While no bands have ever had to replace multiple drummers due to spontaneous combustions (that we know of), the classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap clearly took some of its cues from real-life rock groups.
For example, the iconic scene in which the titular band can’t manage to find their way to the concert stage was inspired by behind the scenes footage of Tom Petty, who once got lost backstage during a show and accidentally ended up in a tennis court.
But director Rob Reiner is hitting back against a famous band’s claim that they inspired one of the movie’s dumbest moments.
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As you may recall, one of Spinal Tap’s songs, “Stonehenge,” was to be accompanied on stage by a full-sized replica of one of the stones. Unfortunately, Nigel mixes up his units of measurement, resulting in a prop that’s just 18 inches high instead of 18 feet.
But legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath, who recently played their final show, weren’t amused. Per Ultimate Classic Rock, Sabbath also used fake Stonehenge stones on stage, as part of an effort to compete with other, more theatrical concert tours and to connect to their own tune about Stonehenge.
Sabbath, too, fumbled the dimensions, making the props far too large. As bassist Geezer Butler explained in his autobiography Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath — And Beyond, “When we did our first gig of the tour in Norway, and put the stones on the stage, they were almost touching the ceiling.”
The sizing snafu was reportedly due to the designer mixing up meters and feet. “Years later we did a photo shoot with Spinal Tap and asked them if they’d based those scenes on us, but they said it was just coincidence,” Butler wrote, adding, “I find that difficult to believe.”
But in a recent interview with Screen Rant, Reiner rejected Butler’s allegation. “Black Sabbath was doing a tour, and they came out about two or three weeks before our film came out. They saw our film and they were furious that we had stolen the Stonehenge theme from them,” Reiner explained.
“To me, it was the best thing, because what morons,” Reiner continued. “What did they think? They (thought) that we shot the film, we edited it, (and) we got it into the theaters in two weeks? I mean, it is ludicrous. But to me, that was the great, perfect heavy metal moment: that they were so dumb that they thought that we stole it from them.”
In fairness to Butler, the doomed Sabbath tour began in 1983, and This Is Spinal Tap wasn’t released until ‘84, so it was a little longer than a two-week gap. But according to AFI, production on the mockumentary began in 1982, meaning that they had likely already finished filming by the time of the real-life Stonehenge debacle.
Incidentally, Ozzy Osbourne wasn’t mad about any of this — not just because he wasn’t a part of the ‘83 tour, but because he believed that This Is Spinal Tap was a genuine documentary.
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