Just last week we learned of the passing of one of our favorite members of the Missoula rock community. Ric Parnell passed away at the age of 70.

Ric Parnell began his career in music back in 1970. He played in multiple bands. He provided the drums for Toni Basil's hit "Mickey," and he had an offer to join Journey. But, Ric's big break came in the '80s when he landed the role of Mick Shrimpton in the mockumentary, "This Is Spinal Tap." Ric eventually settled in Missoula. He hosted his own radio show on "Trail 103" cleverly titled, "Spontaneous Combustion," which paid homage to his character from "Spinal Tap."

With the sad news of Ric's passing, comes a shining light from the rest of the "Spinal Tap." We recently discovered that fans of the popular mockumentary will soon be getting a sequel.

40 years after the release of "This Is Spinal Tap," it appears "Spinal Tap 2" has been given the green light to film.

According to a recent article from Deadline, director Rob Reiner says

The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, why don’t you do another one? For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honor the first one and push it a little further with the story.

 

The movie is scheduled to be released in March 2024.

We cannot wait to see how they pay homage to Ric and his character "Mick's spontaneous combustion."

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