Jack Black announced on Instagram that he’s cancelled the rest of the Tenacious D world tour and placed future projects on hiatus.
This happened after his bandmate Kyle Gass sparked controversy by commenting on the recent Donald Trump assassination attempt.
At their recent Sydney show, Kyle Gass was given a birthday cake and asked to make a wish for his 64th birthday, to which he said “Don’t miss Trump next time.”
In his later statement, Black said he was “blindsided” by his bandmate’s comment and condemned any calls for political violence.
If I was about to go on tour with my best friend and he said something stupid that put us in danger from real life lunatics with guns, I’d fucking cancel the tour too because I cared about us both and our relationship. Besides, if you can’t tell your friends they’re wrong when they’re wrong, they’re not really your friend. This isn’t necessarily the act of betrayal you’re making it out to be.
I’m betting that making this statement publicly makes it easier to break the tour contracts, rather than backing out of the tour without saying why.
And doesn’t this go both ways? One of my favorite sayings is: a friend is someone who when you’ve made a fool of yourself, doesn’t think you’ve done a permanent job of it. Perhaps Jack Black could forgive his best friend and move along. Perhaps make a joint statement at the next event.