When you think of the "nice guys" in Hollywood, names like Tom Hanks, John Travolta and Morgan Freeman are thrown about. But to paraphrase his signature role, "Here lies Michael McKean ... and why not?"

Best known to '80s fans as "David St. Hubbins" in 1984's This Is Spinal Tap, McKean seems to have a love-love relationship with die-hard fans of his iconic comedies.

"I don’t encounter any fans that are of the stalker variety, mainly because they know that Spinal Tap doesn’t really exist, the Folksmen (from A Mighty Wind) are a figment of a very old imagination and that Corky didn’t write all those songs in Waiting for Guffman," McKean told Stuck in the '80s in a recent interview. "Our fans are very smart."

But doesn't he get tons of doughy middle-aged men showering him with quotes from the movie?

"Yeah, but that doesn't bother me," he says. In fact, during the interview for our podcast, he quoted Spinal Tap more than we did. Our Stuck in the '80s interview is now online. Click here to listen or click here to get all our shows for free via iTunes. Here are some highlights:

ON THEIR UPCOMING 'UNWIGGED AND UNPLUGGED' TOUR: "I gotta say that the 'unplugged' part is kind of a lie. You gotta plug these days a little bit. But it’s not going to be in the '11' area. It’s gonna be more like 8 1/2."

ON ADJUSTING SONGS FOR THEIR ACOUSTIC SET: "We try to find a middle ground. We do an item called Funky Sex Farm, which is our Sex Farm song done as an acoustic trio of older white gentlemen with a nice element of rap as well. That’s pretty embarrassing -- in the best possible way."

HOW THEY AD-LIBBED 99 PERCENT OF SPINAL TAP: "We just hired people we knew could do that, like Howard Hesseman and Paul Benedict, and hired people brand new to us like Fran Drescher and Dana Carvey, people who went on to some success you could say. A lot of happy accidents really."

-- Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer's Unwigged and Unplugged Tour comes to St. Petersburg's Mahaffey Theatre on May 8. Check for dates near you.

[Publicity photo]