Behind the Wigs: The Return of Spinal Tap

McKean: The famous Troggs tape is of course a really seminal moment in rock & roll. That's when we heard the business of putting together a really simple song with a bunch of really simple guys, and this almost violent conflict that would occur.
Guest: I was at the Chateau Marmont in 1974, and a hard rock band was checking in, and there was an episode of stupidity that was very illuminating. What a great idea for a story! And we get to make music to support that. It was a chicken and the egg situation.
Shearer: There was no downside —
McKean: And there was no egg.

The movie has been quoted ever since, with bands described as having a Spinal Tap moment or turning the volume up to 11. It's part of the rock culture.
Shearer: It's not just rockers. I've had country musicians and even classical players say they relate to that. It's just about life on the road.
McKean: A tour is a tour —
Shearer: And a tourette is a tourette.
Guest: It's all going to happen — something bad is going to happen at some point.
Shearer: We say that on the eve of going out on tour.

Are you traveling on separate tour buses?
McKean: No, jeez ... It's a very small-scale operation.
Guest: The three of us are on bus, and there's some support people that follow in a U-Haul.
McKean: We sedate them.

This many years later, This Is Spinal Tap still attracts new fans. Is there something eternal about the slapstick that can exist in a rock band?
Shearer: There is something eternal about the striving of the mediocre. You root for them despite your better judgment. There's something timeless about that story.

Have you done as much as you hoped with Spinal Tap?
Guest: If we had wanted to, we could have done more. But the beauty of this is that we have other lives, and we can drop into this world, get to play music. If we were on the road as Spinal Tap a hundred nights out of the year or more, then you're getting perilously close to something else.

You could have beaten it into the ground.
Shearer: And we still might.
McKean: Give us time. It's only been 25 years.