Tenacious D put all plans “on hold” after Kyle Gass joked onstage about Trump getting shot in 2024, but Jack Black said they’d “be back” “when it feels right.” Gass has now spoken at length about the situation for the first time, in a new interview with Rolling Stone. “I was naive, of course — people are gonna pick that up,” he told Rolling Stone. “But I just felt it was kind of a private moment. I thought I was safe in the bubble. And it was so fast. Five one-syllable words that brought down the empire.”

Looking back on that night with Rolling Stone, Gass emphasized that Australia was one of the duo’s “favorite destinations” and the high spirits surrounding his birthday night, adding, “I’m in a different hemisphere, I’m in a different continent. And I’m naively forgetting about cameras and such. So [we play] “The Metal” and then I just decided to quip about what happened. And it was terrible. It was terrible judgment, obviously. I’ve felt terrible ever since, because it’s such a responsibility to not screw up like that.”

“It was a Defcon 2 for sure in the camp,” he continued. “And I did it. It was hard to take responsibility for it, but it was my fuck-up. When you’re in it, it’s hard to even think straight. It’s just this thing flooding and coming at you. We had to take the break. And I got it. Jack has this magnificent career; I can’t even count the franchises now. So as hard as it was, I just had to take the long ride home.”

Telling Rolling Stone about some of the backlash, from calls for him to be deported to being dropped by his agent, Gass said, “It didn’t take long to be like, ‘Oh this guy is such a grandstander.’ We’re so used to it over here, where people take the opportunity to make a grand statement. And then the next day, my agent dropped me. And I was like, ‘Well, gee, it would have been nice to at least talk to you or something.’ But I think he wanted to get in the news cycle too… It did feel like an overreaction. But that speaks more to my relationship with my agent. I’ve been around a long time and I guess he was tired of me saying no to too many projects or something. He saw an opening.”

Gass also told Rolling Stone about his relationship with Black now, saying, “No, I mean, Jack and I are all good. At the end of the day, we’re friends. I’ve known Jack since he was 18 and it’s been such a long marriage, really. You go up and down, and we’ve always taken long breaks. He’s had a lot of stuff to do, and I’ve got my other projects. So it doesn’t even feel that different now.”

Gass also reiterated that Tenacious D will return, saying, “We will serve no D-wine, before it’s D-time — but we will be back. We will return.” Read the interview in full on Rolling Stone.

Meanwhile, Gass’ band the Kyle Gass Band release a new album, Live in Palmdale, this Friday (1/23), and he has a few shows coming up with them in California. See all dates below.

KYLE GASS BAND: 2026 TOUR DATES
Friday, Jan 23 -Studio City, CA @ Licorice Pizza – Album Release Show and Signing
Friday, March 6 – Long Beach, CA @ DiPiazza’s
Saturday, March 7 – Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewery