Jack Black (Getty Images)

Jack Black [in character as Eddie Riggs]: We made a video game together; we’ve been making it for years. The first time Tim Schafer (creator) called me up, he was like, “Hey man, I want to make a video game about a roadie for a heavy metal band,” and I said, “Well, first of all, you are my favorite fu*kin’ video game maker…and second of all, let me see some art work.” And he showed me some of the drawings and the paintings and the building blocks of the game, and I was doubly in.  Then, mentally, we made out. Mentally, I French-kissed his brain because I knew we had formed a bond that would last a lifetime.  Over the next few years, we got together in a lot of different places to work on the game. There was never actual tongue-on-tongue, but a lot of soul-on-soul. He guided me to the promised land of video-game nirvana. [Doing muscle push-ups on the table.] The thing about Tim’s work is that his games take you on a journey and they tell a tale in a way that other game manufactures and game designers should really take a cue from his playbook, because when you feel the full experience of the game, you see what the future of gaming can be — a full emotional, psycho-sensual ride to the center of your soul.  The thing about Brutal Legend, for lovers of metal and for lovers of games in general, is, if you’re ever into music like I was when I was a kid — I was really into Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest — you would listen to these songs and you’d be banging your head, you’ll be rocking, you’ll be feeling the glory, you’ll be really into the scary album covers, and it would make you want to slay demons and dragons — just the intense emotion behind the music, but there was something there you can’t quite touch. Just listening to it and singing along with it was only half the experience.  And finally, this game is able to complete the metal experience because you’re able to be the metal.  You are able to live the metal. You are able to sprout wings, and while you’re rocking, you can actually destroy demons in a full metal landscape! It’s the ultimate metal fantasy.   Does you have any questions, or are you intimidated by my muscles?

Emmanuel Itier: When did you first become involved in gaming, and can you explain the experience of how you felt?

JB: I was there at the beginning of video games. Remember Space Invaders?  I’m 40 years old, so I was there! I was there when pinball players were like, “What’s that box over there?” Like cavemen, we wandered over to this big box that had Space Invaders. So I was there at the birth — when the first baby video game was born from the loins of the pinball vagina. And I loved it as if it were my own. And I raised it…okay, I didn’t raise it, but I raised my own love for video games.  A strange fun fact: my first paid gig for acting was a commercial for an Activision video game. It was Pitfall Harry — remember that? I was just like 12 years old and I had a safari hat on, and I was like: “Just last night, I was lost in the jungle…” I owned an Atari.  I did not get the first Nintendo… I skipped that one, but I pretty much had all of the games. It was a long journey to get here.

EI: Any memorable fight scenes in the game, Eddie?

JB: For me, it was a one-sided affair; all the battle voicing was done in kind of a vacuum. Tim would explain to me who I was battling against and would do his best voice for me to act opposite. My partner in my band, Tenacious D, got to voice one of the characters, and that should be very memorable indeed.

EI: Eddie, now that you are saving humanity on such an epic scale, do you feel over-qualified to go back on the road as a roadie?

JB: You are kind of asking what happens at the end of the game. I can tell you that I’m a roadie for life.  I shall roadie until my final breath.