tavis: good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight a look at the 25th anniversary of the classic rock mockumentary "this is spinal tap." with original members christopher guest, harry shearer, and michael mckean. later this year m.g.m. is releasing a special 25th anniversary d.v.d. which will feature new material. the trio is kicking off a tour glad you've joined us for a about the u.s. auto industry

and edie falco, coming up right now. >> there are so many things wal-mart is looking forward to helping us doing, like helping you live better. with your help the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it. >> ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ >> and by contributions to your viewers like you. thank you. tavis: they're making me laugh already. ok. here we go.

"this is spinal tap." christopher guest, harry shearer and michael mckean are the talented trio behind the classic rock 'n' roll mockumentary. on the occasion of the 2 ath anniversary re-release of their film, they are about to embark on a tour, i love this title, "the unwigged and unplugged tour." i love that. >> yes, sir. tavis: the tour kicks off april 17 in vancouver. before we get to that, a scene from "this is spinal tap," followed by a rather unorthodox press conference for the tour held recently here in los angeles. ♪ ♪ walk swiftly

♪ i'm losing ground ♪ ♪ living in a hell hole ♪ ♪ don't want to stay in this hell hole ♪ ♪ don't want to die in this hell hole ♪ ♪ god get me out of this hell hole ♪ tavis: christopher, harry, michael, glad to have you all here. >> we have to point out when you come to see us, you will hear all three guilt ars, not just the one. >> there was a sound problem. tavis: if you hadn't given that

away, nobody would have known. >> we would. do you miss it? or do you every night still put on your spandex? >> no. i dream about it at night though. >> you know that dream when you wake up and you're still in high school? i wake up and i'm still in spandex. >> and do you get the same ññ reaction you did in high school? >> which is what? >> well, i am always naked in the dream. i prefer the spendex. tavis: how did this happen, for those who were kids or don't remember the back storey to it, give me the back storey to "this is spinal tap." >> chris and mike and i were all involved with rob reiner in a television pilot in 1979 called "the tv show" and one of president pieces on it included this made-up band. michael still has the piece of paper with all the possible names for the band.

the one we ended up with was spinal tap. we did a song. and if you remember in those days, they had midnight special and wolfman jack and we did a little proto video in that. then after they did that, we thought maybe there's more to this. chris rat. >> pipe down now. don't need you now. tavis: walk away. >> i'm used to that. tavis: how did it get to be spinal tap? >> i think michael knows the answer to that. i'm going to cut to the chase. it sounded like the most painful possible experience imaginable and we thought that sums up this band's approach to music. tavis: that's all i wanted was an answer. i started with you and ended with up. could have just stayed with you. now, christopher, i'm going to ask you a question and you are going to give me a -- an

answer, sir. >> i'll 2r50eu789 tavis: when this came out, there were a lot of people who didn't think this was fake. >> who didn't think it was fake in tavis: they thought it was a real documentary. >> well, so did we. imagine that as a rude awakening. it's an odd thing. very schizophrenic. michael and i started writing music together in 1967 and we'd played in a bunch of bands, done a tour and formed this group to make this movie, went out on the road and when you're playing as these guys you look out in the audience and you don't know really what people are thinking because we're playing music as opposed to actually the groups going out now that aren't. but that's a whole other -- that's a different show. so it's an odd thing. it's always been an odd thing because we created this band which then became a real band. we've done several tureds -- tours. why am i doing that?

>> i don't know. >> because life is like a chinese box. but to follow up on that, to save chris, i think when we did live shows as spinal tap i think the best show from my standpoint was watching the audience, the shows we saw. because some would be getting the joke, reciting all the words with us, serious fans, bringing cucumbers or other things they thought were funny to conjure up things in the film and others who were clearly there just because we were the loud band in town. tavis: i heard a quote from eddie van halen who said when he saw the movie it wasn't as funny to him because it mirrored his life. >> steve tyler says the same. guess they've had the same life. tavis: it's the 25th anniversary and there is so much being made of this. a lot of folk getting to see it

who were kids then, didn't see it then. tell me how the story line develops, what you guys are going to do in the film. >> oh, what we're going to do in the film or what we've done? tavis: what you did then. >> we put up a big map of the united states and said what string of disasters can lead them from one coast to the other? >> just back up, it's a fairly mediocre british band which has managed to hang on and this is their american tour which is sort of make or break and a big fan of the band decides to make a film to help them along and he really just documents their immediate icon riment tavis: and whatever happened to the drummer snrks the poor drummer in >> the guys don't fare well. but we are happy to say that our original drummer from the movie is still reportedly on the planet. >> alive and kicking. >> well, not kicking the

>> alive though. tavis: what do you make of the fact that snag you guys toiled with and quite frankly tooled with for years, doesn't just get made and do well but becomes a cult classic. not everybody in this town gets a chance to be connected to something that becomes a cult classic. >> well, it's in the freaking smithsonian, if i can pronounce it correctly. when we were trying to sell it to hollywood producers, who all just looked at us blankly, they said "rock 'n' roll movies never make money," and they were right, we didn't. but we were convinced this was a story. we weren't making anything up. almost everything in this is drawn from our experience with bands or being around people in bands. everybody knows what rock 'n' roll bands are like and maybe what their girlfriends are like

if they're let loose and we, i know i felt that if we just got a chance at an audience it could have some impact. >> wait. aliens invade mars? >> good, isn't it? >> we'd be the aliens. >> no, they'd be uranus. he got hung up on that. >> but kids third generation on are coming and digging the movie. >> what was the question? i lost track. [laughter] tavis: i have another one for you. i guess the sense, i met you the first time as a group, but i get the sense that as funny as this was, that you guys took the music part of it seriously. am i right about that? >> i think you're right. we take the music seriously because if the music isn't good and the songs aren't well crafted then the whole thing falls apart. the idea was not to play music badly or write bad songs. it was to take songs and

perhaps craft them so that the lyrics were pretension -- pren tentious -- pretensionous ond the solos were over the type and kind of cheesy. the -- that's a challenge. and the songs remain still popular to some extent because they work. tavis: while we're being serious for half a second doctor i promise i won't do this more than a minute -- >> i thought we were done. tavis: see what i mean? you joked about the fact that you couldn't stell -- sell is it to studios, they said rock 'n' roll movies don't make money. obviously it did ok but -- >> no, it didn't. not at first. tavis: what's, as an artist though, as actors, musical artists, help me understand how you make a decision, what the process is for you to do something to go forward with

something when everybody tells you don't do this, everybody says it isn't going to work or you're wasting your time. there is something about this project you're corrected -- connected could -- to that you want to get this thing done? >> to that point there is a serious answer. four of us made this movie, rob reiner and the three of us and there were points prior to it being released that if it hadn't been for people supporting each other, because three of us at any one time said you know what? i've had enough of it, people would not only say these movies don't make money, they'd say i don't know what you're talking about, i don't get it. there is no screen play. but i would say it was very close to being sheffielded. -- shelved. rob at one point i guess yelled at someone and the guy just ok, i guess. >> the first studio we were

affiliated with went out of business. >> and the studio that finally did release it went out of business so there say curse. true story. chris' point is well taken. i think the four of you served as a mutual support nuclear -- network to keep the fire lit because to get any movie made you have to bank your enthusiasm and wait for the guy to say yes, then all of a sudden you have the same enthusiasm you had at the beginning and it's hard for an individual to do that. tavis: i like that idea. you have to bank your own enthusiasm sometimes until they give you permission to with crau -- withdraw it. that's amazing. why do you think for all the hell you had to endure to get this thing out, not why, what do you think made the fans connect to it? when you finally got it out, what made it work? >> some of it was familiar.

it was close enough to the reality of being a fan that had a pet band that never really made it. that might have something to do with it. and we tried to design the jokes with a little shelf life so we wouldn't necessarily be all done laughing at them by 18, ar 1984. or 1884. that would have been a hell of a family. >> within of the things i realized recently about it is we had so little money to make the movie that we couldn't fill the screen with objects that say this is when this is happening, like if you had a big budget, here's a phone, a car, tv's. so you see very few objects that place the movie in time and so you look at the movie now and it is d can look con temporary as opposed to a museum piece. tavis: and i'm just curious, at the end of every show we tape i

always ask off camera, the best piece of advice they've ever received. i figure if i'm going to get access to all these brilliant minds that come through the show, i should get advice. i collect that and file them away. we'll do that when you guys get done. but where this project is concerned, speaking of advice, what did each of you take from this experience of having done this that you have called upon again doctor again over the course of your career? what did you take out of this? >> i would say that looking back on the experience we had primarily for me because it was improvised, i thought and felt, i remember writing down before the film came out what i thought of the film. so there had been no critics that had written about it, no one had seen it and i wrote down on a piece of paper what i thought. i thought this is going to be a pure situation as opposed to after it coming out and if it

was acclaim saying this is wonderful. but i think what i took from it is when i started to direct movies i took the experience of the fun we had doing it, working with people i respected and liked a lot, and i thought well, why wouldn't i want to do that again? so when i made "awaiting for guffman" and "best in show," i thought of my friends and how funny they were and i thought i should continue that because why wouldn't you want to do that in tavis: wow. harry? >> going back to what we were just talking about, the necessity of sort of valuing your own stubbornness. if you think something's worth doing don't get swayed just because four million people say are you kid tg? keep at it. >> 10 million. >> right. and rising the tavis: mike? >> those are both really good answers.

i would have to say i -- it reinforced what i've always felt, that un -- stuff is funniest when it's closest to reality. people muck -- mugging up a storm, you have to be pretty great to get away with that. but if there is identification with the person and it's played like it's real, it's always more moving to me. tavis: so the six-week, 30-city tour -- >> yeah. >> tavis: you guys ain't as young as you used to be the >> that's why we're not wearing spandex. >> we're wearing no-ex of any kind. tavis: i'm anxious to see this my -- myself because you guys are playing out of character. you're playing spinal tap music but not playing the characters. >> we're also playing folksmen music, some of my songs from "mighty wind," so we're basically coming on the way we are here tonight as ourselves

why -- in our own clothes with our own hair, what's left of it. tavis: but are you in your own skin? >> that is a good question. when we did a press conference recently somebody called and said what are you going to wear? because we normally wear costumes and strange head pierces and this is us. we did a few performances where it was fun to be just playing acoustic guitars, you could actually hear the music, you weren't bombing people out and this is music we've written over the last 30 years and it felt fun. but who are we? that is a good question. tavis: it feels fun for you guys. will the fan base connect to it? >> well, we'll know in six weeks. [laughter] >> we'll be finding out. >> that's our little experiment in terror we're conducting right now.

but the question for us is, to quote a famous bumper sticker or paraphrase it, what would we do? we're having the experience right now, rehearsing the music for the show, not just doing acoustic covers of rock 'n' roll material, we're reimagining the songs because when we played them as the guys in tap or the folksmen, we were making their choices, doing what the characters would do musically. now we're making offer you -- our own choices, which are different. tavis: here's a weird ne. not the first or last one i've asked. if this were not connected with the 25th anniversary of the celebration of spinal tap, would you guys be interested in this? >> oh, yeah. this predated that. we started talking about this two years ago. >> momea was 2004. we did the music of course modern art in new york city and

after that i said this was really fun, we all greed, so this has been in the works as something we've all evolved and thought maybe it was the may to do it. >> it was supposed to be to celebrate the 50th anniversary of public television originally. [laughter] tavis: got to love harry shearer. talk to me, christopher, about, i don't want to color this question deliberately. but talk to me about just documentary film making the >> i wish i knew. well, i -- the documentary format is probably my favorite format, and the films i've done and it really started with rob's directing "this is spinal tap", but what i liked about it was the spontanity of -- in terms of what the actors could do on the set and if you get

great improvisers it creates something very unusual. these takes are as you see them happening and i related to that. it was not only funnier for me, it was more interesting even emotionally to build it into a story that could be satisfying the this movie "waiting for guffman" is about this rather sad town that puts together this play pu there is -- but there is something very endearing about it. you have compassion for these people even though they have no talent. you are rooting for them. they believe they're going to go to broadway. i've recently thought about doing an actual documentary, not a faux one, then i reel izzied people who think it was funny and i wouldn't -- couldn't do it.

i had an idea to do one and i realized it would backfire because people would be waiting for the jokes. so i think i oors -- sort of -- >> talk -- talked yourself out of it in >> you've definitely talked me out of it. >> and it was about michael. tavis: what's amazing to me, chris, is i think that because of president way technology works today and because everybody has a story to tell and we keep seeing more stories told through the footage of everyday, ordinary people, i'm not so sure that the documentary category as we know it isn't going to blow up and expand in this country. >> because of reality television people think they're on tv. people are now proposing to each other and breaking up publicly. you hear every argument in every restaurant 10 times louder than it used to p. >> michael, we're not arguing.

>> no, no, we've resolved that. no, i think reality television is one of those great objection i morons. -- oxymorons. >> everybody haze story to tell but not all stories are worth watching. >> it's true. tavis: it's easy to see that you guys have been friends for so long. do you did, you finish each other's sentences and -- >> we're all fairly polite. but we get het up. >> oh, you get het up. you get a fire under your belly. >> i got halfway up this morning. >> it's interesting to me because we all get asked about each other and we're three incredibly different people. but we share these sensiblities and sense of humor and love of music. those things have bound us together for way too long now.

tavis: so we're on pbs. 25 seconds. i'm going to shut up and let you talk about the tour. >> when we're done with "tavis "-- >> no, talk to the camera. >> it's wonderful and funny -- >> talking. you talk about. >> there is q.&.a. at the end. there's wonderful merchandise for sale in the lobby. >> that's right. that's right. >> you'll love it. >> we don't autograph body parts. >> now back to tavis. tavis: are you convinced now to go chem -- check them out on the six-week, 30-city tour? now that's moving forward. thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. >> ♪ well since my baby left me ♪

>> same key, i think. >> ♪ well since my baby left me ♪ >> if i'm gl -- going since my baby left me -- >> no, you can't hit that know. >> ♪ since my baby left me ♪ ♪ well i've found a new place to twefment ♪ >> that's all right. >> that sounds ragga. you don't want to go ragga. >> barber shop raga. >> watch the language. we're in the home of the king. >> this is thoughly -- thoroughly depressing. >> it really puts perspective on civil rights attorney and political advisor vernon jordan. that's next time. we'll see you then.

>> there are so many things that wal-mart is looking forward to doing, look helping people live better but mostly we're looking forward to helping build stronger communities and relationships. because of your help the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports "tavis smiley" the tavis and nationwide insurance. working to improve financial literacy and the economic with ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ announcer: and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> we are pbs.