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Mon 25 May 2026 21:30, UK
It doesn’t matter how long Jack Black is on our screens and how many different roles he portrays, it’s hard for us to think of him as anything other than a rock star.
Ever since he first rose to stardom following his portrayal of Dewey Finn in School of Rock, Black has been cemented in our minds as a rock-loving, charismatic mega star. At the heart of that love for music are classic rock bands the likes of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Motörhead. Yes, the eagle-eyed among you will note I’m simply quoting Black’s character in the rock comedy classic, but he makes it clear in his real life that there are parallels.
All you need to do is listen to some of the music that Black has made himself in his band Tenacious D. Their track ‘The Metal’ holds heavy metal in the highest regard, saying that while other genres come and go, heavy metal is the one that will never fade away. Lyrics like “punk rock tried to kill the metal, but they failed, as they were smite to the ground,” are fairly telling.
That being said, while Black speaks highly of bands from a specific genre, that doesn’t mean that he is close-minded when it comes to other styles of music. One band who sit much firmer in the soft rock category that the rocker-cum-movie star adores is Radiohead. He has spoken fondly of the band in the past, celebrating how versatile their records are as they glide seamlessly from conceptual to rock.
“If you want concept,” he said when discussing the band, “You go OK Computer. But if you wanna rock – if you want straight-up fuckin’ songs – you go The Bends. The first few listens, I was like, ‘I don’t understand…. My brain’s not computing….’ Then it clicked in: ‘Ohhhh, I see! It’s the best band in the history of rock!’”
Radiohead have often received mixed reviews after their live shows. One of their most controversial moves was ditching their classic song ‘Creep’ from setlists. However, as a band who like to mix things up with their different setlists, they hated the fact that a lot of their audience were only going to their shows for the same four minutes every single night. Not to mention, frontman Thom Yorke also hated the crowd that were drawn to the self-loathing ballad.
“We seemed to be living out the same four and a half minutes of our lives over and over again,” said Johnny Greenwood. “It was incredibly stultifying.” It got to the point that one night, when fans at a show in Montreal started requesting the song, Yorke shouted back, “Fuck off, we’re tired of it.”
Further reading: From The Vault
While a lot of fans may have left some Radiohead shows disappointed, Jack Black wasn’t one of them. In a conversation with Tenacious D guitarist Kyle Gass, he reflected on a recent Radiohead show he had been to, where he talks about how surprised he was at Yorke’s quality as a frontman. While a lot of Radiohead’s songs might be a bit drawn out, he said that Yorke’s performance style was a complete contrast to this, as he moves around every single inch of the stage seamlessly.
“I just saw Radiohead the night before last in New York at the Roseland Ballroom. You know what I noticed is he’s a real mover, he loves to dance,” said Black.
Concluding, “He’s kind of a lord of the dance. ‘Cos, you think of him as this dour ‘Hmm life sucks’, but then when you see him, he’s a nymph, he’s like a wood nymph. A nymph? A sprite! He’s a sprite, because he weighs like 90 pounds and he really just lets the music move him.”
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