“We’ll be back when it feels right”: Jack Black says Tenacious D will return from hiatus… at some point

Jack Black making the devil horns hand gesture onstage in 2023 — (Image credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for CinemaCon)

Jack Black has said that Tenacious D will one day return from hiatus.

The famed actor/musician put the comedy rock tandem on ice last month, after bandmate Kyle Gass made a joke about the assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump.

Talking to Variety, Black has confirmed that Tenacious D will return from the hiatus and that he and Gass are still friends.

“We need to take a break,” he says. “Everybody needs a break sometime. And we’ll be back.”

Regarding his relationship with Gass, Black says, “Yeah, we’re friends. That hasn’t changed. These things take time sometimes… And we’ll be back when it feels right.”

Black and Gass cofounded Tenacious D in 1994. They released their self-titled debut album in 2001 and stayed active until the recent hiatus, despite Black’s increasingly high-profile acting roles in such films as High Fidelity, School Of Rock and Kung Fu Panda.

Mere hours after Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 this year, Gass was presented with a birthday cake at a Sydney Tenacious D concert. When asked by Black to make a wish, Gass joked, “Don’t miss Trump next time.”

One Trump rally attendee was killed in the shooting and two others were critically injured. The shooter was himself killed by the Secret Service and Trump was sent to a nearby hospital, then discharged hours later.

Gass’s comment incited widespread controversy. Australian senator Ralph Babet called for Tenacious D to be deported from the country.

Black responded on social media, saying he was “blindsided” by the joke and putting the band on hiatus. All upcoming live dates were cancelled, despite the band being midway through an Oceania arena tour at the time. Gass apologised in a now-deleted social media post.

Black stars in a film adaptation of the hit video game Borderlands, which will be released in cinemas this Friday (August 9). He’s part of an ensemble cast also including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis and more.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.