Back in 1992, Guitar World sat down with the creative triumvirate at the head of Spinal Tap – guitarists David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, and bassist Derek Smalls.
The occasion was Break Like the Wind, the band's highly-anticipated 1992 reunion album. It saw the group move proudly forward with their humorous, hooky brand of brash heavy rock, while also having some looks back – in the form of the proto-Tap skiffle tune, All the Way Home, and the flower-power throwback, Rainy Day Sun – at their musical journey to that point.
Most notable, though, was the album's title track – a proggy epic that featured not one, not two, not three, but four guest guitar solos from a dream team of six-string gods – Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, and Slash.
It was, St. Hubbins and Smalls told Guitar World, meant to be a surprise tribute to Tufnel, ever their tone-master and fretboard-melter. Touching, eh?
Tufnel, though, was if anything a bit miffed by the headline-grabbing lead spots – intruding as they did on his creative vision.
Asked by Guitar World to discuss the track in question, St. Hubbins pointed to the surprise factor as being a sore point, saying “He [Nigel] is a bit sensitive about it. He really didn't know about all this.” Tufnel added, with a touch of bite, “It's what you call a sucker punch.”
The two guitarists proceeded to bicker a bit, with St. Hubbins maintaining that the collaborations were merely intended as a nice tribute, and that Tufnel misunderstood the intention of it.
“I understood it very well,” he countered. “It was a surprise – that part of it worked – and I understand the tribute part, but I walk in and see on the board, from left to right, ‘Neve’ [the recording console], then ‘Beck, Satriani, Lukather, Slash.’ I thought it was a send-up. As if I'd said, ‘Here's the vocal track: David Bowie.’ [David St. Hubbins] would have gone, ‘Ha ha ha. Very funny.’ ‘No, David. The real David Bowie is singing on this instead of you!’”
The guitarist went on to say that he merely wanted to be let in on the decision: “The point is, ask me. Say, ‘Nige, what 'bout this idea?’ Give me the chance to say no.”
St. Hubbins, in turn, said, “And you would have said no, because of your modesty. What we asked them was, ‘How would you like to come in and replace eight bars by your idol, a person you respect?’ They really do respect Nigel.”
“You know, you can't pay Jeff Beck just to play on your record,” Derek Smalls added. “You can't ring up the musicians' union and say, ‘Give me Jeff Beck's number.’ It would cost you a fortune just to have him come in and do an eight-bar solo. He did it out of respect. And Nigel's too modest to acknowledge that.”
Spinal Tap would later go on to share the stage with, among others, Satriani. In that case, Tufnel – while coming away amazed by the former's virtuosity – certainly, and unsurprisingly, had the upper hand when it came to volume.
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