The band hits the road again this summer for This Is Spinal Tap theatrical re-release

The first feature film directed by Rob Reiner, who also stars in the film as documentary director Marty DiBergi, This Is Spinal Tap follows a fictional British heavy metal band (portrayed by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean). The film became a celebrated classic and a defining work in the “mockumentary” genre (though that’s not the word Guest would use to describe it). It was also a defining work for Guest’s career, as he’d go on to perfect the style in his own directorial efforts. 

Guest, Shearer, and McKean collaborated to write the songs for the fictional band, which was inspired by an English band Guest saw checking into a hotel in Los Angeles, as he explained at The A.V. Club comedy festival in 2017. “This was 1974. The manager, and I think there were four of them, they went up to the desk and he started doing the thing, and I was just waiting for my friend. And the manager says to one of them, [affecting an English accent] ‘Where’s your bass?’ ‘What?’ ‘Where’s your bass?’ ‘I don’t know, I think I left it at the airport.’ ‘You what?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘You left your bass at the airport.’ ‘I don’t know, where is it?’ ‘Well I don’t know, I’m asking you!’ Well, it went on for 15 minutes,” Guest recalled. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier, except for the night that I met my wife.”

Over 50 years later, Spinal Tap will return with This Is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. In addition to the stars reprising their roles, the film will feature cameos from Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, plus appearances from Paul Shaffer, Fran Drescher, Don Lake, John Michael Higgins, Nina Conti, Griffin Matthews, Kerry Godliman, and Chris Addison.