A year and a half after Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass brought his music career to a screeching halt in Sydney, Australia by making an ill-timed joke about an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the musician-actor has opened up about the international media storm he caused.
“I was naive, 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,” Gass tells Rolling Stone in an interview about his “five one-syllable words that brought down the empire.”
In July 2024, Gass and comedy group co-founder Jack Black performed a concert in Australia where he recounts before going on stage only vaguely seeing a news item about a lone gunman having fired at Trump during a campaign stop in Butler, Pennsylvania, and only injuring the U.S. presidential candidate.
“I didn’t feel like I was in touch with it. If I wasn’t over there, I think I would have gotten more the gravity of an assassination attempt,” Gass adds. Later on stage, as a birthday cake filled with candles was passed around, Black at one point asked Gass to make a wish, and he improvised: “Don’t miss Trump next time.”
The impromptu joke got some laughs and applause. But video clips quickly went viral across social media. And once offstage, Gass and his band members quickly realized his comment had sparked a wall of political outrage back in the U.S.
“It feels like such an impossible thing to describe, but what was being in the middle of all this like? It’s overwhelming. It’s like a tsunami of shit rolling over you. And then there’s the regret. Like, ‘Why would I do that?’ I just didn’t put it together. And the ramifications were so huge,” Gass recounts.
The band ended its tour and Gass issued an apology. But the damage was done, and Black in his own statement distanced himself from his friend, which put the band’s future in doubt. Looking back, Gass has no anger over Black’s response, as he argues the Hollywood actor and performer “was doing what he felt he had to do. … I totally understood what he needed to protect. I didn’t begrudge him any of that.”
After a time in the wilderness, Gass returned to the concert stage with another group, the Kyle Gass Band and a live album with a solo song entitled “What Do I Know.” And, after clearing the air with Black, Gass hints at being able to relive the old days with Tenacious D.
“We will serve no D-wine before it’s D-time — but we will be back. We will return,” Gass tells Rolling Stone.
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