The theatrical “rocket sauce” song that made Jack Black love performing
Never has an actor had music embedded into what they do more than Jack Black. Wherever he has gone, the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll follows closely behind him, to the extent that it’s impossible for us to see him in any kind of acting role and not then think about his affiliation with the sweet devils music (also known as rock).
This can’t come as much of a surprise, after all, the majority of us grew to know Black thanks to his role as Dewey Finn in School of Rock. He had done a lot of work prior to this, but this was the film that planted him firmly in the mainstream as the hybrid of comedian, actor and rock god. The premise of the film was simple: teach kids how to rock. However, the songs from that movie and the message that music can be more powerful than all else are something that viewers still carry around with them to this day.
Black is able to move around this grey area freely, and has done so the majority of his career. While on screen starring as Bowser and Kung Fu Panda, he was also travelling around the world on tour with his band Tenacious D, playing to stadiums packed to the rafters, fans who adore him as both the actor and the singer. Black is a total one of a kind in this sense, as someone who can inhabit the role of actor and musician and wear the mantel equally, with nobody putting one label ahead of the other.
Why is this the case? Well, at risk of making it sound a bit too simple, he’s just really good at it. Black can have the best of both worlds because he thrives in them. It’s not like other artists whose music is good, and so we put up with their acting to humour them. He could give up one of these sides of his career today and still make a living excelling in the other.
When you learn more about his history, his ability to perform on both stage and screen comes as less and less of a surprise. This versatile mindset was built into Black from a young age, as he was always keen on performing and acting. He knew that this was the career for him when he starred in the production of Pippin and had the chance to sing ‘Corner of the Sky’.
“I love to perform and act, and from the very beginning I’ve always done the combo,” he said. “I started with musical theatre in High School. I was Pippin in our production of Pippin.” Black then burst into a quick rendition of ‘Corner of the Sky’, singing, “Every has its season, everything has its time.” He continued, “So, from the very beginning, it’s been the combination of the two that’s been my rocket sauce.”
However, despite Black making a great career for himself as both an actor and a musician, he doesn’t hold back in explaining which of the art forms he connects with the most. “To be truthful, I like rocking a crowd even more than I like making movies or theatre,” he concluded. “There’s an electricity between performer and audience that cannot be duplicated any way else.”
