Last year’s release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues satiated the appetite of Gen Xers and Late Baby Boomers who grew up with the original. Now, another ’80s guitar classic, Crossroads, may be receiving the same Hollywood treatment in the form of a potential sequel, at least according to screenwriter John Fusco.
Fusco and Ralph Macchio – who starred as the skinny, stoic Eugene “Lightning Boy” Martone, complete with iconic blonde Fender Tele – have stayed in touch. And, over the years, the topic of a potential Crossroads II has cropped up multiple times.
“Ralph and I, we call… and he’s like, ‘Man, you know we should do some kind of anniversary thing,’” Fusco tells Guitar World’s Adam Kovac in an in-depth feature on the making of the original.
“And I said, ‘We should do the freaking sequel.’ He’s like, ‘No shit, really? Do you have an idea?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I have an idea for it.’ So Ralph and I have talked about it. We’ve got a plan.”
Exactly what the sequel will look like, or when it’s expected to go into production, remains, well, top secret. But Fusco teases that it will be “exciting to music fans, to blues purists.”
“It would be years and years later, less about Eugene Martone and more about someone relevant today,” Macchio says. “I can’t go into a deep dive on that stuff, but I haven’t given up on it.”
Best of all, Steve Vai is game to reprise his role as metal-blues guitar master Jack Butler. “I know Ralph wants to kick my ass,” the virtuoso chuckles. “Jack Butler needs his revenge!”
Vai may need to dig out his iconic red Jackson for the performance, which intrepid GW writer Eric Kirkland tracked down after a 20-year quest.
For more about how Crossroads was made, plus new interviews with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, pick up issue 611 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.
