All language subtitles for This.is.Spinal.Tap.1984.1080p.BluRay.x265.hevc.10bit.AAC.5.1.commentary-HeVK.christopher Guest&co

Welcome to Criterion's special edition
of This is Spinal Tap.

On this track, you will hear Christopher
Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Schur.

Hello. My name is Marty DeBerge.

Hello. Hello.

Hello.

Oh, interesting chord. A portrait in
sound. A portrait in sound.

I'm Harry Schur. I play Derek Smalls,
the lead bass player in Spinal Tap.

Hello. My name is Bill, and I'm an
alcoholic.

How's that?

Hi, I'm Michael McKeon, and I play David
St. Hubbins, lead guitarist.

Hi, I'm Michael McKeon. No, you say your
own name.

Oh, well, you didn't get to be... Hi,
I'm Christopher Geth, and I play the

of Nigel Tufnell, lead guitar player in
Spinal Tap.

That band was Britain's now legendary
Spinal Tap.

Rob, as Karen Murphy, the producer of
the movie, recalled... He ended up

directing this because he didn't look
good in spandex, so he couldn't be in

band.

He works on lyrics. He works on lyrics,
yeah.

The three of us wrote the music, and the
four of us wrote lyrics together.

One of the reactions that we had from
the embassy people when they saw this

picture was, don't you have to, in this
30 seconds, wink at the audience to let

them know that you're joking?

And we said, if they don't know, we
thought that this was plenty of tip

this opening, what we had in mind.

But I'm sure a lot of people don't
understand.

strange joke here.

Walking by every piece of movie
equipment that has ever been made behind

It's like, what shot are they setting up
for?

Yeah, but also there's a pretentiousness
to this opening that smells.

Yeah.

But hey, enough of my yakking.

What do you say?

Let's boogie.

We had known each other for years.
Michael McKean and I had gone to college

the mid -60s in New York City, and we
had played music together starting in

about 67.

When we were all located here, Harry,
Michael, and I, we started working on

TV show.

It was 78, wasn't it? Yeah.

Near the end of the show was a parody of
a popular late -night rock music show

of the time called Midnight Special. Rob
Reiner played Wolfman Jack, and... We

played with Loudon Wainwright and Russ
Kunkel. We played this band called

Tap. That's the first time they existed.

With a totally different logo, too.

Oh, this girl. She's the wife of Tim
Schmidt of the Eagles.

But she was not taught to speak this
way. No, she was on her own here.

Yeah. Yeah.

My recollection of what got us into the
first step, all we were doing...

ostensibly was playing this song that
we'd written called rock and roll

nightmare and the last shot or one of
the last shots in the in the piece was

we're on the floor the camera's over our
heads and we're doing like june taylor

dancers stuff with our legs as part of
the finale of the song and there's

supposed to be smoke billowing around us
but the prop guy the hot oil which is

supposed to generate smoke instead was
as we were lying on the floor just

generating droplets of hot oil on our
faces and we had a choice between

the prop man or

talking to amuse ourselves while he
worked out this problem. And we started

talking as these guys that later on fed
our desire to do more with these people.

Not the prop guy, but the character.

It's the prop guy fed your desire,
Harry. We have to talk.

Anybody remember where this is?

Pasadena?

Is it the Pasadena Club?

Perkins Palace.

Perkins Palace. I think you're right.

I think we shot for 25 days.

Five weeks.

Two hour days.

French hours.

We never left the confines of Los
Angeles County.

Let's talk a little bit about the
history of the group.

This was a man's house in the Hollywood
Hills.

Wanted to be considered a landed gentry,
but had to live in the Hollywood Hills

for some tax reason.

And Rob was living at the Lermontage
Hotel in Beverly Hills, and we gathered

his hotel room. He'd gotten a deal from
Marble Arch Productions, which is Lou

Grade's company.

He had $50 ,000 to write a first draft
screenplay of the movie, and we gathered

in his hotel room for about three days
trying to write a screenplay.

And just at the end of the third day or
something, he said, this is like a

stupid thing to be doing. Nobody's ever
going to be able to make sense of this

on paper.

Let's see if they'll let us take the
money and make a demo of the movie

They didn't care what we did with the
money as long as they didn't write or do

anything.

This was actually shot during the demo
shoot.

So this is the earliest piece of film
that's in this collection.

You look so young.

That was my real hair, too.

How sad.

That's Ned Begley Jr.

on the drums, of course. And that's
Danny Korchmar on bass.

We made a 20 -minute demo of the movie
with Stonehenge was in it.

We shot some audience.

Richard Belzer's ass.

Had a lot of attractions.

Rebecca de Mornay in a bathing suit.

Yeah, she played a groupie.

We thought this would be the sales tool
for this project. One of the good

stories regarding this was taking this
to David... Bigelman.

Bigelman, over at Columbia, was it at
the time? Yeah.

We showed this to him, and I don't know
if he watched the whole thing, in fact.

I think two -thirds of the way he said,
oh, boys, boys.

And then these words came out of his
mouth, I'll be honest with you.

Hey. Hey, right, hey. He said, we
already have a...

I've already given a million dollars to
the Eagle to do a rock and roll movie.

Of course, they never made the movie,
but... It was the Eagles, wasn't it?

Yeah, that's right. And that was worth
the whole price of admission of the

anyway. We could have all gone home
happy after that meeting. I'll be honest

with you, meeting.

And he wrote us a check, he wrote us a
check, and he signed it Cliff Robertson,

and it left.

You can't really dust for vomit.

This is the Hollywood Athletic Club,
which was at the time called something

else. This was the penthouse of the
Hollywood Athletic Club. The Berwyn

The Berwyn Entertainment Center. That's
right. Thank you.

Fran Drescher really does talk like
that. And this was one of the amazing

discoveries because we had used some
people in the film that we knew.

and who we knew could improvise, and
Fran came out of nowhere, and this is

She's just going here. She has no...
None of these lines are written. She's

perfect, she's just smacking it. Yeah.

We went to every major studio in town, I
think, with this 20 -minute demo under

the four of us, Rob and Chris and
Michael and I, and you've never seen

stares on the faces of major film
executives after they'd seen this 20

and they'd say...

Yeah, so, and your point is?

Word being, what they actually said was,
I can't sell this.

And there was one guy who looked at it
and he said, you know, it's really,

really funny, but what you need, in the
very beginning you need a joke like they

have an airplane where you see the shark
fin style tail fin go through the

clouds so that people know that it's a
funny movie.

We thought that we had left a few tips
that it was supposed to be funny in

in the 20 minutes.

Zane Busby? Zane Busby, director Zane
Busby.

Was that mine? Dana Carvey.

Billy Crystal and Dana Carvey.

So the next step was Norman Lear's
company at the time. Empathy, I guess.

what about United Artists? We were at UA
for a minute. Ultimately, Norman Lear

said, I'm just going to have to trust
you on this and go away and do this. And

he gave us 2 .2, as I recall.

2 .7 is what I remember. 2 .3, I
thought.

Now, this scene...

was also done in the demo version of the
movie, and the girl with the book in

the demo was Nina Blackwood, one of the
first MTV VJs. Right.

I still list that scene on her resume.

Yes, I can.

The Frank Sinatra set is okay.

This is, of course, Bruno Kirby.

In the demo version. Yes.

In the outline that was written, what
was important was the arc of the scene,

what was going to happen in the scene,
so we all know where the scene begins

where it ends, and what happened in the
middle happened. Every person was told

the information that they needed to know
so that we wouldn't contradict each

other, but this all came from Bruno,
Fran Drescher's all came from Fran, and

there was a big load on all these
people's shoulders, essentially, to

write their own pieces.

and to listen to each other like people
should, and like actors always should

too, but in this case it was essential
to avoid talking over each other.

And a lot of times we would use the
first take. We would use the first take

as much as possible because there was
something about the surprises of it

happening for the first time that really
looked good on film.

Yeah, I think that's one of the things
that you see in this picture is that

people really are listening to each
other because they have to.

Tony Hendra, I had worked with at the
National Lampoon starting in 1970, and

had done a series of albums together.

And we knew, in some cases, that these
people could just take off and do it.

Bruno is an exception for someone who is
an actor who can do that. Most actors

can't do that.

Bruno's nails are never featured, but he
had a great manicure at all times.

Yeah, Bruno is about the most
thoroughgoing. He had the limo driver's

He studied limo drivers. He hung out
with limo drivers, and he went to the

that they had them polished.

The double bass, B .C. Rich. I think
they built this. No, they had this

there in their warehouse in East L .A.,
and I said, that I have to have.

What's the point of it? They said, no,
there really isn't one.

I said, that's perfect.

This is perhaps Spinal Tap's most
covered

song, covered by other bands.

Soundgarden had a live album or a live
EP.

One of the things we had in mind and
talked about a lot and had to keep

on throughout the course of making the
picture was that As people who played

who had gotten tired of seeing rock and
roll movies where people's hands were in

impossible positions when they're
supposed to be playing, we wanted to get

right. We wanted to do a movie that got
the scene and got the thing right.

At the time we were trying to sell this
movie, the conventional wisdom in

Hollywood, and I'm using wisdom
advisedly, was that rock and roll movies

make money and you shouldn't make them,
the same as with baseball movies.

And we kept saying, you know...

Rolling Stone and Entertainment Tonight
and all these media have shoved every

minutiae of rock and roll down people's
throats for 20, 25 years.

Even if they don't care, they know all
this stuff. They know all these stories.

We're just distilling and feeding it
back.

There were times when the film editors,
to make a pretty picture, a shot that

they liked, would move a piece of a
song, a shot from a song, to a whole

section of the song. And now suddenly
fingering was way out of whack. And we

went in and re -recorded parts that...

tried to match that fingering so that
people could see that, yeah, we were

playing and it really did look right.

Let's talk about your reviews a little
bit regarding intravenous de Milo. These

covers, when were these generated? Do we
remember?

I have the intravenous de Milo cover.
What size is it?

What do you mean?

I mean, it's not LP size. It's LP size.
Yeah. Now, you can see I'm laughing

because we'd never heard this.

nitpicking isn't it the gospel according
to spinal tap this pretentious

ponderous collection of religious rock
psalms is enough to prompt the question

what day did the lord create spinal tap
and couldn't he have rested on that day

too we had never heard this material rob
wrote these reviews and sprang them on

us one of my favorite times of seeing
this movie was when it was shown in

midnight in oslo

And I was invited to, like, come there
and just open it and wave at people.

But I stayed long enough to see the
Norwegian subtitle for Shit Sandwich,

was, I think, Schlett Schmorbrud.

He opened for us once. Yes, he did.

He may be our new drummer.

Oh, Brink Stevens.

Brink Stevens, now femme fatale horror
movie scream queen.

It's a very unimportant reason.

They're just experimenting with...

with some new packaging materials,
right? This is the Bonaventure Hotel in

downtown Los Angeles.

The other thing is that the Boston gig
has been canceled.

What? Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it,
though. It's not a big college town.

We looked at several films. We looked at
The Song Remains the Same, and we

looked at the Scorsese film.

Last Waltz. Last Waltz.

I think it's other people's egos that...

make them say, you're doing us.

We have had a million people come up and
say, you're doing Black Sabbath, or

you're doing me.

And people have always said to me,
you're doing Beck, you're doing Jeff

And I didn't model this after Jeff Beck,
but in people's minds, that's what it

was. I went on the road a little bit
with Saxon in England before we shot,

copped a couple of things off their bass
player. But basically, I think we were

very self -consciously trying to make
this its own band as opposed to a

kind of thing, which is very visibly
traceable to some other band.

As far as longevity goes, we always
thought like Status Quo or Uriah Heep,

always seemed to be breaking up and
changing personnel.

But musically, we just kind of said,
let's go for the core here. Let's go for

the real, the true mediocre.

My favorite moment from the pre
-production process was we were looking

cinematographer to shoot it and needed
to have somebody with documentary

experience. And Peter Smokler walked in
with a couple reels of his documentary

work under his arm.

And he had shot a movie that had played
one week in Los Angeles, and I had been

dying to see and had not gotten to see.
It was a documentary about Werner

Erhard, the founder of S, learning to
race Formula One cars.

He just took a year off, and it was
called Today is for the Championships.

That's right. And Peter brought that in.
I just said, well, as far as I know,

he's got my vote.

He would be running around the room like
a real documentary cameraman. That's

why he had that documentary experience.

Rob would be.

walking, you know, crab walking with
him, whispering in his ear, you know,

because he might have a better sense of
where the focus of the scene was going.

But Peter's instincts were very, very
good. And those pans off of people,

because the improvisation mimics what
would really happen, he was able to

instinctively just do what he would do
as a cameraman if this were a real

documentary.

Well, so what?

What's wrong with being sexy? I mean,
there's no...

There was a very big subplot with a band
that was supposed to be opening for us,

and Harry Curie was the lead singer of
this group called the... The Dose. The

Dose.

First thing we say is, you know, Ian's,
like, trying to sell us on this band

package with us, and we go, oh, shit,
what are you talking about? This is a

stupid idea.

Whoa! And then we see the girl. Bimbo!

When you caught to her, she had this big
herpes sore on her lip.

And you would see us on the bus, and
periodically we'd each pop up with this

Thor. So what remains is that scene with
Michael and I in this room where the

camera pans across us and you see us
with these Thors. And some journalist

to me, he said, I think it's very
interesting that one of the subplots

that you, Nigel, and David are gay.

Or lovers. Yeah. And I said, yeah, okay.
Well, I said, let me just explain where

this comes from.

You guys were schoolmates?

We're not university material.

Harry, you were going to play at one
point, you were going to play a southern

guy that came into the band, but then it
just became more fun to do accents from

another country. It's just more fun.

Yeah, actually, I was living at the
Chateau Marmont. This was in the 70s, in

fact. And a band came into the hotel
lobby.

I happened to be sitting there.

and uh englishman and they came in with
the manager and they were checking in

and the manager said to one guy do you
have your base i said what do you mean

said do you have your base i left it at
the airport you left your bike at the

airport yeah i left it there we'll go
and get it what your base where's my

base i don't have it because you left it
at the airport you nick so do what You

said you left it. Left what? And I'm not
exaggerating. This went on for 10

minutes, and I was just entranced with
it.

And finally he said, go and get it.

And he said, go and get it.

What? It's your base.

Go and get your base.

Where is it?

At the airport.

So finally, this went on for 10 minutes,
and I thought, well, you know, this has

to be, we need to do this here.

This was about 70.

I think I was living there when I saw
this unfold.

I had first played my character on a
National Lampoon record in 75 called

Goodbye Pop.

He wasn't called Nigel Tufnel, but it
was basically the same guy he was

interviewed. I played actually a
character named Nigel on the Lenny and

Squigtones band. Lenny and the
Squigtones was an album my partner David

and myself put out.

And Chris was our guitar player. And I
was... And he was Nigel Tufnel, because

we were all in character.

We read, there was an article in Rolling
Stone about somebody's... Van Halen.

Van Halen's writer.

It was No Brown M &M's, was that what it
was? Something like that.

The show business is rife with stories
about, you know, this stuff. I mean,

Jerry Lewis's writer, which I got a copy
of at one point, is pretty funny. Yul

Brynner's was famous. Yes, Yul Brynner's
is great. Under no circumstances must

white eggs be substituted for brown.

It's just that that's an inside story
But the fact the rock and roll element

it through Rolling Stone and other media
has leaked out to the public So they're

aware that rockers are like this
actually everybody in show business is

that We

are

fortunate that since we each have
musical ears

I think that made it more possible for
us to lock into the music of the way

these people talk than if we were actors
without a musical thing going on. My

particular thing was I didn't want to be
doing the same kind of thing that Chris

and Michael were doing, and I was more
amused by the guys who had this kind of

transatlantic sound, you know, because
they'd just been back and forth too

often. I remember feeling before we went
to England great trepidation that we

were going to be caught out and that the
English press was going to say, you

know, get these Yanks out of here. Who
do they think they're kidding?

Yank these Yanks out of here. Yeah, and
I just remember being really stunned at

the reception that we got in Britain.
And in no place do they buy it as

thoroughly as they do in Britain.

Don't worry about it, all right?

I hate it, really. It doesn't deter me.
But I rise above it. I'm a professional,

all right?

The drummer is Rick Parnell, and the
keyboard player is Dave Caffinetti, or

Caff or Dave Ewer. Both Englishmen.

We were not allowed to be on American
Bandstand to perform this song because

they didn't want us to say the word
hell.

The joke that we're trying to make is
that these guys have bad taste as

to being musicians that can't play, and
that is a kind of a paradox for people.

They don't really understand.

To this day, when we've played,
journalists will say to us, are you

playing up there?

This guitar is my 1955 Les Paul Gold
Top.

And this is Moak, by the way. People
say, who's Moak? In the end credits,

there's one character who has a box
around his name.

That's Moak right there. And that's
Moak. Our roadie, Robert Bauer.

Robert Bauer is the name of the actor.

He was the sole purveyor of Spinal Tap
goods and services for a while there.

Yes. And he's an actor now. He was in a
series on Fox a couple years ago.

The irony of all this is that there are
a lot of big bands that go out on tour

where they're not playing.

There's a DAT playing.

And the irony of all ironies is, of
course, this is us. The joke band really

plays.

Do you actually play all these?

I play them and I cherish them. Most of
these guitars are from Norm's Rare

Guitars. Some of them that I play in the
movie are mine because I have a

collection, a real collection, in fact.

This is a 58 Sunburst.

These are worth about $60 ,000 now. This
is exactly where Nigel and Chris

intersect. This is the overlap point
right here.

I've done a million things for Guitar
World and Guitar Friends or whatever

they're called.

Guitar Babies. No, I have some of my
real guitars in these magazines. This is

truly the intersecting point because
I've collected them for a long time.

This one, of course, is a custom 3
pickup.

We knew that the wireless thing had to
be set up to pay off the joke when we do

Sex Farm. That was clearly intentional.

That had to be laid down here so that
later on you'd understand what happens.

I wasn't going to touch it.

No, don't touch it. I was just pointing
at it. Well, don't point even. Don't

even point? No, it can't be played.

Never. Can I look at it? No, you've seen
enough of that one. This is the top.

This section here, which is the 11
business, Marshall made a special plate

me that went up to 11.

Subsequently, they have done some ads
with me, and now the new amp that they

made for me actually goes up to infinity
on the dial.

They made a real amp that goes up to 20.
That's the one that people can buy in

the stores now, for real. But mine goes
up to infinity.

This has been ripped off just big time.
Almost every amp company now sells knobs

that go to 11.

And guitar knobs.

Where can you go from there?

Where? I don't know. Nowhere, exactly.

What we do is if we need that extra push
over the cliff, you know what we do?

Put it up to 11.

Do we know where this was?

It was backstage.

Was it also at Perkins Palace?

Or was it a venue?

I don't remember where this was.

This is the Holiday Inn in downtown
Glendale. This is Paul Benedict as the

clerk. A well -known actor from the
Jeffersons and many other... Yes.

God bless him. Brilliant wig, brilliant
glasses.

He wore thick lens glasses in a couple
of pictures. In Sibling Rivalry, he wore

thick glasses.

He knows they're funny.

He knows how to use them. He's another
example of an actor who is hasn't had

this kind of training but can just fly
with this kind of premise We want these

tweets, we want them now, okay?

This twisted

old fruit here tells me that you have
lost your time reservation.

Here's the silent Duke fame.

It's that Loudon Wayne Wright song,
there was once a man who couldn't speak.

And who's this woman?

Wasn't she actually married to someone?

Oh, sure was. She was married to a real
rocker.

I thought she was, was that Jackson's
girlfriend?

Maybe that was Jackson's girlfriend, but
she'd been married before to someone

else.

As far as the casting goes, there were
situations like, for example, Howard

Hessman. His character did not exist
until the day before we shot it.

Originally, it was going to be a rock
and roll...

star a rock and roll performer duke fame
that they run into but the guy we got

to do duke fame couldn't couldn't talk
at all i mean it was just like he was

just he was just terrified and he
couldn't he looked great he looked

so it's like can you get howard over
here in eight hours can you be here and

we shoot him i think he'll be able to
like to be a manager or something so

howard walked in and of course you know
he's gone over the fence you know it's

like that's why we had him in the
picture because another guy couldn't

This particular scene points up, of
course, the idea that we did a record

Bitch School in 92, and the cover was a
woman on all fours, and MTV saw it and

they said it was too sexist to show.

Have you seen Duke Fame's Currents
album?

Um, yes.

Have you seen the cover?

Um, no, no, I don't think I have. It was
a rather lurid cover. The story we

heard was that the guy who was in charge
of what videos they were going to show

this week...

was fired for sexual harassment, and his
job was filled by two women.

So you know that there was a no
-nonsense cloud hanging over that

least for a couple of days, and that's
when we submitted our video.

This is a scene where you can see just
how small our wardrobe budget was

I think most of us were wearing our own
clothes at this point. I had dredged out

this strange down coat that I bought to
wear in New York a couple years before.

We really were, you know, operating on a
shoestring. We had this wonderful

wardrobe lady named Renee.

who just had a crazed sense of weird
stuff to find in odd places, but even

we had to patch it together with a lot
of our own stuff.

This scene probably took maybe three
hours tops.

We'd have like three setups, three major
setups a day, I think.

The last time TAP toured America, they
were... I said the record player. Where

we had filmed a part of the demo.

We'd filmed a scene in the jacuzzi of
the record plant, and we came back. We

didn't use the jacuzzi, but we used this
office because it had a lot of gold

records.

Tony Hendra went back to the Lampoon,
and he's written a number of books, and

then briefly was the editor of Spy
magazine.

I had a one -man show at Lincoln Center
for which he took out an ad in the New

York Times that said he was the creator
of Spinal Tap.

It was an oversight.

It was strictly an oversight.

No, it wasn't a one -man show. It was a
Ronald Reagan operetta. One -man

lawsuit.

There was a scene that was only a bit of
which came into that montage, but there

was a piece in which we were so blasé
and tired and weary of the road that we

had the girls destroy the hotel room
because we were too tired to do it, so

told the girls to do it. And the only
thing left from that was Tony's hitting

the TV set with the cricket bat.

I miss you too, darling.

This is, again, the Bonaventure Hotel
downtown.

We had great casting sessions, too.

Actors came in, and since there was no
script, we couldn't ask them to read, so

we talked to them. We couldn't teach
them to read.

We'd ask them why Johnny couldn't read,
but that was merely a conversational

tool. And then basically just, you know,
saw what kind of ad -libbing or

improvisational facility they had in a
situation with the four of us.

That's not until April. Great.

We'll do it. Oh, fucking great.

What guitar is that, Chris? That guitar
we got because at some point it was

smashable. We were going to break it, so
we wanted to get a cheap imitation

strap.

Oh, God, I love you too.

Okay, bye.

Well, my problem's been solved, mate.

Who's that?

Janine. She's going to come meet us.

Enter the Yoko plot.

This was part of writing the scenario
for Norman Lear. We'd had a lot of these

ideas, you know...

During the process, it was from 1980 to
1982, taking the

20 -minute demo around. As we'd gather,
we'd add ideas for songs and add ideas

for plots, so this was all accreting in
archaeological time, but in June of 82,

we all finally wrote it down.

When we were talking about doing
another, doing a sequel, we thought for

minute about doing a plot film like
Help, which purported to be taking place

1967, when they were...

in their first flash of fame, a quickie
American international film.

We didn't make any money off the first
film, so who's going to ask us to do a

sequel? After a while, we did. I mean,
the 80s rolled along, and the film had

some kind of adherence. People came up
to us and said, when are you going to do

the sequel?

You can't do the same form again.

I mean, that was clear. We weren't going
to do another backstage documentary

about this band. So, like, a sequel just
seemed to be out of the question.

We look too old to do the thing. Yeah.

Well, that's true, too. I think if we
had done it right afterwards, we could

have gotten away with it. But like I
say, the profits were not the point.

I'm not really sure this was such a
great idea. I mean, I don't feel any

than I did at a hotel.

He was going to do a TV special.

This was shot Griffith Park?

No, Pasadena.

Or Alhambra, actually.

Or Altadena. Yeah, some park in the smog
belt.

This was about the most elaborate art
direction in the movie, recreating

Graceland. Got a copy of the tombstone.

And the gates.

And also, we had the correct spelling of
Aaron.

There was some mistake on this. There's
some way it's not accurate.

It's very small.

And this was the only Elvis Presley song
we could get the rights to.

If I'm going, since my baby left me.

No, you can't hit that note.

Since my baby left me.

Well, I found a new place to dwell.

That's all right. This was written by,
what's his name's mother? That actor.

Hoyt Axton's mother. Hoyt Axton's mother
wrote this. Wrote Heartbreak Hotel.

Absolutely true. That actor.

Interesting. Well, he was. No, I know.
But I mean, basically none of the same.

There was also another scene.

It took place at the gates of Graceland,
where we were trying to get in, and it

was locked because it was a Sunday or
something, and we're yelling, Mrs.

Presley!

It's too much fucking perspective now.

1967,

that was the first time Spinal Tap came
into existence.

Well, the whole world was changing in
those days.

Also, we had the world's ear, because we
had just released an enormous -selling

single. Listen to the flower people.
Flower people.

We toured the world, we toured the
states, toured the world and elsewhere.

It was a dream come true.

Michael McKean.

First thing we ever shot on this movie.

Harry Shearer. Shot on tape and
transferred to film to give it that

oversaturated but under -focused look.

Christopher Guest. That's Ruth Kunkel
playing the drums, the famous studio

drummer.

Because it was in documentary form, if
you have a written script, there's no

to really make that seem spontaneous.

There's just no way to act that, and we
just knew that that was not going to

work, and we knew enough people that
could improvise convincingly to portray

this as a real -life experience that we
felt confident that this would work.

I did go to one screening where they
showed the four -and -a -half -hour

version.

There's a bootleg copy of the demo
that's around.

And also there's a bootleg copy of the
four and a half hour version of the

Is that true? Yes, I'll tell you about
it. There's also a bootleg copy of Run

Silent, Run Deep, but nobody wants it.
But not Letterboxd.

No, French Letterboxd.

French Letterhead.

The thing about this kind of anecdote is
that a

lot of these guys, if you've looked at,
seen interviews with these real guys, is

they do have interest in the...

either the afterlife or in the
paranormal.

The paranormal is a big thing.

They have this mystical kind of
connection.

There's a little green globule on his
drum seat.

Like a stain, really. It's more of a
stain than a globule, actually. You

dozens of people spontaneously combust
each year.

It's just not really widely reported.

There is now, in fact, a shank hall in
Milwaukee named after a music venue

we visited and blessed.

tour.

This is the... Perkins.

No, no. Is it? Yep.

This,

I believe, is the only piece of music
that we're actually playing live as it's

filmed. Jazz Odyssey.

Right.

All the rest were pre -recorded and...
Us playing to ourselves.

June Chadwick, the actress, had adopted
a working -class, attempting -to -be

upper -middle -class dialect, and she
could improvise like crazy. She was

English. That was it.

Hello, darling.

Hello, not surprised.

Janine walked in, and she had the part
within seconds. She was just so perfect.

June was very funny, and she also looked
like me.

We had the same hair in this movie, so
we wound up looking a lot alike.

You see that in rock and roll sometimes,
guys who marry women who look just like

them.

It's an elevated form of narcissism.
Yeah.

Narcissism with a spare pair of hands.

We saw a few people, some just weren't
right.

Tova Borgnine was the leading contender.

But her skin photographed so badly.

Whoopi Goldberg was there for a moment,
but they were a hair problem.

Susan George. You know who else was
the... Victoria... No, not Victoria

Principal. Steve Martin. Victoria
Tennant. Victoria Tennant was the other

serious candidate.

Yeah.

David, spell the glove in here.

We had a few musician friends that were
sort of in on the joke, basically, but

it really wasn't until the film came out
that this became the tape for all the

band buses, basically.

The reactions were split.

Probably 50 -50 between severe
depression and people seeing this and

that's us, and why would they want to
make us feel worse about this?

I mean, really, I've had many, many
people come up to me and say, you know,

way too painful to watch, and people
obviously enjoying it. And then some

not really realizing that we were
kidding and just thinking.

I mean, one of the first comments at a
screening, I think it was in Seattle,

card was, why would they make a movie
about a band like this?

Because they thought it was a real
documentary.

The other note was, why is the camera so
shaky?

This was before all the AT &T
commercials.

I frankly think that this is the turning
point, okay? I think this is, we're on

our way now. It's time to kick off.

Where was this?

I don't know, but the sound was created
by Johnson Clare on a Prophet 5. That's

right.

There are people underneath these pods,
opening them up. This was not mechanical

at all. I mean, this was not electronic
or anything. There are guys under those

platforms, guys crouching under or lying
down under each of those platforms,

opening them up on cue.

One

of the

trickiest parts of this is that

aside from Dave Caffinetti's keyboard
blank, is that because it's a guy

underneath, he's having to pull as hard
as he can to keep the thing closed while

everybody's acting as hard as they can
to try to get it open. And it really,

there's a lot of faking going on trying
to avoid pulling it open because it was

too easy to open, really. It would have
opened at the merest touch because the

guy is in a very difficult position down
below trying to hold it closed.

There was an argument between Rob Reiner
and me over when Mocha's hammering to

try to get the pod open, and we were at
the sound mix, and Rob wanted the

hammering louder, and I was always the
stickler for absurd reality, saying, how

are we hearing that?

It's a rock and roll band playing very
loud, and a guy's hammering. How would

be hearing it any louder than the
instruments?

And then Rob went around the room and
asked everybody who was there, all the

assistant editors and stuff.

What do you think? Should it be louder?
And they said, yeah.

I think it is a compromise.

I have

in my possession, not today, a scrap of
paper from one of the writing sessions

where I have written down various rock
and roll band names, and on one side it

says F -P -Y -N -A -L, tap.

And then on the flip side, as it's
written today, Spinal Path. That's the

time that we came up with that. Some of
the other names were...

The poodle people.

No, it was not.

Jumbo Prawns. Jumbo Prawns was written
down on that piece of paper, yeah.

Kind of a Jeff Rotel feel to it.

In the past, do you have any fears for
your life?

Hyatt House.

There's an interesting...

omission here in his speech. Listen.

To every.

To every. Not every drummer. Or
everybody.

He left the subject.

It's not happening to every.

Joyce Heiser plays my girlfriend in
this. Vicky Blue.

Runaways. One of the Runaways. Runaways.

Who is now either a real estate broker
or a school teacher.

Really? Or both. I believe a real estate
broker.

This is Cindy's first massage.

Where'd you get that shirt?

It was made by a woman. It was made by
the mother of one of my son's friends.

During one of the times when the band
broke up, we all had separate things

we did, and one of the things I did was
get involved with, Derek got involved

with Marco Zamboni, the great Italian
film director, and did the Spaghetti

Western.

It was like a gangster thing. A
futuristic gangster thing.

I'm in an all -white suit, assembling
this futuristic gun.

Pointing it, aiming it.

Weren't you trying to get Rob to do it?

To look at it? Weren't you showing it to
him? To try to get another job. I think

that's what it was. Possibly. I just
wanted to... Yeah, it's getting muddy.

me a minute.

Where is this? This was Janine's first
day, actually. I know that.

And I believe it may have been in the
same park where we shot the soccer

We did a montage that we wrote a song
called America, which is on the album,

it's not in the movie.

and we thought that there might be this
very pretentious montage of our trip

across America, and so we shot a bunch
of things like us playing soccer with

cops. That song ended up in the tour,
the second tour on the second video.

This is the same day as Graceland.

This is that same big park in Altadena.
Oh, that park in Altadena, yeah.

But we also did some stuff in Griffith
Park when we got on that little, we went

to the zoo and we rode around on the
pretentious montage.

Was it the record plant? I think so.
Yeah. The same place where we did the

session, recording session scene later,
right? Right.

Was that the record plant? I think so.

This was another room in the record
plant. This was not the big room.

It's pretty.

Yeah, I like it.

Been fooling about with it for a few
months now.

Very delicate.

There would be times when people would
laugh because no one had ever heard what

anyone was going to say. And you can see
it subtly in some of these shots

where... And it happens still because
we've been doing that now. When we do

interviews together, Harry and I were
doing these interviews in Australia and

came up with this line that was like a
moth... Oh, shit.

They're drawn to it like a... A moth to
a flame.

No, like... No. No, it was... They're
drawn to it like a moth to a fly.

It's amazing doing this form because you
get to hear it for the first time as

well as the audience.

What do you call it?

This is at

the Imperial Terminal of Los Angeles
Airport, which is the luxury terminal

from the regular airport where the
basketball players fly through and you

MGM Air.

This was the only part of the airport
they would allow us to film at.

There were a lot of scenes that were cut
out of... Derek's zucchini fetish. As a

matter of fact, there was a scene where
I was teaching Moke how to wrap it for

the stage.

There was actually a scene that prefaced
that with us having a meeting with

Derek and saying, you know, look, we
don't know how to say this. You're a bit

light downstairs.

You need something more up front.

What do you mean? Project more.

Yeah, more projection, let's say.
Exactly, yeah. Trying to diplomatically

explain it. You've got to reach out to
the audience a bit more.

The fruit basket's a little light.

What do you mean?

It's just the guy's refusing to take the
hint.

I couldn't quite tell whether they were
talking about me or my character, but I

chose to believe it was about the
character.

Do you have any artificial plates or
limbs?

Not really, no.

Would you... In the demo version, the
lady with the wand there was Lorna

Patterson.

This was actually the first song written
for this movie.

Because this was written for Lenny and
the Squigtones. We did it, maybe didn't

record it, we did it once or twice.

These were also mixed specifically for
this purpose. In other words, when we

these pre -records of the music, we
wanted them to sound like they would in

hall as opposed to a record mix.

The movie The Rose was being done around
the same time, and we talked to one of

the sound guys, and he said they were
having a big problem because the tuning

various takes and through the show was
changing, and they were having a lot of

trouble editing, and they were having to
go back and re -record over what they

had done. Because we had talked about
just doing it live. It created more

technical problems than it... You have
to play to a click, first of all, which

is a drag.

Annoying.

There were other problems, too. You
couldn't play at the right volume level.

Cameramen couldn't hear directions, so
if we had played live, we would have had

to play, I think that we were told we
would have had to play softer than it

would have been practicable to do so
that people could hear instructions and

stuff. Extras had to be given
directions.

It was a major can of worms. It was our
first choice, but there was no way we

could end up doing it.

Hi, Artie Fufkin. So many promo guys
that we've run into since then have said

so many words, I'm kind of the Artie
Fufkin of the Northwest region, like

thing to be proud of.

There's a wonderful scene not in this
movie where the ostensible purpose of

visit is to get us to do a radio station
appearance the following morning at 7 a

.m.

Joyce is already laughing. This is an
example of the camera starts to pan. It

starts on the woman that plays my
girlfriend, and she's just laughing.

Who was it that came in with the food?

Archie Han comes in with food, and
there's a great eating scene that they

in the movie.

Archie is in the film. Yeah, here he is.

Oh, it's the food!

Oh,

thank God!

Where did I put this?

That scene didn't pan out at all, but
between this and that, he sticks around

the room, and it ended with Paul
Schaefer. Do you want me to show you how

want you to do this? Take a watch, I'll
break an egg on my head. And he breaks

an egg on his head.

What record store is this?

Moby Disk. Moby Disk in the Valley. Long
gone. On Ventura.

Now called Colors.

What are you doing to me here? Chuck
Levine. Chuck Levine. Wonderful actor.

was in a play with you, wasn't he,
Harry? Yes. He was in Beyond Therapy, I

believe.

This scene is a virtually literal
recapitulation of an experience that

and I had with the credibility gap in
Tucson in front of a convention of audio

tape wholesalers, Larry Finley's
International Tape. something, and we

exactly what we needed for sound and
lights and stuff, and absolutely none of

was done. Nothing was done. Lou Dennis
of Warner Brothers Records came

after the show and just literally played
that thing. Guys, I want you to do this

for me. Kick my ass, please. Listen,

it's my fault. Please, kick my ass. It
wouldn't give us the satisfaction of

getting mad at him.

And we gave credit to him on our album
on Warner Brothers, Lou Kick My Ass

Dennis. did this scene, and he now brags
to everybody that he meets, you know,

I'm the guy. I'm the real artist. I'm
the kick -my -ass guy.

Come on. I'm not asking. I'm telling
with this. Kick my ass.

The drug use in this scene is sort of a
rare occurrence of

that in this movie. We had a big
discussion about that, and one of the...

reasons you don't see it happening more
is that they wouldn't have allowed that.

They would have gone over to the cameras
and said, you know, go away now. We

don't want to see you. It wouldn't have
been realistic to show that. They would

let it be peripheral at most, but never
would you see a scene of them getting

high.

There was also the idea we'd spoken
about that these guys had been together

already for so long that they had
already even passed that.

They may have gone through that stage
and they were probably, one of them was

probably AA and they were probably not
even doing that anymore much.

This getting lost sequence, we saw a
tape of Tom Petty playing somewhere in

Germany where he's walking backstage and
a door is opened and he ends up on an

indoor tennis court.

And there's just this moment of stunned,
you know, where am I? And then he

continues looking for the stage.

Wonderful Smith.

Originally cast in the part was a man
named Spodey Odie. But he died right

before, you know, his call time. I also
had this experience for real. My friend

Danny Rifkin, the occasional manager of
the Grateful Dead, who have... years of

occasional management to their credit,
and he invited me to see them at Madison

Square Garden. I was living in New York.
Madison Square Garden has a circular

rotunda to it, and I went around and
around and finally went in the wrong

and was in felt form and watching two
light heavyweights boxing, and what

happened here?

So there's plenty of precedence for
this. Where is this? Do we know? This is

basement of either Variety Arts or that
other big theater, the Embassy. The

Embassy. The Embassy Artorium, which is
no longer there, probably. Yeah, it is.

It is, really? Mm -hmm.

I've seen it in the last week. We've got
a lot of stuff from the demo there. I

think all the concerts.

Which is where? On Figueroa.

Spring? I thought it was on Spring.

Bright Arts is on Spring.

Other way.

Other way.

This is in the Valley. What is this
place?

Seasons.

Yeah, which is now probably a J .K.
Frimple or something.

J .K. Frimple?

We're too embarrassing to even talk
about.

This was early on in the shoot.

Yeah. We were purely dependent on the
availability of locations.

Actually, there's a lot more continuity
going on here. A woman comes and takes

our order, a woman played by Miss
LaPierre.

Georgette LaPierre. Georgette LaPierre.
Georgette LaPierre, thank you, who was

very funny. She was a waitress and
everything, and she interrupted this

argument.

to take our orders, gets them all wrong,
comes back to check on them, they're

all wrong, comes back with the wrong
orders anyway. So it's like a running

thing. It was a long, long scene.

But the meat of it was always the
Janine's suggestion for astrological

then the counter move of let's do
Stonehenge.

There was no new age at that time. It's
more about the idea that the stereotype

of the woman that breaks up a band is of
this ilk, more than the fact that it

was a widespread, generic thing in Los
Angeles.

As long as we've known the rock and roll
scene, there have always been people

who've been of this consciousness.

It wasn't called New Age, but it was
definitely the same stuff, crystals and

itching and all that. This is the heart
of what happens to bands, where a woman

comes in.

girlfriend of one of the guys and
whatever ensues is the heart of what

to these groups on these tours. Every
group that we've ever met has seen this

and said that to us.

It

wasn't Yoko

at all, really. That's something that's
so specifically Beatles.

It's not just, oh, a woman broke up this
band. It's just...

There's a very specific kind of boys
club atmosphere and a relationship that

goes back years and years between Nigel
and David, for example, that really

couldn't take the stress.

And it's not so much women are bad
because they do this. It's like these

haven't got a clue as to how to, you
know, how to handle this or how to be

in any sense.

They're all just they're playing at
something. And if anything, you know,

in the way, it's trouble.

They treat it like trouble and they run
from it.

Do you feel that in collaboration with
David that you are afforded the

opportunity to express yourself
musically the way you would like to?

think I do, you know, in my solos. My
solos are my trademark.

This is still my favorite scene in the
movie.

This was live, too.

You did one day for about 20 minutes, I
think. I think I did this for about

probably half an hour.

That was the setup.

That was directly off of Jimmy Page's
playing with the bow.

This looks absolutely perfect.

I mean, it's the right proportions.
It'll be this color, right?

Angelica Houston.

She wasn't a known actress at the time.
She was a known daughter.

And girlfriend.

And girlfriend.

This is also the Bonaventure Hotel, I
believe.

We had a problem with this prop, didn't
we?

No, this was good. Oh, okay.

This was the embassy, I believe.

We did a stonehenge that was too large
for the room. At the Albert Hall. We

the other way.

And you'd see this prop being just
trying to jam it through the door. It

even get in the building.

We did a couple of things on the road
where the prop would arrive by Federal

Express in an envelope.

Just in time, in the number, a man in a
uniform would come out and bring a

delivery, and Harry would open it. This
is what I was asked to do.

18 inches, right here, it's specified,
18 inches.

I was given this napkin, I mean...
Forget this!

Fuck the napkin!

Another alternative title for the film.
Fuck that.

In ancient times, hundreds of years

before the dawn of history.

We played Gazaries. We played The
Central and a place down in Orange

Radio City. Radio City.

Opening for Killer Pussy. That's right.

Teenage Animal Nurses in Bondage. Right.
The Gazaries show was...

Sort of the clincher. Was that the one
with the... Iron Butterfly. Iron

Butterfly, yeah, was also on the bill.
We were supposed to open for them, and

they decided that they had to go home
early. Well, they had a dental problem.

Their bass player had dental work done
that day and was under heavy sedation.

Yeah, like a matter. Like a fish, he was
under heavy sedation.

That show was kind of the convincer for
us that this absolutely was like just

another band coming in there. Nobody had
any idea that this was... We just

played very loud and whatever.

And I remember some kid as we were
walking off saying, You guys shred!

And I thought, well, that's kind of
good. Of course, that was my agent.

No, this was a...

15 -year -old kid.

That was your manager. And we were on
our way.

See,

we should have had Rick playing that
hood a lot more often than we did.

That leather hood.

Well, now he can do it.

Now we'll bury him in it.

Now he could do it and he wouldn't
notice.

Rick, our drummer, the real drummer in
this film, when we went on the road, one

of the things that he expressed most
amazement and delight about was the fact

that we were staying in pretty first
-class hotels.

They give you all this free shampoo.

I've got a two -year collection of it.
He had this huge, this bag full of,

there's like dozens of bottles, little
bottles and packets of shampoo. And he

really thought he was getting away with
something. Like, they don't have a clue.

I'm taking all this shampoo home.

I mean, that's the other thing, is going
on tour after doing this movie, there

were a number of times and junctures
where you're stupefied by the awareness

how absurd it is to have made fun of
this and then to have to experience it

real.

The little children of Stone Age Beneath
the haunted moon

For fear that daybreak might come

This song, I, Chris, actually have an
interest in Celtic music, and I play the

mandolin, and the genesis of the song
came from one of my doodling around on

mandolin. Of the middle bit. Yeah. The
middleman.

Michael McKean.

That's the intersection of Rick and his
character right there. Intersection of

Rick and Sepulveda.

That's his girlfriend, Sepulveda, right
there.

That is his wife. That was his wife, the
harpo wig.

Whom we met in Denver.

Rachel. Rachel.

Harry Fuhrer. To be able to do the
Spinal Tap Tour in 1992, we had to take

thing that we had created between 1980
and 1982 and to put it on the road in

1992.

We had to follow a trail that went
through the bankruptcies of three movie

studios to this company called
Parafrance, which is a subsidiary of L

Cosmetics, and negotiate a deal to buy
back the rights to use our own creation.

which was an 18 -month process.

We would have gone on tour the previous
year, except we had the negotiations for

the rights to be Spinal Tap hadn't been
completed by then.

It was the most arduous, crazy,
expensive, lunatic part of this thing,

back the rights to our own creation,
because to make the movie, we had to

up all rights to everything excepting
our firstborn. We don't own the

on the music, and we didn't even own the
right to be Spinal Tap. And when we

went on tour, our manager approached the
people who had the publishing.

to the original songs, because we'd
written a whole bunch of new songs. We

well, listen, why don't you give us a
piece of these songs that would be kind

an incentive for us to perform them on
the tour?

Their response was, we are in the
business of acquiring things, not giving

away.

Christopher Guest.

The fact is that we could have probably
done all this without them ever knowing

that they even owned it, because it was
just buried. You know, people buy up.

catalogs of things, and they would never
know that it ever happened. They would

never have been able to track it down
themselves.

We still pay them a royalty. We have to
pay Frenchmen every time we say hello.

And that's not a euphemism.

No.

We have a license, a limited -in -time
license to use the characters and the

name, and every time we use it, the
license is automatically extended. But

we... go through a period of three years
without using the characters in any

way. It reverts, and we have to go
through the whole thing again.

So that, in a way, is a strange
incentive to resurface from time to time

keep our right to be these guys.

Wow. Free to be, you and me.

Well, they also test their cosmetics on
animals, so what do you want from them?

That's right.

Something we've never done.

You were asking about comedy
antecedents, and there's one that, I

it's for everybody, but at least for me,
was kind of an antecedent of this,

which is a very obscure sketch by Peter
Sellers on one of his records, where he

interviews a rock and roll star named
Twit Conway.

With Irene Handel. Or does he do both?
No, he does both. He does the women and

the manager. Yeah, he does a... Major
Ralph.

A BBC woman interviewer interviewing
this idiot rock star, Twit Conway, and

Bengali -like manager.

It's from the 60s, this record, right?
Yeah.

And she says... What have you done to
your blue jeans?

He says, I've cut the hole out.

Cut the knees out of magic. Cut the
knees out. They were too tight, so I cut

knees out. And she says, well, he says,
well, take my fountain pen and ink in

where the flesh shows.

That's a very funny sketch.

We are just good friends.

That is the answer to another question.

The answer to this one is... I want to
become an all -round... We all know

of course. Yeah, I want to become an all
-round...

Entertainer. No, he has to finish the...
Entertainer. Yeah.

My dream is to one day play old Vic in
Shakespeare.

Now we're not going to fucking do
Stonehenge.

We had auditions for musicians. For the
demo.

We had an original keyboard player who
left us because it was taking us so long

to get a movie deal. He called us
when... He was a marvellous player named

Sinclair who ended up doing some tracks
on the soundtrack.

And he called up and he said, guys, I'm
sorry, I've got to go on the road with

Uriah Heep.

And he went off with Uriah Heep, came
back before we filmed the picture, but

had to replace him in the meantime.

But he told us the story of Uriah Heep
being booked into an Air Force base,

which we said, thank you very much,
we'll use that.

This is the real LAX, the real terminal
at LAX.

This is available light, I think.

Most of it's available light.

Everyone's on the move. This is a
gorilla.

This was done just the way you would do
it, so you're not traipsing in there

with that many trucks or anything.

We had a very small crew. There was
virtually no crew as you would know a

crew.

Once we were going, we were going. We
were on our own thing.

They couldn't ask, how many pages did
you get today? Because we had no idea.

Usually it's like, we got five and three
-eighths pages. There was no being

ahead or behind.

Brothers always fight, sort of
disagreements and all that.

We really have a relationship.

This was the record plant?

Yes.

This was a very long scene. Obviously,
this is live as well.

Everybody in the music business has
heard this Trogs tape, where the Trogs

having a very difficult time trying to
get a guitar part down. That was sort of

our template for what was supposed to be
happening here.

We just did it for a very protracted
period of time, built it as a very long

scene, and this is...

the distilled version.

Jesus Christ, this is fucking all we
need.

You can't fucking concentrate because
you're a fucking wife. Simple as that,

right? It's your fucking wife.

There was a cut that was even more like
this.

There were something like 40 hours of
footage to cut down.

We were all in on the editing process,
so this was a group effort.

Bob Layton was the editor who's
obviously gone on to do a lot of

The final version, the film veered back
and forth before it got to this point.

And following this scene, there was
another scene that took place just

David and Nigel after the smoke had
cleared.

And it's the two of them kind of like
talking about old times and talking

what's the problem in here and
everything. It was just, it was too

think out of that...

came the intensity that we did this
other scene.

It was because we knew it was about
something bigger than just, you know,

two and a half minutes or whatever is on
the screen.

And you really do need, you have to get
a sense of not just a series of scenes

that are funny strung together. So this
helped add a dimension.

There was also another subplot of
another guitarist that was hired to

me. After Nigel talks out. So they find
a very handsome,

flashy lead guitar player who could also
sing a million times better than David.

And so what happens is we shot some
scenes. We found this kid who was, in

this rock and roll guy. What was his
name?

I don't remember his name. Lucky? Peter,
I think.

Lucky sounds good.

Not because that was the name. It just
sounds good. But he really had, I mean,

all the women on the crew. Yeah, very
handsome, blonde, dazzling guitar player

could sing. And we shot scenes where...

David tries to sneak up to the mic to
sing, and he basically gets pushed out

this new guy. I guess I have that
footage somewhere at home. Really? It

never... It wasn't even in the four -and
-a -half -hour version we saw recently.

He's never amounted to anything.

I don't know.

I don't think he has. Maybe his name is,
you know, George Michael or something.

I don't know.

Although I shouldn't talk. My hair's
getting a little shaggy, too. Better not

get too close to you. They'll think I'm
part of the band.

I'm joking, of course. Shall we go in,
and I'll show you around?

You're joking, of course.

Well, we're gone at that point.

Michael and I had done a tour with our
group, the Credibility Gap, had gone on

tour with Fred's group, the Ace Trucking
Company, and we had closed at least one

nightclub with that tour.

Mr. Kelly is in Chicago.

I had done Little Murders in 1969 with
Fred in New York City.

So we know Fred Willard's rich tapestry.

Sucker for it every time.

Fred Willard is one of the great, great
improvisers.

Never heard any of it?

No.

He's got us on the edge at every moment
of this thing.

He had done Fernwood Tonight. Post
-Fernwood, yeah. And pre -History of

People.

This was some warehouse?

No, I believe this was a real airport.

This wasn't White Man Airport, was it,
in the Valley?

I don't think so.

I don't know.

It's like we're talking about a movie
that was made in the 30s. We can't even

remember. Well, that was back when
Monogram was on the corner of Sunset.

was before they took the streetcar
tracks out.

The old red car. Remember that? Yeah.

I still remember going to Cal State
Dominguez to do the scout of that

I do, too.

This premise here, I saw a production
of, I think, Midsummer Night's Dream in

the park in New York City, Shakespeare
in the Park, where this happened. A

Shakespearean production where a guy
comes out and thinks, and justly so, so

that you bequeath, and you hear, please
have a taxi over on the Amsterdam and

79th Street at 10 .30, please. The
corner, the northwest corner.

And the place, of course, you could not
continue.

You totally ruined the gig there.

He walks off and, you know, I mean, he
can't be expected to sit home and get

money. We've got to get someone else in
there. The lobby of the Hyatt. So that

might have been the same day or the next
day.

Yep. You've got to understand that,
like, in the world of rock and roll,

are certain changes that sometimes
occur.

And you've just got to sort of roll with
them, you know. I mean, you read that,

you know, you saw exactly how many
people have been in this band over the

37 people have been in this band over
the years.

Rob is hunching behind Peter and tapping
him and whispering in his ear to move

if he's not in the right place.

But then Peter put the camera on and...
Yeah.

And that was during lunch. That was
right.

If Marty DeBerge wasn't in the scene,
Rob... had free reign. He didn't even

to wear the hat.

Although he did every day just in case
we saw him. But you often know as actors

to sense where he is with the camera so
you can stall line and everybody's

working as a sort of a team to know when
it's back on you and to finish a line.

What do you mean?

He's not going back? No. We shall work
together again.

Listen. Magic. You think that's video
games? No, that wasn't video games, but

video games within this sequence.

This was Magic Mountain. Magic Mountain.

There's two tracks playing. There's two
pieces of music playing, and one of them

is video games.

We've got a big dressing room, though.
What?

We've got a big dressing room. Oh, we've
got a bigger dressing room than the

puppets, so that's refreshing.

I've got some menacing rocket fuel.

A real line from Mr.

Caffinetti, which we said, you have to
say this in the picture.

Mendocino, Rocketfield. He would pay
this to us on occasion.

Double that. If you recall the line, it
fits.

Oh, yeah. I've got two hands here.

It's not enough.

It's what the hands can do and can't do.

Becoming a cult phenomenon is not like
taking off.

Like taking off is when you make $15
million over the weekend and you cost

That's taking off.

It's been so gradual. I mean, it's like
watching a person, like watching a child

you see every day grow. You don't really
notice it. It's like watching a chia

pet. Very much.

A slow chia pet.

A very slow bonsai chia pet.

I just think it's because there's a
certain amount of reality to it. Even if

you've never been in the music business,
don't know anything about the music

business, or don't know any rock and
roll people, you know, firsthand, it

has that kind of quality of this is
really happening to us.

I ran into somebody recently who was
there, who was an extra. I was there.

This is live, too. Yeah.

These were extras. The park wasn't
really open for business that day. This

wintertime. Yeah. This was November, so
the park wasn't open during the week.

Top of the Hyatt. Top of the Hyatt.

One of the people at this party is one
of the more notorious figures in the

record business, Artie Ripp, who is one
of the major guys in Buddha Records, and

there's a million stories about Artie
Ripp. We cast him in this, I think,

basically just for the authenticity of
having a real record business character

in it.

And also Donahue, Rachel Donahue.

That's right.

spotted briefly, DJ and widow of Tom
Donahue, who invented underground radio,

progressive rock radio.

It's a good crowd, good crowd.

It is, isn't it? Yeah, it really is. I
mean... John Sinclair's wife.

Right. And Lindsay... Lindsay Duran.
Lindsay Duran, executive producer of the

movie. And now vice president of
Paramount, right? Yes. Yeah, of Charged

Productions.

The interesting thing now is when we
made the film, it is actually in the

that has gone by...

I have friends that live in North
London, in Tufnel Park and that area.

The East Ender accent has now spread all
over London, and the middle class and

even upper middle class are speaking the
way that the Cockneys used to speak up

until probably the early 80s, and then
it started to spread.

And I have friends now, and these are
kids going to good schools and going to

university. You can barely understand
what they're saying. It's really

extraordinary.

And then you could very much define in a
given section of London, and we

invented the Squatney area, and we
actually found it when we did our

92. We went past the Docklands and we
found E14 or wherever it is, and we

the Squatney area.

I have the answer. Yeah, I do. Me too.

This is the embassy. This might be the
embassy. Yeah.

And specifically in this location, we
were all kind of trying to nail the art

director because the graffiti didn't
look very realistic for backstage rock

roll graffiti. And we'd been in enough
toilets.

He'd written, gosh darn it, on the wall.

Go to the whiskey. Go hang and go to the
top of the troubadour. How about go to

the borderline? What was that place in
London? Oh, the borderline.

That had the best graffiti in it. Yeah,
and CBGBs.

Hand me another Freddie Mercury. This
one's dead.

This one's cold.

This one's cold.

Hand me another Freddie Mercury. Pass me
another Freddie Mercury.

This one's cold.

Pretty amusing.

That jacket now is the jacket I'm
wearing in this film.

I traded to Jeff Beck. He gave me one of
his guitars, and I sent him this

jacket. So he has that somewhere in
England right now.

So did you just come here to hang around
back a day? It's like a real rock and

roll. I thought we should do it.

That's sedative reading.

Well,

he's back off the wagon here. Every
character I play has a drinking problem.

It's a personal choice. It's a tax
thing.

Spinal taps recording, sex part.

Number five last week, actually.

So he asked me...

to ask you, Tat, if you'd be interested
in reforming. We

talked about how much stress do we place
on, how much emphasis do we put

on this type of scene, and we thought it
was, I mean, we had arguments about

this, as to how...

how much we needed to do that. I think
in retrospect, it helps because it

shows, you know, they're so familiar now
with a camera crew being around that

you don't get the feeling as if that's a
problem.

And that you do see this kind of, I
mean, it's kind of pathetic and poignant

see this arc where I leave the band and
come back. And I think it adds a level

that you wouldn't normally have.

This is a huge backstage area, this
embassy.

It's a very weird place.

It's mainly used for religious events,
which this was, really.

David.

Do a good show, all right?

Yeah, okay.

It has this great sepulchral echo from
being so huge, which really added to the

flavor of this scene. It was total
accident. It was a place we were

but it has this... Everything just
echoes like...

Sound of doom.

What we've seen over the years is when
we've played live recently is that

want to feel as if they're part of the
movie. Because they were the audience

watching this movie, the audience that
comes to the show, that sort of is a

circular thing, feel as if they are now
in the movie in a funny way. And they

become the audience in the movie. And
it's very difficult to separate. It's a

very bizarre phenomenon. It's hard to
explain, but...

They know all the songs, and they feel
as if we can never tell if they are, at

what point this leads, you know,
separates the idea that they think

they joking?

Or are they, do they know that we're,
because when we play real shows now,

a two -hour show, it's a rock and roll
show. It's loud. At what point does this

become real and imagined, you know?

The harness I wore during this picture
is now hanging in the HBO Comedy Hall of

Fame in New York City on permanent loan.

Fans can't stay ahead of us.

Usually they can't even find us.

No, I mean, we've had to do so much for
the promotional tour. We did a whole new

set of histories of what had happened in
the intervening period of time and kept

embellishing it as we were being
interviewed. So there's no way that, I

we've had...

so much more time to work on this stuff
than they have.

Nobody's really brought us anything new.

Generally, we haven't spoken out of
character about the film or the parts.

have spent hundreds and hundreds of
hours in motel and hotel rooms with wigs

talking to journalists about the film,
but basically as the characters.

Basically, especially when we were
touring, felt it was incumbent on us to

maintain the reality of the band much
more than to acknowledge that these were

fictional characters.

And I think it paid off in the sense
that Chris was talking about of the

audience feeling part of the movie as
opposed to part of a performance by some

fake people.

That wouldn't sell at all.

Tonight only, a performance by fake
people.

Well, the Archies did it.

Monkeys did it? Yeah.

That is Sadahura Oh's jersey I'm
wearing, the actual one. And that was

call for, you know, extras in Los
Angeles for Asian extras, you know,

none of them were Japanese. I think they
were all Korean. Mostly Filipino and

Korean. Oh, well.

This, for all of us, because we're
actors and musicians, is the ultimate

is that you can...

Do a movie where you're acting and
hopefully being funny and playing music.

me a break. It's like show business
camp.

The extension of that when we go on the
road is being let loose in front of

thousands of people.

Absolutely. And it fulfills a number of
levels because we're playing songs that

are fun to play where you get to...

Play and you're really playing and
you're having fun singing and you're

cavorting cavorting and compelling and
ticking also I mean when we're on the

road, especially when we're doing media
stuff or being observed We're staying in

character So the tour and the build -up
to the tour was actually a much longer

period of acting as these characters
than the movie The movie was five weeks

of our lives. Yeah, the tour and the
build -up to the tour was like three

-quarters of a year.

Most of the day... The second tour.

Yeah, the second tour. Most of those
days spent in character improvising with

each other in front of strangers.

Another element in that is that the
three of us like to make each other

and that's a huge part of it because,
you know, you're sitting with morning

because they get it.

And so we're basically... Playing to
each other. Playing to each other and...

Again, we've never heard what we're
going to say, and that becomes that kind

little challenge.

There was a day where we were
interviewed by a lot of people in

was one guy, I remember, almost the last
person that came into this hotel room

from one of the papers who just took it
as a personal insult that he was being

required to talk to people in character.
It was as if he was being required to

interview puppets, and he had to speak
to pieces of fluff. It was beneath him,

and he refused to do it. Well, it is
pretty surreal. We've done maybe 500

interviews. sitting in hotel rooms
wearing wigs. It is an odd idea,

It's an odd life. The specific reason
why he was knighted was for the founding

of Hogwood, which is a summer camp for
pale young boys.

We wanted to avoid that Bob Hope movie
thing where... These are all interviews,

as you notice. It was a thing in the 70s
that was happening in the mid -70s with

Burt Reynolds movies where it was just
him and Dom Dewey making each other

laugh. We tried to avoid that.

Yeah, the end of Hardly Working had
that, too.

Kent Bader, the assistant film editor,
is a big film editor now as well.

Kent Bader. Cary Gleiberman. The Gleib.
That's right. That's the man you shot in

Roma 79.

Don Newman and Erwin Mucus, as you
called him.

Occasion or another, the second AD. I
haven't seen this in a long time.

Michelle Payne did the hair. Wonderful.

And Annie Rapp, the continuity director,
who had a real challenging job since

there was no continuity. There was no
script, so he was the script supervisor.

She's become a huge script supervisor.

Not well -known, but she's just 400
pounds. No, she's very, very prominent

the industry.

She would write down every single thing
that happened. A thankless job in this

particular occasion.

No, it was like being the comic strip
editor at the New York Times.

It was a job you really kind of defined
as you went.

Have a good time all the time.

That's my philosophy, Marty.

I believe virtually everything I read.

And I think that is what makes me more
of a selective human than someone who

doesn't believe anything.

I like watching the credits.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember all these
people. Who did Julie Payne play? Oh,

was a mime waitress. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Paul Shortino, wasn't he the guy that
used to hang around us and wanted to be

our keyboard player?

Yeah. Yeah.

And Gloria Gifford.

And Nancy Childs ultimately ended up at
the store on 3rd Street. No bones.

Musical stylings.

Apropos of the writing credit, because
of the way this movie was created, the

four of us went to the Writers Guild and
said, we really want to acknowledge the

contributions of the actors in creating
the dialogue for this picture. Is there

any credit that we can give that will
acknowledge that?

What about additional dialogue? They
said, no, that's a TV credit.

Well, who cares? It's what happened.

No, we really don't want you to
denigrate the importance of the writer.

said, we're not trying to denigrate
anything. We're just trying to give

where it's due.

There was a vote by the board of
directors of the Writers Guild, 15 to

against anything but us taking this
writing credit. That's why that credit

appears in this picture.

They were against acknowledging that
anybody but writers could think up

anything.

That's all we could figure out.

What time is it?

It's seven after one.

Well, I was supposed to be somewhere at
one.

Well, you are, Michael. You are
somewhere at one.

Not the right place. Okay.

Pressure's off.

The bad news, I was supposed to be
somewhere at one. The good news, I am

somewhere. I am somewhere.

You are somewhere.

You ain't nobody, but you're somewhere.

It's Jesse Jackson Jr. trying to launch
his own career. You are somewhere.

Chicken and waffles for everybody.

For the hours.