Everyone wants to know...
...where did you get the name?

It all started many, many years ago when I was in college at Towson State University. Larry Hirsch and Bill Tavik, two of my band mates, thought that I looked like a Stumpy Joe. They started calling me by that nickname and I've been known by it ever since. The original Stumpy Joe comes from the movie This Is Spinal Tap.

Marty: Your first drummer was uh....

Nigel: The peeper....

David: Joe stumpy Pepys...great great...uh...tall blond geek... with glasses uh...

Nigel: Uh.. good drummer.

David: Great look, good drummer.

Nigel: Good, good drummer....

David: Fine drummer....

Marty: What happened to him?

David: He died, he, he died in a bizarre gardening accident some years back.

Nigel: It was really one of those things...it was...you know...the authorities said...you know...well best leave it unsolved, really...you know.

Marty: And he was replaced by...uh....

David: Stumpy Joe - Eric Stumpy Joe Childs.

Marty: What happened to Stumpy Joe?

Derek: Well, uh, it's not a very pleasant story...but, uh, he died... uh...he choked on...the ac- the official explanation was he choked on vomit.

David: He passed away.

Nigel: It was actually, was actually someone else's vomit. It's not....

David: It's ugly.

Nigel: You know. There's no real....

Derek: You know they can't prove whose vomit it was...they don't have the facilities at Scotland Yard....

David: You can't print, there's no way to print a spectra-photograph...

Nigel: You can't really dust for vomit.

This is Spinal Tap
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Writing credits: Christopher Guest & Michael McKean [more]