Jack Black – Love or Hate

By the age of fifteen, Jack was seen as a troublesome child having gotten into cocaine and stealing money from his mother to fund this habit. She struggled to deal with him and chose to send him to a school for “difficult” teens in an effort to help him reform this behaviour. He spent a year and a half there, in addition to his education, at the school he saw a therapist. His class being of approximately twenty students in size. During this time,  Jack was encouraged to channel his energy into acting which proved highly successful in helping him get back on track. After this,  he was transferred to a new school called crossroads which was in Santa Monica. He also suffered from gallstones since age sixteen, resulting in his gallbladder being removed in 2003.

From an early age,  it had become extremely evident that jack had a talent for acting excelling in drama throughout his school life. He was able to explore in depth his love of acting when he attended the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), where he chose to study theatre arts. During his time at university he learnt about achievements of previous students including Tim Robbins and joined The Actor's Gang, an acting troupe founded by Tim Robbins and others. Jack's acting style has most undoubtedly been influenced largely by this group and their motto “Dare to be stupid” following his learning through the art of the absurd and anarchical style of performance.

The Actor's Gang proved to be an integral part of his life for many reason's not least of which being that was where he met his future seriously close friend Kyle Gass, the pair had not instantly best friends. Kyle had first viewed Jack as a rival due to his clear interest in music and his obvious talents in so many areas. Despite this initial rivalry,  the pair became very close and even later on formed a band between them.

As his work life was picking up and going well so too did his personal life when he met Tanya Haden at a friend's birthday party, they already knew each other as she was a friend of his from his days at Crossroad school, but they had lost touch until then. Following the party the two began dating around spring of 2005 followed by becoming engaged in January 2006. The pair then married March 14th 2006, the ceremony taking place in Big Sur, California.

They now have two sons, Samuel Jason Black born June 10th 2006 and Thomas David Black born May 23rd 2008. Although Jack had not visited a synagogue since his Bar Mitzvah and was pretty much an atheist, he has since began attending the synagogue again with his children bringing them up within the Jewish faith.

Tanya has two sisters, Petra Haden and Rachel Haden, the three of them being triplets. Petra is a violinist and singer while Rachel is a bass player taking after their father, Charlie Haden, a jazz double bassist.

Tribute to Music

In 1994, Jack Black (JB/Jables) formed the band Tenacious D in Los Angeles, California along with Kyle Gass. The popularity of the band began to take off in 1999 following the spike in interest of their TV series entitled Tenacious D aired on HBO. Although this show did not last long, starting in 1997, and the last few episodes aired in 2000.

After this,  the pair spent their time concentrating on their musical talents, subsequently releasing 3 albums to date, Tenacious D, The Pick Of Destiny and Rize of the Fenix.

The first of them being released September 25th 2001. The album Tenacious D reached gold in the UK and Platinum in the US. The majority of the songs on the album Tenacious D had been performed on their TV series previously and as such would be recognizable to fans of the show, although some may  have been slightly different arrangements.

This album when released was recalled from store for a short time due to the satanic nature of the cover. It pictures Jack Black and Kyle Gass posing naked below the devil as is similarly shown on some tarot cards. The tracks itself on the disc feature some small skits as well as the songs which helps the entire album tell a story when listened to from start to end.

There was a varied reaction to this album after it was released, from “hilarious” to “full of swearing and scatology”. One song, however, stands out from this album as possibly the most well known and was the most requested song on Kerrang! TV in 2002. Frequently referred to as “The Greatest Song In The World” by the band Tribute tells the tale of the band meeting a demon who gives them no choice but to play “The Greatest Song In The World” or their souls will be eaten by him. This encounter mentioned in the song is re-created in the film The Pick Of Destiny which also spawned an album of its own on November 14th 2006.

This album by the American comedy rock duo was their first studio release in 5 years, following their first album of Tenacious D. This album followed a slightly different route with the arrangement there were no little skits between the songs this time. As it was accompanying the film as a soundtrack album, the path followed with this album was to attach dialogue excerpts from the film in strategic places with the songs to enhance it.