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.
To play devils advocate, a comment like that has the potential to put you in the crosshairs of one of these nut jobs the FBI/DHS has told everyone to be on the look out for. There was a large uptick in these domestic terrorist groups calling for retaliation (even though the guy was a Republican), but everyone on the Right has intentionally not mentioned his political affiliation and just said things about the “radical left” just pouring gas on the fire.
Basically this. Even if they wanted to continue the tour, Gass just massively increased the chance of another mass shooting by some nut job out to get revenge. If that had really happened, it would’ve completely sunk everyone involved and people would be claiming that they were the ones that invited the catastrophe.
That’s… pretty fair. It’s easy to say things online, but Gass just made things very hard for concert security. How hard would it be for a right winger to sneak a gun into a concert and get close to the stage?
That’s a fair take. I’ve been very frustrated with the respectability politics this week and it might be a bit unfair to him, as he isn’t a political figure, but an entertainer who didn’t initially choose to say anything. I can’t say I’d throw my boy under the bus like that, but I’m not him.
I don’t take calls against political violence as throwing anyone under the bus. He said he was “blindsided”, which I take to mean he didn’t expect him to say what he said. He also:
I think Kyle said it as more of a joke than serious, but when you don’t know who is in the cult and who isn’t when your looking out at a sea of people at a concert it sounds like Jack made the right call. Getting on a soapbox and “backing” Kyle would would just further put them and their crew in danger.
At what point do we decide danger is required for freedom? Before the freedom is gone???
Well, to be fair, I think that is up to each person to perform their own risk assessment. Some people have no fear, a death wish, or just willing to “die for the cause”. I don’t think we should be shitting on performers because they feel responsible for all of the many lives around them, and don’t want to make that choice for all of them. That is something the Right does/wants to do. But I think voting against fascism will prove to be the easiest way, and will have the greatest impact come November. Getting yourself or someone else killed by people that are unwell and armed will just be one less vote against fascism come November.