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Tenacious D's rockin' parental tour rider.
By Dylan Behan.
Interviewing Tenacious D is a bit like hanging out with the two funniest guys from your high school: you're a third wheel on a roller coaster of pubescent comical debauchery. At times, Jack Black and Kyle Gass just riffed off each other while I dangled on the phone line encouraging them. But for this comedy duo, who proudly proclaim themselves the greatest rock band on earth, there's no way of disputing their claims, because they arguably live in their own world.
"We love it. And they apparently love us," says Gass, the older and slightly less hairy one.
"Yeah, you gotta to where the love is," states Black, the scruffy star of such big screen movies as King Kong and High Fidelity. "A lot of people want us to come to Germany, but I don't feel the love. They have trouble lovin."
Love is obviously something that's kept the pair together for so long, as this marks their 13th year as a pair, which means they've outlasted even some of their heroes like Led Zeppelin. As close friends, they even don't fight on tour. "We pretty much keep to our selves," Black says. "Kyle's been on his bouts of debauchery and I've been on my family friendly bouts of sanctity."
The secret of their chemistry is that there is no secret, observes Black. "Chemistry is something that you don't really manufacture... It just is what it is. Sorry to blow your mind with my depth and heaviness, but i'm just heavy. Literally, I'm over 200 pounds."
Of course, they're also coming out to promote their semi-autobiographical hit movie The Pick Of Destiny ("That movie is over 83% accurate", jokes Gass) and the accompanying soundtrack album, which if successful, could possibly catapult them up to where The Beatles were right after A Hard Days Night. Or at least The Spice Girls after Spice World. A mythological road-movie epic in which the pair meets on a beach, forms a band, tries to get a gig and winds up fighting the devil (played of course by Dave Grohl), doing a movie was an obvious next step for the pair after recording a hit album and having a hit cable TV show.
"It seemed like the final challenge, y'know," says Black. "You know, we look around and we see that guy making that movie Clerks, who's that guy again? Yeah, Kevin Smith. You see him making movies. You see Wayne's World, you see all these other movies. You go, they're not funny. We're funny than them! Let's make movies, let's show em how it's done. Let's get in the game, motherfucker! Because no matter how hard you rock, there's always that guy goin 'yeah, but i make movies'. Yeah well, fuck you, I'm making movies too. How about them apples?"
With Black now a proud parent and moving into family friendly movies ala Eddie Murphy style (School of Rock anyone? - they took out the naughty lines from the songs!), I ask if this is being reflected in their touring lifestyle, because it obvious isn't being reflected in his language. For example, what can be found in their backstage rider these days?
"Baby carriages and diapers... I got a Yoga mat and a tube of Vaseline."
Kyle quips in: "My new thing is nipple clamps. I also want one of those remote controlled vibrators."
So, with this rock and roll lifestyle of baby carriages, nipple clamps and vibrators sounding very attractive to this stay-at-home computer dork, I asked the most cliched rock journalism question of all time - advice on how I too can be in the greatest rock band in the world.
"Try to get a show on HBO. It really helped us a lot," lists Gass deadpan. "And if you can hook up with the Dust Brothers. And if you can, try and get Dave Grohl to drum for you... and get a big record deal somewhere, Sony or whoever, and then write some kick ass songs and become an overnight sensation."
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Directors David Cronenberg Miranda July Walter Salles Guillermo Del Toro American Splendor Morgan Spurlock Tarnation's Jonathon Caouette What The Bleep...
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Visiting Australia for the third time, this tour promises to provide shows that live up to their god-like status. For the first time they're playing with a full band, and the show is a big stage rock epic that promises to take the audience to hell and back again. Why they keep making the trip to Australia and back again every couple of years however, is easy.