Judas Priest

Spinal Tap possesses all the trappings of what a great heavy metal band is supposed to be. From the insane pyro to their intense passion for all things leather and spandex, no one would have batted an eye if they arrived on the scene circa 1985 and sang their songs completely straight next to people like Motley Crue and Poison. But outside of their massive hair metal aesthetic, Rob Reiner got the main inspiration by going back one generation to Judas Priest when he saw them live.

Rob Halford was already one of the biggest frontmen of all time by the time Screaming for Vengeance came out, but when going out to see them during that time, Reiner remembered getting notes for how he wanted the band to sound, noting that the band played so loud that it physically hurt him to stand there. But listening to any of Priest’s records, it was about more than the screaming. They wanted to create something epic, and considering how well they’ve kept up their hot streak, the metal troubadours have practically taken things to 14 compared to Spinal Tap’s meagre 11.

Tom Petty

In the grand scheme of rock and roll history, Tom Petty is the last person most people expect to be one of the inspirations for a mockumentary. While he has made some incredible songs, the heartland rocker was far from the most extravagant performer in the world, and even when he made shows a spectacle, he didn’t do much other than stand there and sing his timeless music. But it turned out not every band needed to get onstage to catch Guest’s eye when making the movie.

In one behind-the-scenes package, Petty fell into the trap of getting lost underneath the stage, going all around the arena before getting stuck inside an indoor tennis court. It may have been a small mistake, but Guest took that moment to the nth degree, essentially turning the entire bit into a maze in the backstage area before they finally find the curtain and are thrown onto the stage to perform. No one’s looking to get themselves into one of those situations, but it’s better to approach it with humour than holding onto that for too long.

Van Halen

Everyone who’s seen the mockumentary knows how much Nigel Tufnel comes off like a dick about the deli tray. Guest may have been playing it up a bit, but the idea of rock stars throwing their handful of tantrums is nothing new, dating back to when Elton John would lose his cool when subtle details weren’t spot-on. But for a band that seemed designed to be parodied by Spinal Tap, Van Halen’s approach to meticulous backstage accommodations was actually a lot more functional than a lot of people thought.

The heavy metal icons did indeed have a habit of insisting that no brown M+Ms be found backstage, but David Lee Roth explained that the process was to make sure the show went off without a hitch. Despite Guest taking the concept and running with it, Roth knew that if they found the brown M+Ms backstage, the venue didn’t read their tour rider properly and would eventually run into issues when it came to the stage, whether that be with lighting or pyro. It’s hard to take Roth at his word every time, but if they had not done the M+Ms incident, who knows? Perhaps they would be in for Alex Van Halen becoming much more flammable than he normally was.

Led Zeppelin

Rock bands don’t always need to come off as foolish to inspire a mockumentary like This is Spinal Tap. Any rock star seems larger than life whenever they are onstage, so it would make sense to make a movie that pokes fun at them and reminds everyone that they are simply average people who happen to play for thousands of people every night. But when bands put themselves up on a pedestal, it’s much easier for people like Reiner and Guest to take a couple of shows on their own.

Even though everything from The Band’s The Last Waltz and The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter shed a spotlight on them, The Song Remains the Same by Led Zeppelin is the clearest example of what Spinal Tap was shooting for. There is some stellar live footage from the hard rock pioneers throughout the film, but the idea of them shooting fantasy sequences for themselves did make them look more than a little bit silly in retrospect. It’s not exactly a one-to-one comparison, but it’s easy to look at the massive amount of excess on display and see Spinal Tap beating Zeppelin at their own game.

Black Sabbath

Compared to the other metal icons that Spinal Tap was based on, Black Sabbath were the ugly sisters of rock and roll in their earliest days. Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin garnered their fair amount of respect back in the day, but Sabbath was more than happy to plough through and not worry about what any of the critics had to say. There were already songs that sounded like rejected Spinal Tap titles towards the end of the Ozzy Osbourne era, but once Ronnie James Dio decided to fly solo, the Born Again period unintentionally made them one of the biggest examples of rock and roll excess.

There were already tracks like ‘Rock and Roll Doctor’, but after getting Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan into the group, the band wanted to make a performance that bands would never forget and suggested making a version of Stonehenge onstage. But whereas Spinal Tap got stuck with the tiny version of the rock formation, Sabbath made everything look life-sized, to the point where the props could have easily killed someone if they weren’t grounded properly. Say what you want about it being incredibly pretentious, but the fact that a real-life Stonehenge appeared onstage is proof that communication is key when putting together any stage show.