Eddie and Alex Van Halen thought This Is Spinal Tap “wasn’t funny” because it was too true to life
The 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap hit a little too close to home for the Van Halen brothers, as Alex shares in his new memoir that there were a lot of elements to the film that felt more true than parody.
The comedy film centres around the struggles of an English metal band as they contend with low ticket sales for their concert dates and try to find popularity within the charts again amid the release of their new album Smell The Glove. A long-awaited sequel is currently in the works featuring guest appearances from Paul McCartney and Elton John.
READ MORE: Alex Van Halen consulted Brian May for advice on how Van Halen could continue without Eddie
In his new memoir, titled Brothers, Alex recalls how he and Eddie felt the film explored many things that they experienced in real life. He says, (as shared via LAist), “That wasn’t funny at all. Ed and I saw it and we said, ‘That’s what we experienced!’
“That is really how things happen. It’s mind bending. The public doesn’t really have any idea what goes on behind the scenes. And I’m certainly not going to burst the bubble. But that movie, there were a lot of elements that were more true than they were parody,” he states.
Eddie passed away in 2020 following a cancer battle. Also in his memoir, Alex has reflected on how Eddie “ate up” the adulation he got for his talent before finding himself “overwhelmed with the burden of it”: “To have all that talent was probably the biggest curse he ever carried. The fact was that Ed was an incredible player, but in the end he paid for it with his health, paid for it with his life,” he told Rolling Stone.
Brothers, the new memoir by Alex Van Halen, is out now.
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