Jack & Kyle: "The D Will Never Die!"

Untroubled by the lukewarm reception to their silver screen debut but bolstered by the gigs – nay, folk metal odysseys - that followed, Tenacious D look to the future and get in on the pre-Christmas DVD scene early with the second part of their Complete Masterworks series this month. Dave Kerr talks to the duo about their formative days of riding flumes, ripping off Knight Rider and hunting the elusive McHaggis burger.

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Hello?

Kyle Gass [sounds baffled]: You’re not German?

No, you're speaking to a Scotsman...

Jack Black: See, I knew that was the accent.
KG: Oh, that’s a much better country. Who is your president now?

Gordon Brown is our prime minister, also a Scotsman.

KG: Aaaah.
JB: You’ve passed the test, Kyle tried to stump you.
KG: When are you guys going to secede from Mother England by the way?

As soon as we have enough kilts and claymores ready, we’ll probably make the march down there. Is it true that the two of you first forged your alliance here - in Edinburgh - 20 years ago?

JB: Yes, yes we did.

What were the circumstances?

JB: Well, technically we met in Los Angeles. We were in a theatre company called the Actor’s Gang and we bonded in Edinburgh while we were trying to get some authentic Scottish food. We saw a sign that said McDonalds…
KG: We thought ‘That’s it, we’ve found it! Finally, some real Scottish food.'
JB: We were pleasantly rewarded.
KG: Even though the burgers didn’t quite taste right.
JB: Did they taste a little strange to you?
KG: Mmhmm. Yeah.
JB: Can you get the McHaggis burger yet?

It's probably against the law to produce and sell such a thing.

KG: You've got to lose the haggis.

Did you sample some of our great national dish while you were here?

KG: Oh, I tried it…
JB: I didn’t have the haggis, but I did have me some shepherd’s pie. That dish is pretty heavy metal. So me and Kyle bonded, we went up to the top of a mountain and laid out the plans, the groundwork for what we were going to do for the next 20 years.

That mountain wasn’t Arthur’s Seat, was it?

JB: Arthur’s Seat! You know already? Legend, isn’t it? And then we celebrated with a ride down the flume. Flumes were big back then, you guys had good flumes. The thing is, most of the people on the flumes were under 10 years of age, so it felt a little awkward.

The Commie? You hit all the hot spots! Mr Black, one of your first breaks on TV after that was in a show called Heat Vision and Jack…

Trailer: Heat Vision & Jack

 

JB: A total Knight Rider rip off.

Have you been tuning into the new Knight Rider series, or do you despair at remakes of ace childhood series and films?

JB: I’m sorry to say I’ve not even seen any of the new Knight Rider; I’ve been busy with babies. It turns out that when you have babies you don’t get any time for any of those kinds of things.
KG: Wait, is Hasselhoff back?

Apparently he was in the pilot episode for a cameo, but Val Kilmer is the voice of Kitt.

JB: No he isn’t.
KG: Are you serious?

Honest.

KG: I can’t believe Jim Morrison’s doing the voice of Kitt.
JB: OK, I’ve got to check that out.
KG: Someone needs a paycheque.
JB: Yeah, really!

Have you unknowingly competed with the man you've previously referred to as your nemesis - Phillip Seymour-Hoffman - for any roles lately?

KG: Oh man, right for the jugular…
JB: Low blow…
KG: What’s interesting is that Jack just signed on to do Capote Part 2. The weird thing is that I’m scheduled to play him in the television series.
JB: You got Truman - the TV series?
KG: Yeah.
JB: There’s nothin’ wrong with that.
KG: No, no, it’s going to be a great gig.

But the Hoffman thing, it's a bit weird isn't it?

JB: It’s not so strange, is it? Why, because he’s such a great actor? Is it weird that I’d even be in the same room with him?
KG: I’ll tell you who’s been getting all my roles lately, is Will Sasso. He’s this big guy, he’s pretty funny, he was on Mad TV and the last two roles I was up for - wouldn’t you know - Will snuck in there and grabbed them.

Is there a little bit of animosity there?

KG: No, I actually saw him at a party and I pretended it was all good but I was cursing him...[murmurs under his breath] fuck you Will!
JB: I’ll tell you who got some rough questions; did you watch McCain on Letterman last night? He was really taking him to task.
KG: I heard McCain admitted he screwed up.
JB: Yeah, but that was just the beginning.
KG: Wait till McCain sees our documentary!

Your new Masterworks volume? What’s the premise there?

KG: Well, there’s an instructional video on how to rock. No, it’s a live concert we did in Seattle – blowing up with the band, all kinds of theatrics and there’s an unflinching full-length documentary about what really happens behind the scenes of Tenacious D.

What plans do you have beyond the DVD? Kyle, you’ve suggested that you might be hanging it up to “go out on a high,” but Jack’s been quoted as saying you’ll have an album out in 2012…what’s it to be?

KG: We’d like to get together with Flight of the Conchords and have a rock off for an HBO pay-per-view special.
JB: It’s important to me that music be glorious. And it’s important to me that whatever we do next be glorious. But will it be a tour? Will it be a movie? Will it be a TV show? Or will it just be me and Kyle talking to you? I don’t know.
KG: You’ve posed some interesting questions here.
JB: One thing’s for sure, it shall be glorious.

Were you disappointed by how The Pick of Destiny did at the box office?

JB: Yeah...

Are you going to say ‘fuck it’ and make a sequel anyway?

JB: Not right away, we’re going to make another album and take it naturally, see how things flow. Let it be. The D will never die, but we’re probably not going to be living large on the movie sets anytime soon. We’ll have to knock it down to cable television or internet films. Those things can catch fire, so we will see.