<\/p>\n
As we learned from the original Spinal Tap,<\/em> all things must pass \u2014 or choke on someone else\u2019s vomit, or die in a bizarre gardening accident, or explode onstage. So it\u2019s appropriate that the film\u2019s long-delayed sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues<\/em> (in theaters Sept. 12), functions as a very funny elegy for the entire rock & roll era, with returning original cast members Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer leaning hard into their fictional band\u2019s creakiness as they prepare for the Tap\u2019s final concert.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that David St. Hubbins used to say,\u201d says McKean, channeling his own character, \u201c is that rock & roll keeps you young, but only if you die young. Otherwise, you just age like a regular old person.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n The creators of the greatest music-world comedy ever made never saw much money from it, and the sequel exists only because Shearer recently spent some of his Simpsons<\/em> voice-acting fortune (he\u2019s Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders, among many others) on a legal battle to get the rights back. \u201cWe sat and said, \u2018Well, what do we do with this?\u2019\u201d says Rob Reiner<\/a>, who again serves as the film\u2019s actual director while co-starring as obtuse fictional director-interviewer Marty DiBergi. \u201cAt first we said, \u2018Ah, forget it. We are not gonna do anything.\u2019 And then we started talking.\u201d (To hear Reiner\u2019s full interview on our Rolling Stone Music Now<\/em> podcast, go here<\/a> for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts<\/a> or Spotify<\/a>, or just press play above.)<\/p>\n The actors and Reiner began meeting daily at Shearer\u2019s house in Santa Monica. \u201cSome days we would completely waste,\u201d McKean says. \u201cWe\u2019d get into talking about old show business and prehistoric TV.\u2026 We would waste as much time as we could, as long as there were snacks.\u201d Still, Reiner began outlining ideas on a whiteboard, \u201cand when we got enough of them, it became apparent \u2014 \u2018Oh, yeah, there\u2019s something here,\u2019\u201d Shearer says.<\/p>\n In the decades between films, Spinal Tap have taken major steps into quasi-reality, releasing albums and touring in character, and the movie is able to use footage of moments like their actual 2007 Live Earth performance as flashbacks. Further blurring the metafictional line, Paul McCartney and Elton John show up in the sequel as themselves, and actually play with the band. Both roles are bigger than mere cameos, and John, in particular, is key to the film\u2019s climax. (A new version of \u201cStonehenge,\u201d<\/a> featuring John on vocals, is out now, the first single from the film\u2019s accompanying album.)<\/p>\n Both John and McCartney were game for the comedic improvisation required, with Sir Paul drawing on his Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/em>-era screen presence. If anything, it was far scarier for the cast to have to play music with them. \u201cThey\u2019re so fucking good,\u201d says Guest. \u201cThey\u2019re so smart. There\u2019s no sense of them pushing it. It\u2019s completely natural.\u201d<\/p>\n Guest was particularly awed by John\u2019s willingness to push past his current health issues<\/a> for the role. \u201cHe was such a good sport,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was insane. This is a person who\u2019s had some physical things, serious things in the last years. He came in sort of limping, and I thought, \u2018Oh, my God, we\u2019re doing this stunt, what if something happens,\u2019 you know? And he was amazing. I mean, imagine if he\u2019d said, \u2018This is bullshit, I\u2019m walking out\u2019 \u2014 no movie! It was just so generous.\u201d<\/p>\n After the 1984 film, Guest, of course, went on to direct multiple classic features (from Waiting for Guffman<\/em> to A Mighty Wind,<\/em> which reunited the Tap members as different characters) using the wildly influential Spinal Tap<\/em> framework of comedic faux-documentaries with improvised dialogue. But he\u2019s been quietly retired for nearly a decade. \u201cI have all these other things I do,\u201d Guest says. \u201cI go hiking and I walk in rivers and I ski and I play music every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n When we meet his character, Nigel Tufnel, he\u2019s similarly moved on from his career, albeit with a new occupation as the owner of a cheese shop that accepts guitars in trade. The idea came from a fantasy Guest had when he visited a real-life store, run by a cheesemonger who had a Tufnel-like accent. \u201cI was walking around London, and I went into one of the most famous cheese shops,\u201d Guest says. \u201cAnd there was a help-wanted sign on the door. I thought, \u2018I\u2019m gonna call Jamie<\/a> [Lee Curtis, his wife] and tell her I think I\u2019m gonna do this. I could work here! I could learn about this!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Inevitably, the new film introduces a new drummer, in the form of the gifted, tatted-up real-life musician Valerie Franco, after some very famous percussionists make brief cameos to turn down the life-threatening gig. \u201cWe wanted to see some female drummers, because we thought that would be an interesting thing for this boys club,\u201d says McKean. \u201cShe\u2019s the spirit of rock & roll. She\u2019s what\u2019s going to be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a new song, too, \u201cRockin\u2019 in the Urn,\u201d which introduces a defiant note amid the film\u2019s nods to mortality. \u201cI just thought it was the silliest way to say \u2018We\u2019re never gonna die,\u2019\u201d says Shearer. \u201c\u2018We\u2019ll live forever.\u2019 And make it as stupidly literal as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear whether the film will truly mark the end of Spinal Tap. There are no plans for a real-world tour, though the band hinted at a one-off performance at what Shearer calls a \u201cvery historic site\u201d \u2014 which a recent report<\/a> suggests is the actual Stonehenge. In any case, McKean says, \u201cIf you only halfway exist, then vanishing altogether is not a big chore.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we learned from the original Spinal Tap, all things must pass \u2014 or choke on someone else\u2019s vomit, or die in a bizarre gardening accident, or explode onstage. So it\u2019s appropriate that the film\u2019s long-delayed sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (in theaters Sept. 12), functions as a very funny elegy for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1990308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[350182,22650,350184,348424,359403,359404,314737,326210],"class_list":["post-1990307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-christopher-guest","tag-elton-john","tag-harry-shearer","tag-michael-mckean","tag-rob-reiner","tag-rock-roll","tag-rolling-stone","tag-spinal-tap"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Members-of-Spinal-Tap-on-Getting-the-Worlds-Loudest.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1990307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1990307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1990307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1990307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}