Comedy rock duo Tenacious D returned to the studio specifically for VR game Unplugged to re-record a song’s vocals.
We recently spoke to Unplugged creator and Anotherway director Ricardo Acosta in our virtual studio to discuss the history of Unplugged and its development. One interesting tidbit from our talk revealed that Tenacious D re-recorded vocals for Unplugged so that their song Roadie could make it into the game.
The song (and the band) is one of Acosta’s all-time favorites and he used it in a very early prototype all the way back in 2015. But even after partnering with Vertigo Games in 2020 and beginning development on Unplugged, he wasn’t sure if they would be able to include the song.
After being unsuccessful in making contact with the band to secure the rights, Guitar Hero legend Marcus Henderson (brought on board by Vertigo) came to the rescue. “He was like, ‘Guys, leave it up to me. I’ll make it happen,'” said Acosta. “So somehow he contacted the manager of Tenacious D and started talking to them.”
With Henderson’s help, the rights to the song were secured. But another problem emerged — with a PEGI 12 rating, Roadie’s explicit and frequent F-bombs weren’t going to cut it. “So at another point we were like, ‘Okay, we have the song now, but we cannot use it because we are PEGI 12, so we have to take it out from the list.'”
Acosta made his peace with leaving the song off the tracklist. But, in his words, “maybe the stars were in a particular position that night.” Henderson was able to get Tenacious D back into the studio to re-record a clean version of Roadie, specifically for Unplugged, excluding all the swearing.
“It was insane,” said Acosta. “Knowing that my favorite band re-recorded a song just for the game. It’s insane. It’s just amazing. And a lot of people have complained about the fact that it’s a different version of the song, without the swearing. But I’m so proud of that. To me, it’s even better because it’s our song.”
Be sure to check back with UploadVR tomorrow morning as we publish our full interview and video charting the story on Unplugged.
