Director Rob Reiner has never before made a sequel in his long career, and he hadn’t ever contemplated a follow-up to the most beloved rock comedy ever made, 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap. But then Harry Shearer, who plays Tap bassist Derek Smalls, fought a year-long battle to reclaim ownership of the film — and won. ”We sat and we said, ‘Well, what do we do?’” Reiner says in the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now. “We got the rights back. What do we do with this? And so at first we said, ‘Eh. Forget it. We are not gonna do anything.’ And then we started talking and then all of a sudden this kind of idea percolated and generated. So we said, ‘Okay, let’s go with it.’”
The resulting film, Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues, due Sept. 12, reunites Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest, with Reiner again serving as both the film’s actual director and fictional documentarian Marty DiBergi. In the latest installment of Rolling Stone Music Now, Reiner discusses the new film, the origins of the original, and much more. To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above.
Before they reclaimed the rights, Reiner and the movie’s stars never profited from This Is Spinal Tap‘s legendary status. “We had never gotten any money from it,” says Reiner. “I mean, it was on DVDs, it was on VHS, it was on foreign television, on laser disc, whatever. We never got anything.”
Paul McCartney and Elton John’s roles in the film aren’t just cameos — and John is pivotal to the plot. “I reached out to Paul McCartney, I reached out to Elton John, and they immediately said yes,” Reiner says. The McCartney scene recreates something that actually happened: “Paul McCartney was in another room rehearsing and he happened to walk in one day when Spinal Tap was rehearsing and he says, play us a song, fellas.” Elton’s substantial role, which includes a performance of “Stonehenge,” is “the punchline to a 41-year lead up,” Reiner hints.
For the first time, a woman — actress/musician Valerie Franco — takes the notably perilous gig of drumming for Spinal Tap. “We weren’t even thinking whether there was gonna be a female drummer or a male drummer,” says Reiner. “We just had auditions for drummers and she came in and just kicked ass. I mean, she was unbelievable.”
Reiner was deeply embedded in the 1960s Laurel Canyon rock scene, hanging out with Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and The Doors. “ When I started performing with the committee, which was an improv group that came from San Francisco and they had a troupe in L.A., there was a great crossover between the rock & roll world and our world,” he recalls. “Janis Joplin used to come up on stage with us to improvise… Cass Elliot would come to the house. I was at a party once when, Joplin and [Jim] Morrison got into a fight and she took a Jim Beam bottle, smacked him over the head, and he passed out on the pool table.” But he thinks his best rock n’ roll story comes from the time Janis Joplin dated one of his friends: “I overheard Joplin and Milan making love! That, to me, ranks right up there.”
The iconic “goes to 11” scene worked because Christopher Guest didn’t know Reiner was going to challenge his logic. “The funny thing about Chris is that he’s so in the moment,” says Reiner. “If you do it once and they say, ‘Okay, let’s do it again,’ he won’t do the same thing because he doesn’t remember what he did the last time. I also find that when I put Chris in a corner, he’s great. I’ll challenge him on something and then that blank look comes on his face and I know he is thinking, ‘What do I do?’ It forces him into a place that’s good.”
The DiBergi character is, of course, based in part on Martin Scorsese’s interviews with The Band in The Last Waltz — and Scorsese himself wasn’t originally thrilled about it. “ In all fairness to Marty, listen, I love The Band too,” says Reiner. ”He didn’t like it at first. When he first saw it, he said, ‘Ah, you are making fun of me.’ But now he’s come to really love it.”
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone‘s weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). Check out six years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth interviews with Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, Questlove, Halsey, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Ice Cube, Taylor Hawkins, Willow, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Dua Lipa, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Charlie Puth, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, and Gary Clark Jr. And look for dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone‘s critics and reporters.
