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Who stole from Spinal Tap? That’s that her, Sabrina Carpenter<\/a>. With the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues\u2014in theaters September 12 from director Martin Di Bergi\u2014one of England’s loudest bands is back to promote their last-ever concert and the documentary that chronicles their reunion after 15 years of disbandment.<\/p>\n In an exclusive with Esquire, band members Nigel Tufnel (actually Christopher Guest<\/a>), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) assemble for an on-camera group interview to discuss what they’ve been up to lately, share their struggles to keep up with TikTok, and sound off on some of music’s biggest names today. While they are fans of Taylor Swift<\/a> and her “great selection” of boots, bassist Smalls takes umbrage at Sabrina Carpenter, believing she stole her cover for Man’s Best Friend from Spinal Tap’s own Smell the Glove.<\/p>\n (A disclaimer before Carpenter stans get mad, and for anyone else who might have missed the memo: Spinal Tap is fictional. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is the long-awaited sequel to the still-hilarious 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, which details the highs and lows of an obnoxious glam-metal group during the Reagan years. The 2025 sequel satirizes band reunions and how far out of touch era-defining rock stars can become when they grow old. Okay? Okay. Back to the illusion.)<\/p>\n “She stole from us,” says Smalls. “The photograph of her on her new record, she’s on all fours, just like Smell the Glove.”<\/p>\n Tufnel points out that the infamous original cover of Smell the Glove was “only described” in This Is Spinal Tap. “We never actually printed that up,” he says in the video. Accusations of sexism toward the proposed cover\u2014that of a greased, naked woman on all fours with a collar on her neck and a man’s arm holding a glove up to her face\u2014led to the band releasing Smell the Glove with just a simple black square. (How black? “None more black.”)<\/p>\n “In my mind it was printed up,” adds St. Hubbins.<\/p>\n