Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass says his Donald Trump assassination joke was “terrible judgment”

Posted On January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

Tenacious D‘s Kyle Gass has addressed the backlash his joke about the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at length for the first time.

In 2024, during a show in Sydney, Australia, on Gass’ 64th birthday, his bandmate, Jack Black, gave him a cake on stage and told him to make a wish, to which the musician replied, “Don’t miss Trump next time.”

Notably, the concert took place just days after Trump survived an assassination attempt at an election rally in Pennsylvania.

As a result of Gass’ remark, Tenacious D cancelled the rest of the tour, embarked on an indefinite hiatus, and Black denounced his bandmate, claiming he was “blindsided”. He also labelled Gass’ joke as “hate speech”.

Now, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Gass reflected of his comment, “It was terrible. It was terrible judgment, obviously. I’ve felt terrible ever since, because it’s such a responsibility to not screw up like that.”

He continued, “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody. It’s one of those things, once it was picked up, it just got worse and worse. It was a Defcon 2 for sure in the camp. And I did it. It was hard to take responsibility for it, but it was my fuck-up.”

Gass also said of finding himself in an international mediastorm, “When you’re in it, it’s hard to even think straight. It’s just this thing flooding and coming at you. We had to take the break.”

He then acknowledged that he “got” why a hiatus was the only option for the band, explaining, “Jack has this magnificent career; I can’t even count the franchises now. So as hard as it was, I just had to take the long ride home.”

Gass revealed that he “can’t watch” the clip back, and has only managed to do so once but “even then I was shuttering” his eyes.

The musician also said of his current relationship with Black, “We hashed it out. And it was hard. It is like a marriage. You go through these ups and downs, and try to understand your partner.”

Regarding the future of Tenacious D, Gass is optimistic that a return will occur eventually, optimistically stating, “We will serve no D-wine before it’s D-time — but we will be back. We will return.”

Related Topics