Tenacious D Talk About the Funny Business Behind Festival Supreme


Breaking down the awesome insanity that is Tenacious D is difficult to say the least. Deconstructing the band, that’s a lot easier. Jack Black and Kyle Gass. See? Easy. What these two consistently bring to the stage is nothing short of astounding distributing powerful lyrics and killer guitar chords which is why they’re the greatest band on earth. No question. They also are the organizers behind Festival Supreme which means they are the greatest festival masterminds on earth too. Before this year’s Festival Supreme (gently) ear fucks The Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall on Saturday Oct. 29th, we talked to the boys about this, that, and freaking out in between.

OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): Let me just get the generic question out of the way. How did the idea of Festival Supreme come about?

Jack Black: Ohhhh. Yeah. Don’t apologize for this one.

Kyle Gass: [Whistles.] Woah OK, no.

Haha I know! Lame question but, for the people!

Black: It just seemed like a good idea. A big idea and a good idea. It was time for that idea to come. It was like, let’s take all of the magic of comedy and music and throw it all in one giant melting pot. A gumbo if you will. It all started in the minds of Kyle Gass and Jack Black. What else can be said really? How did it start? How did Beethoven write his fifth symphony? It just sorta happened.

I bet Beethoven was sipping on some sauce all plastered.

Gass: I don’t think so.

Black: I don’t know if we were plastered though but, probably.

Gass: Yeah. Absolutely.

I’ve been to every Festival Supreme so far and it’s been fun to watch it evolve.

Black: It’s frustratingly still L.A.’s best kept secret. I wish it would just explode over the top because it’s long overdue. We just need the people to know this is the jewel of the city. I don’t know why we haven’t been given the key to the city yet.

Gass: This one could do it. A plaque or a ribbon. Something.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you guys. Any thoughts of taking this festival on the road?

Gass: Wait. Why don’t we take it on the road somewhere like Oddball? Sort of like a movable fest? Interesting. OK, let’s do that!

Do you mind? I think you can pull this off.

Black: You’re too kind. Yeah, umm…it just seems like a lot of work to take it on the road. I mean, the venue and getting all of the crap together. I think you underestimate what a sprawling pain in the ass this festival is to organize I mean, my god! We don’t want to take a concert around the world. It has to be this three-pronged beast that comes at you from a multi-staged event. I think to really pull that off you have to put your anchor down in one city. It takes a whole year to put this together.



Fair enough. So at this stage in your life do you guys ever freak out over seeing certain acts?

Black: Yeah every year I have a mini freak out over the people that are at the festival. I’m always shocked at the people who say yes too. I mean, we have Flight of the Conchords this year!

Gass: We have Weird Al too. That’s so crazy.

Black: Yeah, it’s an aligning of the planets. I always kind of freak out about the little known maestros of comedy too. Although he has quite a big following now, last year I was super psyched about Nathan Fielder. Also whenever Tim Heidecker graces the stage I have a freak out moment. He has the performance art comedic Midas touch. A lot of things about this year’s festival are exciting though. Patton Oswalt and Sarah Silverman, with the timing for the election being a couple of days after the festival and them being so active I their bitchin left leaning politics, I think people are going to be psyched about what they have to say.

Oh for sure! Last year you did a full jazz set that made my head explode it was so incredible. This year the bill says Tenacious DJ. Any scoop on that?

Gass: I just ordered my DJ rig off of Amazon Prime.

Black: Oh my god. We’re so far beyond the turntables. We’re so next level. A lot of people think that DJ-ing is just a push of the button but nothing could be further than the truth. We’re looking forward to unveiling that.

Gass: Once I take this rig out of the box I’m going to start practicing. It’s going to be, uhh, yeah…it’s going to be terrible. I just want to play Herbie Hancock and drop a gnarly beat on it. It’s going to be a real room clearer.

October 29th is the date and The Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall is the place so grab your tickets now to see Tenacious D at Festival Supreme along with a list of so many more that will knock your block off by going to FestivalSupreme.com/tickets. In the meantime, check out everything Tenacious D on their website TenaciousD.com and follow the fun on Twitter @TenaciousD and @FestivalSupreme.

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