Tenacious D member Kyle Gass has confirmed that he and bandmate Jack Black have reconciled and will reunite, after outrage over an onstage joke about the assassination attempt on the US president, Donald Trump, lead to the band going on hiatus.
While performing in Sydney in July 2024, when Black suggested he make a wish for his birthday while blowing candles on stage, Gass responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time”, referring to the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania earlier that week.
The resulting furore, which saw media outlets all over the world cover the comments and Australian senator Ralph Babet demand that the band be deported, ended with Gass and Black cancelling their entire Australian tour and announcing “all future creative plans” were on hold.
But in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Gass said he and Black have “hashed it out”.
“We hashed it out. And it was hard. It is like a marriage. You go through these ups and downs, and try to understand your partner,” Gass said. “We will serve no D-wine, before it’s D-time – but we will be back. We will return.”
Gass said the joke was the result of “terrible judgment”.
“I’ve felt terrible ever since, because it’s such a responsibility to not screw up like that,” he said. “I was naïve, of course – people are gonna pick that up. But I just felt it was kind of a private moment. I thought I was safe in the bubble. And it was so fast.”
“If there was ever a ‘too soon,’ it was this,” he added. “And maybe I thought I was on it, or ahead of the curve. But no, it was definitely too soon.”
He described the “overwhelming” reaction as “a tsunami of shit rolling over you” and said his 95-year-old mother was targeted afterwards.
“Somebody called my mom. My poor 95-year-old mom. It hits close to home, and you want to be brave and courageous, but I’m not a congressman. We’re just entertainers. And it just bespeaks the insanity of the times. It feels almost vindictive,” he said.
In the aftermath, it appeared Gass and Black were at odds in their response. In a statement on social media amid the furore, Black wrote: “I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”
Gass also apologised after, writing: “The line I improvised onstage Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake. I don’t condone violence of any kind, in any form, against anyone. What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgment. I profoundly apologize to those I’ve let down and truly regret any pain I’ve caused.”
Gass deleted the apology days later, leading some fans to speculate he had wanted to take it back. But Gass told Rolling Stone that he hadn’t recanted the apology, saying: “If I would have recanted, I would have said that.”
He said Black and he “were in our own camps” dealing with the fallout at the time, and denied Black’s apology had caused any problems for him, adding: “I might have deserved it. Or, he had to protect himself from his loose-cannon partner over here. I totally understood once safety concerns got in.”
Black has also assured fans the band would return some day, saying in August 2024: “We had to take a break … Everybody takes a break sometimes.”
