The musician Jack Black became infatuated with: “I can’t judge anyone else for their cheese”
If there’s one Hollywood actor you should trust when it comes to music, it’s Jack Black, a performer who has managed to turn his talents to rock without embarrassing himself. It helps that his band, Tenacious D, doesn’t take itself too seriously. In fact, their music is basically just a stand-up routine with guitar riffs. But even music snobs would have to admit that they know what they’re doing.
Over the years, Black and his bandmate Kyle Gass have earned the respect of some pretty heavy hitters. The Foo Fighters, Beck, Weezer, Pearl Jam, and Tool are just some of the bands who enlisted Tenacious D as their opening act, which is a pretty solid vote of confidence for an actor known primarily for being goofy supporting characters in movies.
The comedian has expressed his admiration for countless musicians over the years. He may even be as much of an expert on the topic as his character in High Fidelity, though he tends to be enthusiastically positive about it rather than aggressive and potentially violent. He speaks with reverence about Rush, repeatedly shares his utter adoration for Ozzy Osbourne, and is even willing to say that Led Zeppelin is better than The Beatles. He loves music so much that he often spends the majority of his time in interviews talking about his most recent listening obsession rather than the movie he’s supposed to be selling.
During a conversation with NPR in 2013, he was at it yet again, veering away from the topic of his film Bernie and opting to discuss, somewhat surprisingly, Billy Joel.
“I’ve had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life,” he said. “I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you’ve really Joeled it up — there’s some good periods of Joel; it’s not all hot cheese. But I can’t judge anyone else for their cheese. I’ve deep-sea dived in the Gouda.”
Setting aside Black’s culinarily poetic turn of phrase, Billy Joel is an unexpected reference for a performer who can’t seem to get enough of the darkest corners of rock and heavy metal. He once used the word “evil” as a compliment when describing Ozzy Osbourne, saying that the album We Sold Our Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll delved into a “romantic time when Satan was real” and that it didn’t matter if you were going straight to hell because “it rocked so fucking hard.”
There are many nice things you could say about Billy Joel’s music, but no matter how much the lyrics of ‘It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me’ tries to convince you otherwise, he has never “rocked so fucking hard.” And unless you really hate his music, it would be difficult to call it Satanic.
It’s refreshing to know that even a professional music geek like Black has a few guilty pleasures. His character in High Fidelity would probably resort to physical violence if he heard him espouse his love for the musical equivalent of melted Gouda, but the rest of us can probably relate.
