See the ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ Stars Then and Now

Crank the volume up to 11 because Spinal Tap is back!

Over 40 years after the iconic fictional rock band made their debut in the mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap, the band reunited for a farewell show in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, premiering on Sept. 12. This Is Spinal Tap parodied many infamous rockstar tropes from creative differences and stage mishaps to classic rock star freakouts over things like backstage food and building tension amongst bandmates.

In the film, Spinal Tap, made up of lead singer and guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and bass player Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), embark on their first U.S. tour in six years. However, as they prepare to release their next album, they realize their popularity has waned, creating internal tension within the band, captured by documentary filmmaker Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner).

Reiner — who also directed This Is Spinal Tap — spoke with PEOPLE about the film’s lasting impact, including how it has deeply resonated with many rock stars who watch the film regularly.

“Over the years, so many rockers have come up to us and said, ‘It’s a staple on the bus. We watch it all the time on tour,’ ” he said in July 2025. “And when I first met Sting, he told me that he’d seen it so many times, and every time he watched it, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

Here, see the This Is Spinal Tap stars then and now.

Christopher Guest

Guest portrays the over-the-top lead guitarist Nigel, whose rock star tendencies and guitar solos are often turned up to 11. Guest also co-wrote the film and once said he got the idea from watching a skirmish between a British band member and their manager.

“I was in a hotel in Los Angeles waiting for a friend in the lobby and an English band was checking in … The manager and I think there were four of them, they went up to the desk,” Guest told The A.V. Club in June 2017. “The manager says to one of them, ‘Where’s your bass?’ [and the bass player replied] ‘I don’t know. I think I left it at the airport.’ It went on for 15 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier except for the night I met my wife.”

Guest was a regular Saturday Night Live cast member from 1984 to 1985. He continued acting in and co-writing mockumentary films like Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration and Mascots.

He has also acted in films like Little Shop of Horrors and the Reiner-directed movies The Princess Bride and A Few Good Men. Guest also reprised his role as Nigel in 2025’s Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

The actor has two children with his wife, Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Michael McKean

McKean — who co-wrote the film — serves as Spinal Tap’s genre-bending, egotistical lead singer and guitarist, David. McKean appreciates the film’s lasting legacy, while also acknowledging that it was a struggle to make at times.

“What we had was 20 hours of film and we got it down to 85 minutes. It was a long, long chore,” McKean told PEOPLE. “But once we started showing it to people and knowing that the audiences who were there for the film really dug it … we also knew that the people who liked it would like it very much and would keep it alive.”

After the success of This Is Spinal Tap, McKean became a Saturday Night Live cast member from 1994 to 1995 and starred as Gibby Fiske in the HBO series Dream On. He also appeared in movies alongside Guest such as Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. The latter earned him a Grammy Award and an Academy Award nomination.

McKean was nominated for a 2019 Emmy Award for his performance as Saul Goodman’s (Bob Odenkirk) brother Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul, and he went on to voice Grandpa Lou Pickles in the 2020 Rugrats reboot. McKean reprised his role as David in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and also co-wrote the film.

Off-screen, the actor had two sons with his first wife, Susan Russell, whom he was married to from 1970 to 1993, before becoming a stepfather to two kids from his second wife, actress Annette O’Toole, whom he married in 1999.

Harry Shearer

Shearer plays the mellow, sometimes-out-of-it bassist Derek, who serves as a calming force amidst David and Nigel’s spats.

The actor became known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1979 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1985, while also appearing in films like Wayne’s World 2 and The Truman Show. Shearer is also an Emmy Award-winning voice actor, primarily working on The Simpsons as iconic characters like Mr. Burns, Wayland Smithers and Ned Flanders.

Shearer has hosted the public radio comedy and music program Le Show since 1983 and returned as Derek in Spinal Tap II: The End Begins. He was married to folk singer Penny Nichols from 1974 to 1977 and has been married to Welsh singer-songwriter Judith Owens since 1993.

Rob Reiner

Reiner directed This is Spinal Tap and plays the dedicated and fictional director, Marty. However, when the film premiered, not everyone realized it was a mockumentary, and some thought Reiner had chosen a rock band no one had heard of to cover.

“They came up to me and said, ‘Well, I don’t understand: why would you make a movie about a band that nobody’s ever heard of — and one that’s so bad? I mean, why wouldn’t you make a movie about the Rolling Stones or the Beatles or something?’ So it went over a lot of people’s heads,” Reiner told PEOPLE. “It’s that old adage that ‘satire closes on a Saturday night on Broadway,’ and that looked like it was going to be our fate for a long time.”

Reiner first rose to stardom portraying Mike “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family from 1971 to 1979, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and has acted in films like Sleepless in Seattle and The Wolf of Wall Street. Reiner is best known, though, for his directing career, helming films like Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally… and A Few Good Men.

One of Reiner’s most recent roles came in 2025 as restaurant consultant Albert Schnur in The Bear, and he returned to both direct and act in Spinal Tap II: The End Begins.

Reiner was married to actress/director Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981 and adopted her daughter — actress Tracy Reiner — before marrying his current wife, photographer Michele Singer, with whom he has three children, in 1989.

Fran Drescher

Drescher had a brief but memorable role as Bobbi Flekman, the blunt and perceptive artist relations executive at Polymer Records, who informs Spinal Tap that their album cover is sexist. Drescher spoke with Entertainment Weekly about how many musicians tell her they love This Is Spinal Tap.

“This is a movie that’s so revered by people in the music business. I love live music and I go see concerts all the time, but you know when I’m in a restaurant, Chris Martin comes up to me. It’s like ‘Oh my god!’ ” she said. “And then in an elevator with Bruce Springsteen and he says ‘I don’t want to bother you,’ [to which Drescher replied] ‘Bruce you can bother me. Bother me anytime you want.’ ”

After This is Spinal Tap, Drescher rose to fame as Fran Fine in The Nanny from 1993 to 1999 and later starred in the 2000s sitcoms Living with Fran and Happily Divorced. She also voiced Eunice a.k.a. the Bride of Frankenstein in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise from 2012 to 2022.

One of Drescher’s biggest roles most recently came as the lead in Indebted in 2020, and she reprised her role as Bobbi in Spinal Tap II: The End Begins. Drescher was married to Peter Marc Jacobson — with whom she produced The Nanny — from 1978 to 1999, and was in a relationship with Shiva Ayyadurai from 2014 to 2016.

June Chadwick

June Chadwick played Jeanine Pettibone, who is David’s overbearing girlfriend-turned-band-manager. She is often chock full of ideas and suggestions in a seeming parody of how Yoko Ono was presumed to have influence over The Beatles while dating John Lennon, but Chadwick claimed Ono didn’t influence her character.

“I never thought of Yoko actually,” Chadwick told Life in Dubly. “I based Jeanine on how I felt about David and his success (of course) with the band. In fact I was a classical musician, but grew into heavy metal!”

After This is Spinal Tap, Chadwick had a multi-episode run in V as Lydia and in the detective series Riptide as Lt. Joanna Parisi. She also had a role as Gillian in 1986’s Jumpin’ Jack Flash, which was directed by Reiner’s ex-wife Marshall.

After her last film part in the erotic thriller Facing the Enemy in 2001, Chadwick reprised her role as Jeanine in Spinal Tap II: The End Begins.