Tenacious D

The band started performing on the Los Angeles music scene, eventually befriending David Cross who invited them to open for the live version of Mr. Show on HBO. This led the band to have their own variety television series on HBO, produced by Cross and Bob Odenkirk. Towards the end of the 1990s, the duo supported large rock acts such as Tool, Pearl Jam and Beck. The band also befriended Dave Grohl, later appearing in Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly" music video.
In 2000, they signed with Epic Records and the year after they released Tenacious D, their debut album featuring a full band that included Grohl on drums. Their second single, "Tribute", achieved cult status, contributing to their popularity in the UK, Sweden and Australia. In 2003, the band released The Complete Master Works, a live concert DVD, later certified platinum. In 2006, the duo starred in their own motion-picture, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, and released the soundtrack as their second album, The Pick of Destiny. The film was a box office failure and received mixed reviews, but its supporting tour was successful with performances at major arenas, such as Madison Square Garden.
Following years of sporadic festival dates and special appearances, the band released their third album, Rize of the Fenix, in 2012, making light of The Pick of Destiny's commercial failure. In 2013, Tenacious D hosted the comedy music festival Festival Supreme in LA, which would host three more additions. In 2014, the band featured on Ronnie James Dio – This Is Your Life, a compilation album to raise funds for cancer awareness. Their cover of "The Last in Line" won the Grammy Award for best heavy metal performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2018, the band began independently releasing an animated hand-drawn web series, Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto, and released the soundtrack as their fourth album Post-Apocalypto. In July 2024, the band cancelled the remainder of their tour and put all creative work on hold following backlash from a controversial improvised joke from Gass about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania during a show in Sydney, Australia.
The music of Tenacious D showcases Black's theatrical vocal delivery and Gass's acoustic guitar playing. Critics have described their fusion of vulgar absurdist comedy with rock music as "mock rock". Their songs discuss the duo's purported musical and sexual prowess, their friendship and cannabis usage, in a style critics have compared with the storyteller-style lyrics of rock opera.