According to Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, every major British band from the '70s insists it was the inspiration for the band Spinal Tap. Naturally, the frontman is pretty sure his band actually was an inspiration for the mockumentary rockers.

"There's lots of little elements in there we think happened to us and was about us," he tells Spinner. "But if you speak to members of Deep Purple, they'll say, 'Oh, no -- that was us.' Or if you speak to some of Black Sabbath, they'll say, 'No, no, no -- that was based on us.' Everybody thinks most of the Spinal Tap movie is based on them."

Spinal Tap, the fictional British band that became a real band with fictional attributes, spawned from the 1984 movie 'This Is Spinal Tap.' Twenty-five years later, the recently-reunited fake band remains a favorite among musicians who lived the lifestyle parodied in Rob Reiner's film.

"I think it's unlikely that any living and breathing British musician hasn't watched the Spinal Tap movie 10 times," Anderson says. "Of course, we all know it and revere it as a very good send-up movie made ironically by three very talented American actors and an American director."

Anderson thinks two factors suggest Jethro Tull did influence Spinal Tap. For one thing, he heard one of the film's advisors was a record label representative who toured with Tull. Secondly, Harry Shearer's character in the movie is named Derek Smalls -- a name similar to Derek Small, which comes up on two different Tull albums.

"I once took Harry Shearer to task when I interviewed him on a show I was doing in America," Anderson says. "I teased him by bringing up the reference to his character's name in the Spinal Tap movie. I said, 'How'd you come up with that?' And he said, 'I don't know -- it just came out of my head.'"

Anderson said he told Shearer that the name Derek Small is mentioned on two Tull albums, 'Thick as a Brick' and 'Passion Play.'

"I said, 'I don't suppose, Harry, you happen to have a copy of 'Thick as a Brick' in your record collection at home?'" Anderson recalls. "And he knew I'd gotten him then."