Tenacious D, the Dixie Chicks and Offhand Quips That Kill Careers
The Dixie Chicks were among the most successful acts in country music history until frontwoman Natalie Maines told the crowd at a London concert on March 10, 2003, “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
As chronicled in Barbara Kopple’s Shut Up and Sing, this random, relatively tame anti-war, anti-George W. Bush sentiment came very close to destroying their career.
To the reactionaries who made The Dixie Chicks the most hated act in the history of country music, it did not matter that Maines’ bandmate Emily Strayer followed up her bandmates’ expression of solidarity with the anti-war movement by clarifying, “But you know we’re behind the troops 100 percent.”
All that mattered to conservatives was that some uppity millionaire females said something negative about the United States to a bunch of foreigners.
The Dixie Chicks didn’t say anything negative about the United States. Instead, they directly criticized the Iraq War, George W. Bush’s presidency, and foreign policy.
Fake patriots decided that what the Dixie Chicks meant was, “We despise the United States and pray for its downfall. Praise be to Allah and Osama Bin Laden.” The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted from radio stations that previously played them in heavy rotation. According to an Atlanta poll, 76 percent of respondents expressed an interest in returning Dixie Chicks CDs in protest. In a stunt that recalls Kid Rock’s shotgunning of Bud Light to protest their brief alliance with trans influencers, Dixie Chicks haters destroyed their CDs with a tractor. The Dixie Chicks were dropped by Lipton.
According to focus group testing, country fans felt “abandoned” by someone tepidly expressing a political viewpoint they disagreed with. They were particularly mad that Maines criticized the President and his foreign policy while overseas.
In desperation, Maines, or quite possibly her publicist, told an apoplectic public, “As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I feel that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect. We are currently in Europe and witnessing a huge anti-American sentiment as a result of the perceived rush to war. While war may remain a viable option, as a mother, I just want to see every possible alternative exhausted before children and American soldiers' lives are lost. I love my country. I am a proud American.”
Maines was right to criticize our former president and an unjust war. She was wrong to apologize publicly when she had nothing to apologize for. She didn’t owe President Bush an apology. She owed him nothing.
History repeated itself when, during a tour stop in Australia, Kyle Gass, the other guy in Tenacious D, quipped, "Don't miss Trump next time,” when Black presented him with a birthday cake and asked him to make a wish.
Gass's career took a massive hit. His representation dropped him. Gass wasn’t arrested for drunk driving, but the world tour was nevertheless canceled. Tenacious D’s future is cloudy, muddled, and quite possibly non-existent.
It’s the Dixie Chicks situation all over again, but this time, it’s not misogynistic right-wing country fans who are canceling someone for making a joke about our country’s leaders that landed wrong. Instead, it’s Jack Black who is canceling his friend and longtime creative partner/bandmate for saying what a lot of people were feeling but were smart enough not to express publicly.
Why did Black turn his back on Gass over a joke? Black said, “I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form. After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”
What Gass said wasn’t hate speech. It didn’t encourage political violence. It was a joke. Donald Trump says more offensive things dozens of times at every rally.
Yet Black felt the need to apologize and end the band as punishment for Gass’ unspeakable, unthinkable transgression.
This feels like an insane overreaction, but Black is a powerful man with a lot to lose. The same cannot be said of Gass, as evidenced by the fact that he essentially lost everything for making an ill-advised quip.
Black has multiple family franchises going simultaneously. He’s Kung-Fu Panda, Bowser in The Super Mario Brothers Movie, a core component of the Jumanji series, and one of the stars of the Minecraft movie. Oh, and he’s playing Santa Claus in a Christmas movie next year.
The Dixie Chicks were on the right side of history. So is Kyle Gass.
Yet Gass instantly lost his career not due to outcry from conservatives but rather an excess of caution on the part of his perhaps soon-to-be-former bandmate.
History more than vindicated the band now known as The Chicks the same way that it will Gass. But the Dixie Chicks went through hell because of an offhand comment at a concert.
Black doesn’t want that to happen to Tenacious D. He does not want that to happen to him. He particularly does not want that to happen to his family, friends, and collaborators. That’s understandable. Conservatives would love to villainize him as a clown of the left who chortled about a tragedy that resulted in the death of a firefighter and thinks that assassination attempts are funny.
It looks like there will NOT be a feverish grassroots campaign to have Scott Baio take over the role of Kung Fu Panda. The Super Mario Bros Movie 2 can make its billion dollars at the box office without a cloud of controversy hanging over it.
Black certainly saved his career a lot of hassle and heartache but at a steep cost to his integrity.
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