With just one off-the-cuff joke about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in 2024, Kyle Gass completely uprooted Tenacious D’s career path, and the musician says in a new Rolling Stone article that he’s felt “terrible” about it ever since.
In the Q&A published Wednesday (Jan. 21), Gass opened up about the long-term regret he’s experienced since quipping that he wished the twice-impeached president’s shooter wouldn’t “miss Trump next time” while presented with a birthday cake on stage at a Tenacious D show alongside bandmate Jack Black. According to Gass, he had no idea at the time “people [were] gonna pick that up,” something he now realizes was “naive.”
“I’m human, I made a mistake,” he continued. “I was going for a joke. But timing is everything. If there was ever a ‘too soon,’ it was this. And maybe I thought I was on it, or ahead of the curve. But no, it was definitely too soon.”
While campaigning for his second term in the White House, Trump was shot at by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks during a rally in Pennsylvania. The bullet mostly missed the politician, grazing his ear, but one spectator was killed and two others were injured.
Two days later, Gass made his ill-timed crack about the situation on stage, shortly after which Tenacious D faced a wave of backlash. The band canceled the remainder of its tour dates that year, and while Gass apologized for the joke in a statement, Black distanced himself from his lifelong best friend.
“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday,” the actor-comedian wrote in a statement on Instagram at the time. “I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form. After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”
When asked whether he felt hung out to dry by Black, Gass told Rolling Stone that his friend “was doing what he felt he had to do. We’re separate people, always, and we’re on different career paths. I totally understood what he needed to protect. I didn’t begrudge him any of that.”
“Jack and I are all good,” Gass added. “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.”
Looking back at the fallout, Gass described it as “a tsunami of s–t rolling over you.”
“And then there’s the regret,” he continued. “Like, ‘Why would I do that?’ I just didn’t put it together. And the ramifications were so huge.”
