Tap in Real Life: "Carla Renee White, 17, beat out 10 other women in casual wear and evening gowns to win a Berkeley County, S.C., beauty contest now in its 30th year: Miss Hell Hole, named after the Hell Hole Swamp. White will not compete in the Miss South Carolina Pageant because the entry fee is too steep, but the pageant director said, 'We'd love to have Miss Hell Hole.' " —from News of the Weird, citing Boston Globe, 5-4-01

"Prodigy producer Liam Howlett defends the group's single, Smack My Bitch Up, saying the title phrase is not about hitting women. He says it means 'doing anything intensely, like being on stage.' " —Associated Press (12/4/97)

"To me, This is Spinal Tap was the greatest truth. It was like a handbook for being a rock band." —Antony Langdon of Spacehog (Rolling Stone 5/16/96)

"The first time Steven [Tyler] saw it he didn't see any humor in it. That's how close to home it was. He was pissed! He was like, That's not funny!" —Brad Whitford, Aerosmith (Spin, May 1997)

"When that movie came out, we related to it and laughed. But as time went on...oh boy." —Slash

"If there was a Metallica sandwich, what would it be?" —a reporter for a children's magazine, questioning the band backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards (Newsweek)

Q: What do you think of Satanic Majesties now?
A: Well, it's not very good. It had interesting things on it, but I don't think any of the songs are very good. It's a bit like Between the Buttons. It's a sound experience, really, rather than a song experience. There's two good songs on it: She's a Rainbow and 2000 Light Years From Home. The rest of them are nonsense.
Q: I listened to it recently, and it sounds like Spinal Tap.
A: Really, I know. —from an interview with Mick Jagger (Rolling Stone, 12/14/95)

"This is Spinal Tap hits every guy who ever wanted to be in a band and failed. On a guy level, it just kills me." —actor David Caruso, asked which movie he always cries at (Premiere, July 1995)

"Heavy metal has the sort of gutsiness that suits the cello." —a spokesman for a Finnish cello quartet, on the group's plan to record a CD of songs by Metallica (Newsweek)

"Nancy was getting at Sid and wanted to be his manager. The ego games were so appalling, it resembled something out of Spinal Tap." —Rotten, by John Lydon