JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs every weeknight at 11:35 p.m. ET and features a diverse lineup of guests that include celebrities, athletes, musical acts, comedians and human interest subjects, along with comedy bits and a house band. The guests for Monday, September 8 included Spinal Tap (Nigel Tufnel aka Christopher Guest, David St. Hubbins aka Michael McKean and Derek Smalls aka Harry Shearer) and Marty DiBergi (aka Rob Reiner) (“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues”), and musical guest Spinal Tap. (Disney/Randy Holmes) SPINAL TAP (Photo by Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images)
Disney via Getty Images
Spinal Tap — the greatest fictional hard band in cinematic history — is back with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, and director Rob Reiner couldn’t be any more thrilled.
How could he not be? After all, the first Tap film, This is Spinal Tap, which was released in 1984, went on to define the mockumentary genres as documentarian Marty DiBergi (Reiner) went on to chronicle the mishaps of a British hard rock band led by guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer).
However, the band literally played on after the end credits for This is Spinal Tap through new albums, live concerts, TV specials, short films and different iterations of the musical talent (remember The Folksmen in A Mighty Wind?).
Effectively, what began as a fictional rock ‘n’ roll fever dream in a strange sort of way morphed into reality. And for that reason, Reiner said in a Zoom conversation this week, getting back into character for Spinal Tap II wasn’t all that hard.
“We know these characters inside and out, and we have histories and have written their backstories,” Reiner enthused. “We know these people and when we get together, we fall right back in. We are like the band in the second film. They had played in 15 years, but once they start playing, they fall right back in and it’s like seeing an old friend who you haven’t talked to in a long time. You just pick up where you left off.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 09: (L-R) C. J. Vanston, Harry Shearer, Valerie Franco, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Fran Drescher and Rob Reiner attend the premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on September 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
Getty Images
New in theaters nationwide on Friday, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues finds the band in ruins after a nasty breakup 15 years earlier. Nigel runs a guitar and cheese shop in a quaint village outside of London and Derek runs a glue museum in London. David, meanwhile, is far across the pond in the U.S., where he composes music for murder podcasts in a studio in Morro Bay, Calif.
While Spinal Tap’s manager, Ian Faith (the late Tony Hendra), has passed away, his daughter, Hope (Kerry Godliman), discovers that the seemingly worthless paperwork he left her contains a contractual obligation for the band to play one last concert.
As such, Marti gets his cameras rolling as he attempts to get the band back together for the show, which is set for New Orleans. Like before, though, the hapless members of Spinal Tap just can’t seem to get out of their own way.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues also features original This is Spinal Tap cast members Fran Drescher, Paul Schaffer and June Chadwick in cameo appearances as Bobbi Flekman, Artie Fufkin and Jeanine Pettibone, while the likes of John Michael Higgins, Don Lake, CJ Vanston, Valerie Franco and Chris Addison join the cast for the sequel.
Rob Reiner Wanted Cameos With Meaning For ‘Spinal Tap II: The End Continues’
Thanks to pre-release publicity and the release of the film’s trailers, word came out relatively early that cameos from several prominent musicians would be featured in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.
Among them are famous drummers Questlove, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lars Ulrich of Metallica, as Spinal Tap hopes to coax one of them to play the drum kit in their concert because their previous 11 drummers all suffered from mysterious deaths.
Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood also turn up briefly in Spinal Tap II, while music icons Paul McCartney and Elton John play much bigger roles as themselves in the film.
Rob Reiner said it was important that the presence of every famous person who shows up in Spinal Tap II works within the context of the film.
“I was conscious of that because you don’t want a movie to be just loaded with celebrity cameos, like it’s stunt casting or something,” Reiner explained. “If you’re gonna have a famous person in there, they better be there for an integrated reason. So, when it’s Paul McCartney or Elton John or Garth Brooks, they have to be worked into the story in a way that serves the story.”
While Reiner has had overwhelming success over the years working with some of the best actors in the business in such classics as The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally …, Stand by Me, Misery, A Few Good Men and The Bucket List, he still gets “pinch me” moments and having John and McCartney provided him with more of those surreal feelings.
Amping up those feelings was the opportunity to film John and McCartney perform some of Spinal Tap’s songs with the band for Spinal Tap II.
“To work with these people that you’ve admired and looked up to for all these years — I mean, I couldn’t have been a bigger fan of the Beatles and I couldn’t have been a bigger fan of Elton John’s work — so it was a thrill.”
Better yet, Reiner noted, they are both pleasant people to be around.
“When you meet them — and I’ve met both of them before a couple of times — they’re the nicest people in the world,” Reiner said, smiling. “Paul McCartney is the most down-to-earth person I’ve ever met, not just in rock or movies or whatever, just as a person. He’s a great guy.”
The release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues tops off a big week for Reiner. On Tuesday, he released the book A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: A Story of Spinal Tap (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), which includes observations from Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer.
On the flip side of A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever is the bonus tome Smell the Book: An Oral History of Spinal Tap, where Marty DiBergi interviews Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls.
As Reiner mentioned in our Zoom conversation about the book, Smell the Book features a transcription from a real interview Marty does with the band in the recording studio, which in turn was transcribed.
“It’s exactly how we work all the time, as it’s completely improvised,” Reiner said. “We have our history, we know our history and can draw on it, but all the dialogue is improvised.”
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is new in theaters nationwide.
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