ only accounted for one-third of Black taking on The Who, but not only was it a solid medley of three songs from cult classic rock opera Tommy, but all of the proceeds from the recording went to a good cause.
Tenacious D covered ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘There’s a Doctor’, and ‘Go to the Mirror’ partially in tribute to Tommy, which they called “the greatest rock opera of all times,” but also to raise money for the Everytown for Gun Safety organisation, so it wasn’t a cover for the sake of a cover.
It even got an accompanying music video directed by regular Tenacious D collaborator and ‘United States of Whatever’ one-hit wonder Liam Lynch, with Black clearly pushing the boat out to pay tribute to The Who.
‘War Pigs’ – Black Sabbath
It’s hard to explain, but even before he covered it, ‘War Pigs’ felt like the perfect Black Sabbath song for Jack Black, and that feeling was proven to be correct when he absolutely nailed it.
One thing Black doesn’t do often enough is showcase his range as a vocalist, which often gets overlooked when so much of the focus has been placed on the comedic side of his musical output, but Sabbath’s 1970 classic gives him the perfect opportunity to stretch himself.
Channelling the spirit of Ozzy Osbourne himself, Black wraps his laughing gear around the opening bars and does justice to one of the most famous songs ever recorded by the godfathers of heavy metal.
‘Rock and Roll’ – Led Zeppelin
Black has lived and breathed rock and roll since his formative years, and Led Zeppelin is the only band he’d ever say is better than The Beatles, so realistically, there’s nowhere else for his cover of ‘Rock and Roll’ to go than the very top.
Understandably, a rock and roll superfan performing a song literally called ‘Rock and Roll’ by his favourite band of all time is going to be pulled off with plenty of gusto, and Tenacious D have even shown they do a nifty acoustic version.
It’s been deployed as part of their setlist numerous times over the years in both electric and acoustic form, and there’s an argument to be made that Black’s bluegrass-infused version even manages to paint an established classic in a brand new light.
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