The rock singer Jack Black said was as good as Pavarotti: ‘His total command was undeniable’
There hasn’t been a single genre of rock and roll that Jack Black hasn’t fallen in love with in some capacity.
As if conquering Satan and writing the greatest song in the world with Tenacious D wasn’t enough, Black was always looking out for the kind of musicians that could give him the same thrill that he got when he heard heavy metal for the first time. Then again, there was no one who was going to replace the true legends of hard rock in his record collection any time soon, either.
After all, ‘The D’ have told us numerous times that nothing can kill the metal. The genre wasn’t accepted in the first place when Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were starting to invent it back in the day, and even though it’s a lot more accepted nowadays, it’s not like you’re going to hear any hardcore bands on the charts next to the pop princesses of the world. These were the musical outlaws, and that’s what made it so appealing when Black first got the musical bug back in the day.
At the same time, it’s hard to classify what Black does as distinctively metal in any capacity. They do have face-melting guitar solos and some of the greatest riffs in their arsenal, but their reliance on acoustic guitars isn’t exactly the heaviest thing in the world. There was no shame in having heavy riffs combined with Simon and Garfunkel-style harmonies, but if they were going to make an honest-to-God rock opera, they were going to need to bring in the heavy artillery to make it right.
Bringing in Meat Loaf to play Black’s father and Dave Grohl to play the role of Satan was already a step in the right direction, but getting Ronnie James Dio felt like a long shot. Both Black and Kyle Gass had been huge fans of him and had even talked about the metal icon passing the torch to them on the song ‘Dio’, but what was even more insane was his saying yes when they asked him to lend his voice to ‘Kickapoo’.
By most metrics, this was the heavy metal version of Jesus sanctifying the ground that they walked on, and when Black heard of Dio’s passing, he had no problem putting his voice up there with some of the greatest singers that ever lived, saying, “Ronnie’s singing voice had an almost operatic quality never before heard in the genre. While he claimed to have no formal classical music training, his total command of his vocal instrument was undeniable. Between the flawless vibrato and athletic melodic lines, the level of difficulty was off the charts. This is undoubtedly why there hasn’t been another vocalist like him in metal before or since. The heavy metal Pavarotti.”
And with no disrespect meant to Ozzy Osbourne, Dio was the most gifted vocalist that Black Sabbath ever had in their ranks. They may have had their ups and downs working with every single singer, but even if Tony Martin spent a lot of time making his fair share of classics, there was no one that could ever sing songs like ‘Neon Knights’ or ‘Heaven and Hell’ with as much gusto as Dio could.
Is Black worthy of taking on Dio’s mantle like he claimed in his song? Hell no, but he was never trying to. That voice deserved to be immortalised in the musical heavens for all eternity, and while Black makes the most with what he has, you can definitely feel the same sense of passion whenever he sings, especially when he shows off a bit more chops like on his cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’.
There were ample opportunities for Black to be a metal warlord bellowing from the rafters, but chances are he ended up exactly where he was always meant to be. He never thought of taking himself too seriously, but even if his music career was based on a joke, he was still going to heap praise on the metal prophets whenever he could.
