Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Card King here right come. Hello, music fans, music collectors,
and all hobbyists. Welcome to the car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Catman, Brian Katoquit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
M e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for news and talk on
the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in this
(00:34):
morning on the program. I welcome to the show. Uh
Canadian heavy metal rock Icon. He is the lead vocalist
of the legendary Canadian heavy metal band and Bill. I
welcome to the program. Steve aka lips Cutlow, Steve, great.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
To have you, great to be had.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Oh it's my pleasure, my pleasure, and you know, Steve,
you know I watched the Anvil documentary which got me
interested to reach out to you. For my USA listeners
who may not be familiar with the band. Give us
an intro to the band Anvil.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, we started out and basically late seventy seven. I mean,
but I've been playing with the drummer since nineteen seventy three,
so it's a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Really.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
We didn't get a record deal till eighty nineteen eighty
late eighty or something like that. Our first album was
called Hard and Heavy and we've put out twenty studio.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Albums since that time.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Long, long, long, long history been to Helen Back, and
I can honestly say I've had a great life and
a great time. So that's a basic fundamental background right there.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, Now, you know, I noticed a few things that
I picked up watching anvil, you know, YouTube videos. I
noticed a few things. First. The first thing I noticed
that you were really a trail blazer of pioneering the
vibrating sound on the guitar. And yeah, I wanted to
ask you, how did you come up with that idea?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Well, initially when we first when we first started out,
we called the band Lips after my after my nickname,
and it was somewhat modeled really after Ted Nugent in
a certain sense because I you know, it's the center
of the band and the other guitar player sang a
(02:37):
couple of songs, but.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Generally the lineup was somewhat of.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
A of a Ted Nugent kind of lineup where you
got the lead guitarist, lead vocalist as the main guy
and with a name like with a name like lips.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It was suggestive. It was Rick Day in a certain sense.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And originally all the all the songs were supposed to
be about sex, not not like the mentors, but more
more more subdued in a certain sense, you know what
I mean, a little more hidden, not as as as
(03:24):
brazen ly vulgar. Okay, trying to be somewhat intelligent about
how we use the double meanings in our lyrics, but
in doing so, we when we first went out, we
were we're trying to think of things that would make us.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Memorable to an audience. And uh, what happened.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Was, of course we were you know, we drape all
kinds of things like put bras and and boas and
and panties and hang them from the hang them from
the mic stands and stuff like that. That that was
the first initial ideas. And then of course having songs
like Bedroom Game and.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know a C d C.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Which was about a girl who went both ways. It
wasn't about the band. I mean, that's the first first
album stuff, right, And what what what happened was I
remembered when I was a little kid. Of course, I
started playing guitar at a very young age. When I
was still playing with it with toys, and I had
(04:31):
it like a motorized, a motorized little toy called a Motorific,
and it was it was basically a car that was
interchangeable parts and it had a little electric motor in
it that ran by batteries, a battery eyed little motor.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And one day I.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Had the little toy right near the guitar and I
could hear the sound of the little odor coming through
the pickup and into the amplifier, and I'm going, Wow,
that's really.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Cool, is there?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
As you get closer, you know, going wow, that's wow.
You know you don't as a kid, you're going wow,
that's that's amazing. But there's nothing amazing about a magnet
with a coil being spun in front of a pickup.
Of course, the pickup's going to pick it up. But
did I know that when I was ten? No, I
(05:27):
found out. So there I was at about I don't know,
eighteen nineteen years old, and there was a company called
Consumers Distributing, And the way that these guys worked is
you'd go into the shop and you'd fill out what
you see in the in the in their in their
(05:49):
catalog and write down the serial number, go up to
the front desk, hand them the piece of paper with
it with a serial number, and then to bring you
the bring you the product.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, in this magazine they.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Had vibrators for three dollars, and I saw that and
I went, I got a great idea. I'm gonna play
my guitar with that.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow, I mean, yeah, go ahead. No, this is interesting
because at that age I mean to think of these concepts.
I mean, there's no doubt about it. You were destined
to do this for a living, No.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
You No, I had made the decision.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I had made the decision when I was ten years
old what I was going to do with my life.
As insane as that sounds, but my brother, as a witness,
would tell you that I stood in the living room
when I was ten years old, when I first got
my first elector guitar, and I go, this is what
I'm gonna do with my life.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah yeah, And you know, I'm sorry, I absolutely gehead. Now,
you were finishing the story about the vibrator, the vibrating sound, so.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Of course course it was.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It was a very hard plastic uh hard plastic vibrator,
which of course opened up the idea that I could
use it as for bottleneck, which is a technique on
a guitar where normally you would.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Use either a piece of a piece of.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Metal tubing or or or a piece of glass. Originally
it was a piece of bottle like a pop bottle
in the early early days.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Of course, if the blues blues.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Guys, they bust a wine bottle and just stick their
finger in the end and use the bottle, the broken
piece of bottle to slide on the against the strings.
And of course you don't frat, you don't, you don't,
so it has a fluid sound. Everybody's heard the sound
of bottleneck. Johnny Winter, Dwayne Almond. I mean, these are
(07:50):
these are guys that that that uh were greatly known
for the for for using those techniques and of course
the sound of the motor. But as time as of course,
as time went on, I perfected all this stuff and
discovered that well I need something that varies in modulation.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So they make vibrators with with with a speed control
on it, a variable speed control, so that you could
as you it revs you know, you go.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Up and down. So it almost became musical in a
certain sense. And then of course being influence and inspired
by Eddie van Halen, I started realizing, hey, you can
do hammer ons with this thing. You could do bottleneck
you could, you could bang the strings with it, you
(08:55):
could you could run the vibrator through it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So it had a multitude of things that it could
be done with it.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And of course I worked it into into worked it
into the songs where it became musical where I'm actually
play play sections that are lead guitar. Really it's lead
guitar being done with a vibrator aside from just the
noise that comes out of it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So it's and truth be told, it's not easy.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
It looks easy, but I beg anybody to try it,
and you'll find out it's not so easy. Especially doing
hammer ons. You're using the tip, the tip of the
vibrator to tap on the strings, So how good can
you do that? It's not like using your finger, is it.
So there's you know, it takes a certain amount of
(09:53):
dexterity and practice for it to actually become a fluid
of fluid and usable uh sort of thing. So yeah,
that's that, and that's how how it all came to be.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well that that's what I'd mean like, so that really
stood out to me, your your sound onut guitar. And
another thing that stood out to me was the wardrobes
that you guys wore, you know, late seventies, early into
eighty one. I mean, there wasn't anything like that, I
recall as far as your competitors were doing this, you
know in Canada, no, there were there.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I mean the leather with studs really began once again
with Ted Nugent with his arm armband things, the really big,
long extended.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
One with all the studs in it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I mean, I don't know if anybody even remembers it,
but that that's really somewhat.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The origins of where that really began.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Of course, Judith Priest An Iron Maiden and all the
bands in Lynn started wearing studded leather, and I just
took it, took it, took the influence and inspiration and
created created stuff, not only the arm bands, but then
(11:16):
of course, uh, I guess you could call it a
bonded suit. They were straps that you strap yourself in,
and they had studied they're all studded and stuff like that.
So it's uh, you know, of course sexual because it's
still tied in with with what the whole idea of
what the band was initially originally when we were called Lips,
(11:39):
but once we once we changed to the name Anvil,
that that sort of stuff kind of fell side to
the side. You know, it wasn't it wasn't as imperative
to go there because it wasn't it wasn't as centered.
And by the time nineteen eighty three came around, I
(12:00):
stopped wearing.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
The bondage suit. I stopped wearing this stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I was just wearing, you know, thought off jean jackets
and stuff like that. I moved away from it, particularly
particularly on the tour that we did with Motorhead, you
know when they call it the Glory Days. Our Glory
Days was one full on tour through the UK with Motorhead,
(12:26):
and things changed. That was in eighty three. I didn't
wear the bondage suit, stop wearing it, and it wasn't
until eighty four that I brought it back for one
show in Japan, right, which is which we made the
Metal on Metal video for that, and I was wearing
(12:46):
a bondage suit. Beyond that, there was there was another
point that still had the bonded suit that I made
some kind of new one and had like long fringes
and it was red and my guitar had all kinds
of lipstickers all over it. That was like one one
(13:09):
off tour in eighty seven or something like that. And
I've never looked back, never never bothered with that stuff
ever since. So, but I mean, you know, it's a history.
It's stuff goes out of style. Obviously, you're not going
to be doing that much like high screaming singing that's
pretty much blond these days. It sounds ridiculous when you
(13:32):
hear it. Why is that guy screaming like a woman.
It's a guy, you know. Like I think a lot
of a lot of things have changed in the metal,
in the metal world, what becomes in style and what
goes out, you know, what comes in, what goes out,
and you know all the variables.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
You know we're talking with Lips Cutlow of Anvil, who's
with us this morning? And you know Lips You know,
I did not know this until I read the band's biography.
I did not know that the Big four thrash metal,
the big four groups Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. These
four bands were all inspired by Anvil, you know, well them, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
But we before them.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It's like it's like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple led Zeppelin,
You're Rayah Heap and you know Robin Trauer and and
and Jimmy Hendrix and the Cream and and all that
influenced me because they're older than I am. Right, So
that's what it's really about. It's about it's about It's
not about how much money these other bands make or
(14:43):
how popular they were.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
It's the influence.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Influence is a completely different thing. It's like Budgie, you know,
twenty albums, no commercial hits, you know what I mean,
They're not big, and when they got big it was
because Metallica did one of their songs.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah. I mean, I mean here you got Scott Ian
of Anthrax saying they listened to you in eighty two.
I mean they were inspired by Metal on Metal.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Right, But I was influenced by the by the stuff
that came from England in the seventies. So you know, everything,
everything has its origins, right.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, I guess. But I want to ask your lips
Metal on Metal recording that you know that that song
that album, Uh, did you have any idea how big
that would become.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, hell, no, of course, not no clue. How could you.
I mean, it's the same thing, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Deep Purple put out machine Head and they thought the
song never before was going to be the big hit.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
They had no idea it was going to be Smoke
on the Water. I gonna know that.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
The people tell you what you are. You know, you
think you know what you are, but really the people
know what you are and who you are. That's really
the people decide, and they decide to the point where
how many records you sell and how big you get
or how popular? Right, So it's really all up to
the people, and you take cues from it and you
(16:22):
know where to go and how to get there, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And Lips, I got to ask you eighty two, I
got to ask you this question you probably asked all
the time, the invitation to join Motorhead. How did that
come about?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Well, in eighty one we opened for Motorhead. It was
our first show after we changed our name from Lips
to Anvil, and our first album, First had just come
out and Let Me Love the Band. You thought we
were awesome. You thought there were too many changes, too many,
(17:00):
too many hard parts. But aside from that he thought
we were awesome and he knew how enthusiastic and my
blues based background and rock and roll. So we came
to a show in eighty three, actually in late eighty
(17:22):
two when and Eddie Clark quit That night, he was
here in Toronto and I went backstage. We were all
backstage and hanging out, and the show ended early because
Lemmy was Lemmy wasn't feeling well, and that prompted Eddie
Clark fast Eddie to quit the band. Well, the next morning,
(17:48):
the phone rings and its Motorheads manager going, we need
lips Man to come out and join Motorhead Man. Our
guitar player just walked out. Of course, at that particular moment,
I'm in the middle of recording the Forge and Fire album.
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
You can't do it. I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I'm not only contractually, but but in a certain sense
spiritually involved.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Man. You don't leave your buddies. Man. You know, in
the in the in.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
In mid in mid swing, it's like you're in the
middle of a baseball game and you're up to bat
and it's like, I'm gonna quit this team. I'm joining
another team, and I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
That's sort of sort of what happened. So I couldn't
do it. Lemme was pissed. There's no lying about it.
He was not happy about it because he thought that.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
He may have been very right. It could have been
really magical, but as it turned out, I didn't end
up doing it, and he got Brian Robertson to do
it a few months later after they had recorded the Uh,
another perfect day and we had we were just getting
ready to put out Forge and Fire. We met up
(19:07):
at a festival in Belgium called Heavy Sound Festival and
let me let me pull me aside and pulls me
into the change room and he sticks some headphones on
and he says, listen to this.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're gonna love it. And it was another perfect day.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
And of course I listened to it and I loved
the album and I'm going, who the hell did you
get to play guitar? It's amazing and he told me
it was the guitar player from Thin.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Lizzie, And of course, wow, freaking out man, this is great.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Next thing I hear is let Me's asked Anvil to
open up all through the UK on that tour. So
that's that's how it ended up the way it did.
And we were connected really all the way to the end,
(19:56):
all the way to the end. Let me was great friend,
a great guy, like an older brother.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Just awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
So so even to this day, lips no regrets on
that decision.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, how do you well, how there's a regret, but
you can't what do you do to change it?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I'm just thinking, how different imagine if you joined the Motorhead,
how different the Motorhead guitar sound you know, would have been.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Well, you know, the thing is, the thing is you
got to you got to imagine what Motorhead might have
sounded like doing wing dissassins or or motormount or or
or butterbus jerky.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
There's there's similarities, but it's not you know what I mean.
Anvil's a separate entity. I didn't want to give up.
I didn't give up my my own identity, which is important.
And here I am some forty five fifty years later,
still at it with with twenty albums of my own.
(21:04):
I I did it on my own, I I and
and and I dare say I did it without ever
having a sell out. And I never will. And that
was my intention. You know, people go, Ryan, you never
made it big. Hey, who wants to make it big?
I want to stay in the underground and I did.
That's precisely where metal belongs.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
You don't.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You don't make pop songs. You're not you're not Madonna,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
You're not. You're not you're not Lady Gaga. You're not
you know what I mean. You're not. You know, you're
not a pop a pop artist.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You're your metal. And real metal does not really belong
on commercial radio, not really. It's something that people listen
to in their living room and in their cars and
in their in their headphones when they're when they're you know,
when they want to rock out.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
That's what it really is. Man.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's it's metal music. It's it's it's its own, it's
its own thing. It's it's and it belongs sort of
in the underground. That's where it flourishes. And like the fans, everybody,
the fans are all about the obscure. As soon as
everybody knows who the band is, it's over to a
(22:25):
great degree. There's there's half a dozen, half a dozen
super big bands and they that's it. And even even
in that case, they're barely on the radio.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right. So my my initial.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Ideas of what, where, what metal is and where it
belongs are correct, whether people want to believe that or not.
But the world is a very judgmental place. If you
don't make millions of dollars, you haven't made it. But meanwhile,
you know, you can be an independent hardware store and
make a living your whole fucking life, right, or you
(23:03):
can be home depot, right. But just because you're a
local hardware store doesn't mean you haven't made a good
living and had a good life. And that's precisely the
same same criteria when we talk about about rock and roll.
You can be an obscure musician and make a living
(23:25):
for your whole life and have a great, great life.
And you know what, the guy who ultimately wins the
prize is the guy who has recorded the most songs.
That's who wins.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Interesting, and I have a couple of minutes, but I
want to get this in with your lips. The eighty
four world tour with the Scorpions, bon Jovi, Whitesnake, that
must have.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Been It wasn't a world tour, it was a Japanese
a Japanese short run.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
We did like five cities.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You did five cities just being around those guys. I
mean you picked up a lot, a lot, you learned
a lot just beat around those legendary artists.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well, if nothing else, I had a great time. What
are you?
Speaker 3 (24:10):
What are you picking up? What are you picking up?
You know what am I going to pick up from
blon Jovi? That's going to be useful for anvil, right like.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Right like you said, you're your own identity, you're your man.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I already have an identity. I had an identity when
I went up there, when I was doing it, and
it's it's I didn't really I don't know that I
learned anything really other than you write a good jingle
and you got to hit single and you're a big band.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
That that's what I saw happen, which I didn't want
to do and never have and still haven't and won't.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I'm not interested in that. It's not what metal is about.
And certainly I could have picked up a cover tune.
Uh huh, Right, there are things I could have you
can say, should have, would have, could have, but I
never did because that's selling out and I want to
do that. I don't want to become that big who
(25:13):
the hell wants that? No, you know, the theaters opening
opening slots.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
That that's the that's the best world.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I've had a great, great run, man, absolutely phenomenal and
lifts before.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Before I say goodbye, I want to ask you happy
with the Anvil documentary the way it turned out?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Oh of course.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Logical, something like that only happens once, and and only
to one one band. You know, you're not going to
get that. You're not going to see anybody else to
do that again.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
All right, So I have one minute left. So what's
down the pipeline for you?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
What's down the pipeline? Well, we're going to be coming
out to the.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
USA quickfully if we get if if we get our
work papers in time, which has become a real issue
these days, we're gonna come out probably next May or June,
in July and do another full, full on run all
through the States.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
But this time it's pounding the past. The first three
albums will be centered on in the set, and that's
what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
See, this was great. I really appreciate your time. Thanks
for coming on.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Okay, man, no problem, I have a great guys, all
the best everybody.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And you just heard from Steve Lips cutlow of Anvil
until next week. Copings
Card King here right come. Hello, music fans, music collectors,
and all hobbyists. Welcome to the car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Catman, Brian Katoquit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
M e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for news and talk on
the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in this
(00:34):
morning on the program. I welcome to the show. Uh
Canadian heavy metal rock Icon. He is the lead vocalist
of the legendary Canadian heavy metal band and Bill. I
welcome to the program. Steve aka lips Cutlow, Steve, great.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
To have you, great to be had.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Oh it's my pleasure, my pleasure, and you know, Steve,
you know I watched the Anvil documentary which got me
interested to reach out to you. For my USA listeners
who may not be familiar with the band. Give us
an intro to the band Anvil.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, we started out and basically late seventy seven. I mean,
but I've been playing with the drummer since nineteen seventy three,
so it's a lifetime.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Really.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
We didn't get a record deal till eighty nineteen eighty
late eighty or something like that. Our first album was
called Hard and Heavy and we've put out twenty studio.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Albums since that time.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Long, long, long, long history been to Helen Back, and
I can honestly say I've had a great life and
a great time. So that's a basic fundamental background right there.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, Now, you know, I noticed a few things that
I picked up watching anvil, you know, YouTube videos. I
noticed a few things. First. The first thing I noticed
that you were really a trail blazer of pioneering the
vibrating sound on the guitar. And yeah, I wanted to
ask you, how did you come up with that idea?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Well, initially when we first when we first started out,
we called the band Lips after my after my nickname,
and it was somewhat modeled really after Ted Nugent in
a certain sense because I you know, it's the center
of the band and the other guitar player sang a
(02:37):
couple of songs, but.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Generally the lineup was somewhat of.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
A of a Ted Nugent kind of lineup where you
got the lead guitarist, lead vocalist as the main guy
and with a name like with a name like lips.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It was suggestive. It was Rick Day in a certain sense.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And originally all the all the songs were supposed to
be about sex, not not like the mentors, but more
more more subdued in a certain sense, you know what
I mean, a little more hidden, not as as as
(03:24):
brazen ly vulgar. Okay, trying to be somewhat intelligent about
how we use the double meanings in our lyrics, but
in doing so, we when we first went out, we
were we're trying to think of things that would make us.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Memorable to an audience. And uh, what happened.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Was, of course we were you know, we drape all
kinds of things like put bras and and boas and
and panties and hang them from the hang them from
the mic stands and stuff like that. That that was
the first initial ideas. And then of course having songs
like Bedroom Game and.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know a C d C.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Which was about a girl who went both ways. It
wasn't about the band. I mean, that's the first first
album stuff, right, And what what what happened was I
remembered when I was a little kid. Of course, I
started playing guitar at a very young age. When I
was still playing with it with toys, and I had
(04:31):
it like a motorized, a motorized little toy called a Motorific,
and it was it was basically a car that was
interchangeable parts and it had a little electric motor in
it that ran by batteries, a battery eyed little motor.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And one day I.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Had the little toy right near the guitar and I
could hear the sound of the little odor coming through
the pickup and into the amplifier, and I'm going, Wow,
that's really.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Cool, is there?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
As you get closer, you know, going wow, that's wow.
You know you don't as a kid, you're going wow,
that's that's amazing. But there's nothing amazing about a magnet
with a coil being spun in front of a pickup.
Of course, the pickup's going to pick it up. But
did I know that when I was ten? No, I
(05:27):
found out. So there I was at about I don't know,
eighteen nineteen years old, and there was a company called
Consumers Distributing, And the way that these guys worked is
you'd go into the shop and you'd fill out what
you see in the in the in their in their
(05:49):
catalog and write down the serial number, go up to
the front desk, hand them the piece of paper with
it with a serial number, and then to bring you
the bring you the product.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, in this magazine they.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Had vibrators for three dollars, and I saw that and
I went, I got a great idea. I'm gonna play
my guitar with that.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow, I mean, yeah, go ahead. No, this is interesting
because at that age I mean to think of these concepts.
I mean, there's no doubt about it. You were destined
to do this for a living, No.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
You No, I had made the decision.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I had made the decision when I was ten years
old what I was going to do with my life.
As insane as that sounds, but my brother, as a witness,
would tell you that I stood in the living room
when I was ten years old, when I first got
my first elector guitar, and I go, this is what
I'm gonna do with my life.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah yeah, And you know, I'm sorry, I absolutely gehead. Now,
you were finishing the story about the vibrator, the vibrating sound, so.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Of course course it was.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It was a very hard plastic uh hard plastic vibrator,
which of course opened up the idea that I could
use it as for bottleneck, which is a technique on
a guitar where normally you would.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Use either a piece of a piece of.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Metal tubing or or or a piece of glass. Originally
it was a piece of bottle like a pop bottle
in the early early days.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Of course, if the blues blues.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Guys, they bust a wine bottle and just stick their
finger in the end and use the bottle, the broken
piece of bottle to slide on the against the strings.
And of course you don't frat, you don't, you don't,
so it has a fluid sound. Everybody's heard the sound
of bottleneck. Johnny Winter, Dwayne Almond. I mean, these are
(07:50):
these are guys that that that uh were greatly known
for the for for using those techniques and of course
the sound of the motor. But as time as of course,
as time went on, I perfected all this stuff and
discovered that well I need something that varies in modulation.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So they make vibrators with with with a speed control
on it, a variable speed control, so that you could
as you it revs you know, you go.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Up and down. So it almost became musical in a
certain sense. And then of course being influence and inspired
by Eddie van Halen, I started realizing, hey, you can
do hammer ons with this thing. You could do bottleneck
you could, you could bang the strings with it, you
(08:55):
could you could run the vibrator through it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
So it had a multitude of things that it could
be done with it.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And of course I worked it into into worked it
into the songs where it became musical where I'm actually
play play sections that are lead guitar. Really it's lead
guitar being done with a vibrator aside from just the
noise that comes out of it.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So it's and truth be told, it's not easy.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
It looks easy, but I beg anybody to try it,
and you'll find out it's not so easy. Especially doing
hammer ons. You're using the tip, the tip of the
vibrator to tap on the strings, So how good can
you do that? It's not like using your finger, is it.
So there's you know, it takes a certain amount of
(09:53):
dexterity and practice for it to actually become a fluid
of fluid and usable uh sort of thing. So yeah,
that's that, and that's how how it all came to be.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well that that's what I'd mean like, so that really
stood out to me, your your sound onut guitar. And
another thing that stood out to me was the wardrobes
that you guys wore, you know, late seventies, early into
eighty one. I mean, there wasn't anything like that, I
recall as far as your competitors were doing this, you
know in Canada, no, there were there.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I mean the leather with studs really began once again
with Ted Nugent with his arm armband things, the really big,
long extended.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
One with all the studs in it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I mean, I don't know if anybody even remembers it,
but that that's really somewhat.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
The origins of where that really began.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Of course, Judith Priest An Iron Maiden and all the
bands in Lynn started wearing studded leather, and I just
took it, took it, took the influence and inspiration and
created created stuff, not only the arm bands, but then
(11:16):
of course, uh, I guess you could call it a
bonded suit. They were straps that you strap yourself in,
and they had studied they're all studded and stuff like that.
So it's uh, you know, of course sexual because it's
still tied in with with what the whole idea of
what the band was initially originally when we were called Lips,
(11:39):
but once we once we changed to the name Anvil,
that that sort of stuff kind of fell side to
the side. You know, it wasn't it wasn't as imperative
to go there because it wasn't it wasn't as centered.
And by the time nineteen eighty three came around, I
(12:00):
stopped wearing.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
The bondage suit. I stopped wearing this stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I was just wearing, you know, thought off jean jackets
and stuff like that. I moved away from it, particularly
particularly on the tour that we did with Motorhead, you
know when they call it the Glory Days. Our Glory
Days was one full on tour through the UK with Motorhead,
(12:26):
and things changed. That was in eighty three. I didn't
wear the bondage suit, stop wearing it, and it wasn't
until eighty four that I brought it back for one
show in Japan, right, which is which we made the
Metal on Metal video for that, and I was wearing
(12:46):
a bondage suit. Beyond that, there was there was another
point that still had the bonded suit that I made
some kind of new one and had like long fringes
and it was red and my guitar had all kinds
of lipstickers all over it. That was like one one
(13:09):
off tour in eighty seven or something like that. And
I've never looked back, never never bothered with that stuff
ever since. So, but I mean, you know, it's a history.
It's stuff goes out of style. Obviously, you're not going
to be doing that much like high screaming singing that's
pretty much blond these days. It sounds ridiculous when you
(13:32):
hear it. Why is that guy screaming like a woman.
It's a guy, you know. Like I think a lot
of a lot of things have changed in the metal,
in the metal world, what becomes in style and what
goes out, you know, what comes in, what goes out,
and you know all the variables.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
You know we're talking with Lips Cutlow of Anvil, who's
with us this morning? And you know Lips You know,
I did not know this until I read the band's biography.
I did not know that the Big four thrash metal,
the big four groups Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. These
four bands were all inspired by Anvil, you know, well them, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
But we before them.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
It's like it's like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple led Zeppelin,
You're Rayah Heap and you know Robin Trauer and and
and Jimmy Hendrix and the Cream and and all that
influenced me because they're older than I am. Right, So
that's what it's really about. It's about it's about It's
not about how much money these other bands make or
(14:43):
how popular they were.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
It's the influence.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Influence is a completely different thing. It's like Budgie, you know,
twenty albums, no commercial hits, you know what I mean,
They're not big, and when they got big it was
because Metallica did one of their songs.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah. I mean, I mean here you got Scott Ian
of Anthrax saying they listened to you in eighty two.
I mean they were inspired by Metal on Metal.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Right, But I was influenced by the by the stuff
that came from England in the seventies. So you know, everything,
everything has its origins, right.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, I guess. But I want to ask your lips
Metal on Metal recording that you know that that song
that album, Uh, did you have any idea how big
that would become.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, hell, no, of course, not no clue. How could you.
I mean, it's the same thing, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Deep Purple put out machine Head and they thought the
song never before was going to be the big hit.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
They had no idea it was going to be Smoke
on the Water. I gonna know that.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
The people tell you what you are. You know, you
think you know what you are, but really the people
know what you are and who you are. That's really
the people decide, and they decide to the point where
how many records you sell and how big you get
or how popular? Right, So it's really all up to
the people, and you take cues from it and you
(16:22):
know where to go and how to get there, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And Lips, I got to ask you eighty two, I
got to ask you this question you probably asked all
the time, the invitation to join Motorhead. How did that
come about?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Well, in eighty one we opened for Motorhead. It was
our first show after we changed our name from Lips
to Anvil, and our first album, First had just come
out and Let Me Love the Band. You thought we
were awesome. You thought there were too many changes, too many,
(17:00):
too many hard parts. But aside from that he thought
we were awesome and he knew how enthusiastic and my
blues based background and rock and roll. So we came
to a show in eighty three, actually in late eighty
(17:22):
two when and Eddie Clark quit That night, he was
here in Toronto and I went backstage. We were all
backstage and hanging out, and the show ended early because
Lemmy was Lemmy wasn't feeling well, and that prompted Eddie
Clark fast Eddie to quit the band. Well, the next morning,
(17:48):
the phone rings and its Motorheads manager going, we need
lips Man to come out and join Motorhead Man. Our
guitar player just walked out. Of course, at that particular moment,
I'm in the middle of recording the Forge and Fire album.
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
You can't do it. I can't do it.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I'm not only contractually, but but in a certain sense
spiritually involved.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Man. You don't leave your buddies. Man. You know, in
the in the in.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
In mid in mid swing, it's like you're in the
middle of a baseball game and you're up to bat
and it's like, I'm gonna quit this team. I'm joining
another team, and I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
That's sort of sort of what happened. So I couldn't
do it. Lemme was pissed. There's no lying about it.
He was not happy about it because he thought that.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
He may have been very right. It could have been
really magical, but as it turned out, I didn't end
up doing it, and he got Brian Robertson to do
it a few months later after they had recorded the Uh,
another perfect day and we had we were just getting
ready to put out Forge and Fire. We met up
(19:07):
at a festival in Belgium called Heavy Sound Festival and
let me let me pull me aside and pulls me
into the change room and he sticks some headphones on
and he says, listen to this.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're gonna love it. And it was another perfect day.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
And of course I listened to it and I loved
the album and I'm going, who the hell did you
get to play guitar? It's amazing and he told me
it was the guitar player from Thin.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Lizzie, And of course, wow, freaking out man, this is great.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Next thing I hear is let Me's asked Anvil to
open up all through the UK on that tour. So
that's that's how it ended up the way it did.
And we were connected really all the way to the end,
(19:56):
all the way to the end. Let me was great friend,
a great guy, like an older brother.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Just awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
So so even to this day, lips no regrets on
that decision.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Well, how do you well, how there's a regret, but
you can't what do you do to change it?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I'm just thinking, how different imagine if you joined the Motorhead,
how different the Motorhead guitar sound you know, would have been.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Well, you know, the thing is, the thing is you
got to you got to imagine what Motorhead might have
sounded like doing wing dissassins or or motormount or or
or butterbus jerky.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
There's there's similarities, but it's not you know what I mean.
Anvil's a separate entity. I didn't want to give up.
I didn't give up my my own identity, which is important.
And here I am some forty five fifty years later,
still at it with with twenty albums of my own.
(21:04):
I I did it on my own, I I and
and and I dare say I did it without ever
having a sell out. And I never will. And that
was my intention. You know, people go, Ryan, you never
made it big. Hey, who wants to make it big?
I want to stay in the underground and I did.
That's precisely where metal belongs.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
You don't.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You don't make pop songs. You're not you're not Madonna,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
You're not. You're not you're not Lady Gaga. You're not
you know what I mean. You're not. You know, you're
not a pop a pop artist.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You're your metal. And real metal does not really belong
on commercial radio, not really. It's something that people listen
to in their living room and in their cars and
in their in their headphones when they're when they're you know,
when they want to rock out.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
That's what it really is. Man.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's it's metal music. It's it's it's its own, it's
its own thing. It's it's and it belongs sort of
in the underground. That's where it flourishes. And like the fans, everybody,
the fans are all about the obscure. As soon as
everybody knows who the band is, it's over to a
(22:25):
great degree. There's there's half a dozen, half a dozen
super big bands and they that's it. And even even
in that case, they're barely on the radio.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Right. So my my initial.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Ideas of what, where, what metal is and where it
belongs are correct, whether people want to believe that or not.
But the world is a very judgmental place. If you
don't make millions of dollars, you haven't made it. But meanwhile,
you know, you can be an independent hardware store and
make a living your whole fucking life, right, or you
(23:03):
can be home depot, right. But just because you're a
local hardware store doesn't mean you haven't made a good
living and had a good life. And that's precisely the
same same criteria when we talk about about rock and roll.
You can be an obscure musician and make a living
(23:25):
for your whole life and have a great, great life.
And you know what, the guy who ultimately wins the
prize is the guy who has recorded the most songs.
That's who wins.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Interesting, and I have a couple of minutes, but I
want to get this in with your lips. The eighty
four world tour with the Scorpions, bon Jovi, Whitesnake, that
must have.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Been It wasn't a world tour, it was a Japanese
a Japanese short run.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
We did like five cities.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You did five cities just being around those guys. I
mean you picked up a lot, a lot, you learned
a lot just beat around those legendary artists.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well, if nothing else, I had a great time. What
are you?
Speaker 3 (24:10):
What are you picking up? What are you picking up?
You know what am I going to pick up from
blon Jovi? That's going to be useful for anvil, right like.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Right like you said, you're your own identity, you're your man.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
I already have an identity. I had an identity when
I went up there, when I was doing it, and
it's it's I didn't really I don't know that I
learned anything really other than you write a good jingle
and you got to hit single and you're a big band.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
That that's what I saw happen, which I didn't want
to do and never have and still haven't and won't.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I'm not interested in that. It's not what metal is about.
And certainly I could have picked up a cover tune.
Uh huh, Right, there are things I could have you
can say, should have, would have, could have, but I
never did because that's selling out and I want to
do that. I don't want to become that big who
(25:13):
the hell wants that? No, you know, the theaters opening
opening slots.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
That that's the that's the best world.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I've had a great, great run, man, absolutely phenomenal and
lifts before.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Before I say goodbye, I want to ask you happy
with the Anvil documentary the way it turned out?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Oh of course.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Logical, something like that only happens once, and and only
to one one band. You know, you're not going to
get that. You're not going to see anybody else to
do that again.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
All right, So I have one minute left. So what's
down the pipeline for you?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
What's down the pipeline? Well, we're going to be coming
out to the.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
USA quickfully if we get if if we get our
work papers in time, which has become a real issue
these days, we're gonna come out probably next May or June,
in July and do another full, full on run all
through the States.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
But this time it's pounding the past. The first three
albums will be centered on in the set, and that's
what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
See, this was great. I really appreciate your time. Thanks
for coming on.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Okay, man, no problem, I have a great guys, all
the best everybody.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
And you just heard from Steve Lips cutlow of Anvil
until next week. Copings
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