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Update: 3:52 AM PST: The latest show on Tenacious D’s Australian tour has been postponed after Kyle Gass allegedly spoke out about an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
When asked by guitarist Jack Black what he wished for, he replied, “Just make sure I don’t miss Trump next time,” which drew a lot of criticism and led an Australian senator to call for the tribute band to be expelled from the country.
Now concert promoters Frontier Touring have posted on social media that tonight’s show at Newcastle Entertainment Centre has been “postponed”, urging ticket holders to hold on to their tickets for the time being. Tenacious D’s Australian tour continues for another week before the band plays Auckland, New Zealand. Further shows after tonight have yet to be announced.
Previous article: All hell breaks loose for Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass as Donald Trump birthday wishes arrive from halfway across the world.
“Just make sure you don’t miss Trump next time,” Jack Black’s longtime bandmate said when the Kung Fu Panda star asked him to “make a wish” at Australia’s ICC Sydney Theatre on July 14. Most of the packed audience erupted in laughter, as you can see in the video footage below.
Gass’s disrespectful comments, coming less than 24 hours after an assassination attempt on the former president and Republican front-runner, largely defy calls from politicians of all parties to ease the rhetoric and tensions. What was expected to be a boring rematch with Joe Biden this year for the White House has turned into an incredibly tough fight between the two presidents and is hotly contested.
A representative for Gus did not respond to a request for comment on their client’s comments. If they have anything to say, this post will be updated. Tenacious D’s Australian SRO tour continues for just over a week until the band plays a show in Auckland, New Zealand.
Tenacious D will begin a national tour in October with a sold-out show in Ohio’s Democratic presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance’s town hall, but that doesn’t mean Black, a longtime Democrat, is staying out of national politics.
At a major fundraiser in downtown Los Angeles on June 7, Black, clad in Stars and Stripes overalls, gave a vocal endorsement of the sitting president. “If the president wins in November, I’m sure in his victory speech he’ll thank me for all the sacrifices I’ve made to get here,” Black told a well-heeled crowd at the Peacock Theatre. “At a time when democracy is at stake, Jack Black answers the call. You’re welcome, Mr. President.”
A visibly jet-lagged Biden was the highlight of the event, being interviewed onstage by Jimmy Kimmel alongside Barack Obama.
As of now, Tenacious DX’s feed has no posts about any onstage remarks or the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th. In fact, the most recent post on the band’s feed, as well as Gass’ feed, is from July 7th.
The TikTok user who originally posted the video of Gass’ comments appears to have since deleted it, but to say that MAGA supporters and others reacted violently to Gass’s ill-advised comments on his 64th birthday would be an understatement.
At the same time, if one is comparing apples to oranges, it is worth noting that many Republicans, including Trump, have mocked the brutal attack on the 82-year-old husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the couple’s gated, high-profile San Francisco home in November 2022. Pelosi was the target of the attack, hammer-wielding David DePape acknowledged, in a security blunder by those who were supposed to protect the person second in line to the presidency.
“This is not a path we can continue on,” Speaker Pelosi said at the time of the attack, words that ring just as appropriate today.
