Featured Image Credit: Olivia Wong/WireImage
Topics: Jack Black, Music, Film, Celebrity
Anish Vij
Actor, comedian and rock star Jack Black has left fans in shock after revealing what the ‘D’ in Tenacious D means.
If you want to feel old, the School of Rock legend turns 56 today (28 August) and is one of the few celebrities who have very few haters.
It's hard to dislike someone who isn't afraid to embarrass himself on camera, whilst being seriously funny and talented at the same time. And fans will no doubt remember 2006's Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, a musical comedy film about the fictional origins of the rock duo Tenacious D.
It follows JB (Jack Black), a young man who leaves his oppressive religious home in Kickapoo, Missouri, to pursue rock stardom in Hollywood. There, he meets Kyle Gass (Kyle Gass), and together they form Tenacious D.
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However, it turns out that the band's origins actually date back to LA in 1994.
The pair met as members of the Actors’ Gang theatre troupe and bonded over music during a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1989.
After starting together in Gass’s studio apartment, their breakthrough came in the late 90s when comedian David Cross invited them to open for the live version of Mr. Show on HBO.
This exposure led to their own HBO variety series, Tenacious D, which aired from 1997 to 2000.
Now, you might be a little surprised to learn that the name Tenacious D comes from Jack's love of sports commentary, with 'D' standing for defence.
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He told the New York Times in 2006 that basketball commentator Marv Albert used to have a unique way of describing good defending as 'tenacious dee'.
A few years later, in 2012, the singer and guitarist were again asked about the origin of the name during an interview with Bill Simmons on the Best B.S. podcast.
"We were deep into the Lakey lakes [LA Lakers] in the late 80s and early 90s, and we were jamming a lot at Kyle's apartment and watching basketball and jamming and getting high, and we were thinking 'what would be the best name for a band?'" he said. "And for some reason, we were laughing so hard at the idea of a band being called Tenacious D.
"[Marv Albert] would say 'playing some tenacious defence'.
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"I don't know if he ever said 'tenacious d', we might have made that abbreviation for him. I just think we were really stoned."
Over in the comments, one viewer said: "I thought the D was for Destiny."
While another fan referenced the movie: "Wait I thought they were called Tenacious D because Jack (JB) had a birthmark on his butt that said 'Tenac' and Kyle (KG) had a birthmark on his butt that said 'Acious D' Pick of Destiny lied to me!"