Did Sabrina Carpenter Steal from Spinal Tap?

Who stole from Spinal Tap? That's that her, Sabrina Carpenter. With the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues—in theaters September 12 from director Martin Di Bergi—one of England's loudest bands is back to promote their last-ever concert and the documentary that chronicles their reunion after 15 years of disbandment.

In an exclusive with Esquire, band members Nigel Tufnel (actually Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) assemble for an on-camera group interview to discuss what they've been up to lately, share their struggles to keep up with TikTok, and sound off on some of music's biggest names today. While they are fans of Taylor Swift and her "great selection" of boots, bassist Smalls takes umbrage at Sabrina Carpenter, believing she stole her cover for Man's Best Friend from Spinal Tap's own Smell the Glove.

(A disclaimer before Carpenter stans get mad, and for anyone else who might have missed the memo: Spinal Tap is fictional. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is the long-awaited sequel to the still-hilarious 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, which details the highs and lows of an obnoxious glam-metal group during the Reagan years. The 2025 sequel satirizes band reunions and how far out of touch era-defining rock stars can become when they grow old. Okay? Okay. Back to the illusion.)

"She stole from us," says Smalls. "The photograph of her on her new record, she's on all fours, just like Smell the Glove."

Tufnel points out that the infamous original cover of Smell the Glove was "only described" in This Is Spinal Tap. "We never actually printed that up," he says in the video. Accusations of sexism toward the proposed cover—that of a greased, naked woman on all fours with a collar on her neck and a man's arm holding a glove up to her face—led to the band releasing Smell the Glove with just a simple black square. (How black? "None more black.")

"In my mind it was printed up," adds St. Hubbins.

Elsewhere, over on The Hollywood Reporter's podcast It Happened in Hollywood, director Rob Reiner (i.e., the real director of This Is Spinal Tap and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues) commented on Carpenter paying homage/ripping off Spinal Tap. "What she's doing is taking off on what we talked about, the album cover that was banned by Spinal Tap. She's playing off of that, which is great. [This Is Spinal Tap] is this Möbius strip that keeps bending into itself. Life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art."

Ironically, Smell the Glove's "censored" cover went on to have a unique legacy in music, influencing the likes of Metallica, Jay-Z, Weezer, and even Prince. If you're curious what that original Smell the Glove cover looked like, you can see it in a rare Billboard magazine ad from 1983.

The video ended with conversations about how Spinal Tap played with Elton John and received compliments from Sir Paul McCartney. "A talented bloke," says Tufnel. "He and I have a few differences; eventually we'll get over them because we'll never see each other again."