‘He was too young’: Penelope Spheeris pays tribute to Meat Loaf as ‘Wayne’s World’ turns 30
Wayne’s World,” director Penelope Spheeris would like to clear up a “crazy gossipy thing.”
“Bohemian Rhapsody” became a cultural touchstone thanks to the movie’s iconic head-banging scene with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s rock-loving, cable-access dudes from “Saturday Night Live.”
But internet rumors persist that Spheeris really wanted a Guns N’ Roses song in that sequence instead of the memorable Queen number. (In 2018, Myers told Stephen Colbert that he threatened to walk off the movie when the studio pushed for GNR.)
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“That’s just nuts,” Spheeris tells USA TODAY. She had tried to cast Axl Rose’s band in her 1988 documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.” “They were on board for most of the time and then right before we were going to shoot, they bailed. So there was no way I was going to hire Guns N’ Roses. I was mad at them!” She laughs and then adds, “Although Slash is a very good friend right now. I love him.”
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“I will always, if I’m making a movie, try and boost it up wherever I can with music that I feel makes a difference,” Spheeris says. “To me, a movie is half visual and half audio – it’s not mostly visual like most people think. The audio is so extremely important and you can get so much more emotion if you choose the right song.”
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The scene proved to be a tough one to film, with Myers and Carvey complaining about neck and head pain during two arduous overnight shoots. However, Spheeris was “pretty confident” all their head-banging effort was going to be worth it because she test-drove the same exact bit in her 1987 movie “Dudes,” where Jon Cryer and Flea (from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) rock out to “Hava Nagila” in a blue Volkswagen.
Meat Loaf’s daughter pays tribute, recalls his final moments
And before legendary rocker Meat Loaf had his own huge music comeback in 1993 with “Bat Out of Hell II: Back in to Hell,” Spheeris cast her old friend in a small part as a bouncer named Tiny. Spheeris knew the singer from record-label parties thrown at clubs like the Rainbow Bar and Grill on the “insane” Sunset Strip in the 1980s.
“He loved doing it. It was just a little tiny moment just like Chris Farley but people remember them. Meat Loaf sure did know how to be a bouncer at a door because he and I walked through many of those doors and came up against those bouncers,” says Spheeris, adding it was “very shocking” to hear about the musician’s death last month at age 74. “I’m really sorry about it. My gosh, he was too young.”
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