Interview: Kyle Gass and Jack Black on the Origins of Tenacious D

The boys say all but the last element are true. “His father is one of the most supportive men,” said Gass of Black. “He was not a fundamentalist Christian.”

Black confirmed, “My parents were always very supportive of my rocking. was actually raised a Jew. I went to Hebrew school and got bar mitzvahed. So that was a lie. But the rest, true.”

When JB meets KG strumming his guitar at Venice Beach, he knows he’s found the ultimate rocker. KG takes advantage and puts JB through a series of tests to prove his worth. “That’s just kind of how it was,” said Black.

“It really was,” said Gass. “What’s true? It’s all kind of emotionally true but I was older and Jack was kind of, I knew that you were a fan and I started to take advantage of that and be the smart guy.”

Jack Black in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

JB begins to dominate when he sees through KG’s façade. That part is exaggerated. “Kyle was never like a fraud,” said Black. “I don’t think he was ever going to put one over on me like he did in the movie.”

To find out exactly when the germs of Tenacious D began to form, you’d have to take sides. “We met in ’89 through a friend,” said Gass. According to Black, “I had been a fan since ’86 or ’87 because I had gone to see him. When was that, late ‘80’s.”

“But Jack got in a production that we were doing in the Actor’s Gang called The Big Show and I would do all the music usually for the Gang stuff and Jack came in there and started contributing and threatening my very existence. It was a case of ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ I couldn’t beat him,” said Gass.

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny opens this Wednesday, November 22nd.

For the trailers, featurettes, synopsis and more movie info, go to the Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny Movie Page.

Stay tuned for updates.