Rob Reiner Talks New Spinal Tap Book ‘A Fine Line Between Stupid And Clever’

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 09: (L-R) Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Rob Reiner arrive at the premiere of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on September 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)

The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images

Although they remarkably look alike, Rob Reiner wants people to know that despite the fact that he and This is Spinal Tap and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues documentarian look exactly alike, they are not one and the same person.

“Well, I’m hoping that they’re not the same because as you can see, Rob Reiner is married,” Reiner said during a Zoom conversation on Wednesday. “He’s been married 36 years (pointing at this wedding ring) and Marty DiBergi had one failed relationship that lasted about half an hour. I mean, that’s about his longest relationship. He’s not successful with the women.”

Worse yet, the iconic director noted, DiBergi’s career “has been quite sad.”

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“He was hoping that the Spinal Tap would launch him into a career and he did get, in all fairness, one studio picture,” Reiner playfully added. “It was a sequel to a very famous Academy Award-winning film, Kramer vs. Kramer, with Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, but the sequel that he made was Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Godzilla and it didn’t do what he had hoped it would do, which was to launch his career. So, he went into a tailspin.”

Now, 41 years later, the dual documentarians are back with not only Spinal Tap II: The End Continues — which plays in Thursday previews and opens in theaters on Friday — but the new book A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The History of Spinal Tap (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), which was released on Tuesday.

Spinal Tap fans will be happy to know that in addition to getting Reiner’s new book about the history of the greatest fictional-turned-real rock and roll band with A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, there’s even more. When readers flip the tome over, they’ll also get Smell the Book: The Oral History of Spinal Tap with Di Bergi, Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls.

So, at least one book, Reiner and DiBergi do exist in the same space.

A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever (and Smell the Book) contains everything a Spinal Tap fan could hope for, including a deep dive by Reiner, with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer into how DeBergi and Spinal Tap — Nigel Tufnel (Guest), David St. Hubbins (McKean) and Derek Smalls (Shearer) — came to be.

And while Reiner and his collaborators have shared stories of the landmark film over and over with journalists over the past four decades, Reiner said there’s something special involved with putting the story of Spinal Tap down on paper.

Reiner details at the beginning of A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever the origin of his friendship and creative relationship with Guest, McKean and Shearer, which he said began with the connection his friend David Lander had with everybody. Lander, who died in 2020 at the age of 73, starred as Squiggy opposite McKean’s Lenny in the classic ABC sitcom Laverne and Shirley.

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“It’s unbelievable the way I met Michael McKean, because it was through David Lander, who was David Landau at the time,” Reiner recalled. “We hung out all the time and. I met, you know, I met Michael through him, and we all kind of knew each other in this loose world of improvisational comedians. We were in each other’s orbit and got drawn to each other and don’t know why. It’s cosmic, it’s Kismet. Who knows why, but you end up connecting with these people and you make music and you make comedy.”

Before This is Spinal Tap, the faux-turned-real rockers first appeared in 1979 ABC-TV special The TV Show. Eventually, This is Spinal Tap became such a cultural touchstone that it was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2002 and Spinal Tap released more recordings and began touring for real.

‘A Fine Line Between Stupid And Clever’ Chronicles The Making Of The Ultimate Rock And Roll Nightmare

In This is Spinal Tap, which was released in 1984, Marti DiBergi captures on film what is believed to be the final tour of the once-hugely popular British hard rock group Spinal Tap. Along the way, however, Marty experiences up close and personal how everything that could possibly go wrong with the waning band and their final tour does go wrong.

Part of A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever — named after one of the many classic quotable lines from This is Spinal Tap — includes observations of the film from several music icons. Among them are Slash of Guns N’ Roses, Steve Lukather and Steve Porcaro of Toto, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Don Henley of the Eagles — who calls This is Spinal Tap “triggering.”

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“A lot of people say that,” Rob Reiner said. “The first time I met Sting, he said to me. ‘I’ve watched this film over and over, and every time I watch, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry because it hits so close to the bone.’ The film is funny, but people also go, ‘It’s a little uncomfortable.”

Luckily, Spinal Tap’s rock and roll nightmare has ultimately become a dream for not only fans of the movies, but many iconic musicians, including Paul McCartney and Elton John— both of whom play tunes with Nigel, David and Derek in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

“They’re now famous and it’s because of the film,” Reiner enthused. “And, they also are great musicians. They can all play, and they’re very proud of the fact that every note that you see is played by them.”

The interesting part of the musician’s observations in the book is that it’s not all rockers who have experienced Spinal Tap-like misfortunes as musicians. Among the book’s contributors is country music royalty Rosanne Cash — and Reiner said the list goes on and on.

“I saw Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles yesterday and she came up and said same thing others have: ‘You’re showing me my life,’” Reiner said. “Anybody who’s talked with me or any of the guys [Guest, McKean and Shearer] has had their Spinal Tap moments. Whether it’s heavy metal or a folk band or whatever it is, they’ve all had those experiences on the road and the film has become a staple on their tour bus as they travel around the country.”

Gettin’ The Band Back Together

The flip side of A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, of course, is the Spinal Tap experience from a different point of view because it’s an oral history of the band in printed form, where Marty DiBergi interviews Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls.

Rob Reiner said that Smell the Book — a take-off of This is Spinal Tap’s infamous Smell the Glove album — unfolded the same way his interactions with the band in This is Spinal Tap and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues did, where he, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer went all in with bringing their famous alter-egos to life once more.

“We sat in a recording studio and I was Marty and just interviewed them,” Reiner said. “Whatever you read that was then transcribed and put in the book. It’s exactly how we work all the time, as it’s completely improvised. We have our history, we know our history and can draw on it, but all the dialogue is improvised.”

A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever/Smell the Book is now available through online and brick-and-mortar retailers, while Spinal Tap II: The End Continues plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.

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