Derek Smalls is the bassist for Spinal Tap, the mock metal group created by Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Rob Reiner in 1979. The quartet later expanded their joke into the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap, which attracted such a cult following that the group was able to "reunite" for an album called Break Like the Wind in 1992, which was followed by a tour.

After Break Like the Wind, Shearer -- who portrayed Derek Smalls -- Guest and McKean put Tap on ice. They reunited in 2003 to play the Folksmen -- a parody of the Kingston Trio -- for Guest's comedy A Mighty Wind, but didn't do anything else until 2007, when the group played the climate change concert Live Earth. In 2009, the trio celebrated the 25th anniversary of This Is Spinal Tap with the Unwigged Unplugged tour, which was documented on a home video and a tour in 1992.

Shearer launched a solo career for Derek Smalls with Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing) in 2018. Featuring a bevy of guests including Steve Lukather, Donald Fagen, Waddy Wachtel, Richard Thompson, Paul Shaffer, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani -- Smalls Change appeared in April 2018. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi