How did Jack Black and Kyle Gass form Tenacious D?
Jack Black might be one of the most recognisable comedy actors of the past three decades, but it was music that initially drew him into the limelight. Black was so perfectly cast as opportunistic failing musician Dewey Finn in Richard Linklater’s movie School of Rock, as he’d already proven his musical credentials through several years of live performing with his band Tenacious D.
Tenacious D’s self-titled debut album was released the year before production began on School of Rock, with its two accompanying singles making the UK and Australian charts. But the duo had actually started performing way back in 1994.
Black and fellow musician-comedian Kyle Gass had spent seven years playing live around their native Los Angeles before releasing their first record deal and even having their own television show. After some early success at small music events linked to their comedy work, Tenacious D took up a residency at LA’s famous Viper Room club, which was owned at the time by Johnny Depp. They then found TV work as the live band on Mr Show, a sketch show created and fronted by David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, which subsequently led to their own spin-off show with three episodes created by Cross and Odenkirk.
It was through Black’s big break in acting that Tenacious D finally found their breakthrough in the recording industry. They signed a contract with Epic Records within two months of the movie High Fidelity, which starred Black as a record shop employee and amateur musician, hitting cinemas.
But how did Black and Gass meet?
In 1986, Black enrolled himself at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). As someone who’d enjoyed drama at school, he joined the experimental acting troupe The Actors’ Gang, which had been founded by UCLA student Tim Robbins a few years earlier. Gass was already an established member of the troupe, and initially, a rivalry developed between him and Black.
As Gass put it in a 2006 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, “We were not instant friends.” Black concurred. “When I first came in, I stepped on a few toes.” Gass was suspicious that Black might muscle in on his role in the group.
It was music that broke the ice, as the two wrote together for the first Actors’ Gang show with Black in the lead role. The rest is history, with Black learning to play the guitar from Gass and the pair beginning to write songs together from that point on. They discarded their first effort, a serious love song because they found it hard to carry off music without comedic overtones. “It’s not funny, and that’s why it’s stinky,” Black would later explain.
With their second song, however, they struck gold. Black came up with the idea of writing a song about “the greatest song in the world” after listening to the Metallica song ‘One’. Gass found the idea funny, came up with some chords, and before long, ‘Tribute’ was born. The song would soon feature in their first live performance and later as the second single from their debut album. It’s still by far their biggest hit, having charted in five countries and reached number one in the UK rock charts.
With guitars in hand and a clever meta-rock comedy number in their back pockets, they were ready to meet their audience. All they needed was a name. That would be decided by their first crowd at Al’s Bar in Los Angeles on a summer evening in 1994. One of them would quip during the gig that they needed a strong defence, and they put the basketball term Tenacious D to a vote by show of hands. “We forced it through,” Black claims. Very democratic.
Gass’ more recent quip about Donald Trump might have spelt the end of the band’s activity for now. Still, it took the duo months to like each other, years to play together, and almost a decade to get signed. On that basis, it’ll need more than the current fallout to break them apart altogether.
