Anvil frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow recently sat down with Music Feeds for a career-spanning interview, which includes talk about his talents wielding a dildo on stage. Check out an excerpt below.

Q: Anvil had all the hallmarks of a hugely successful band. Why do you think you didn’t achieve that same level of success that perhaps some of your peers did?

Lips: "It’s a succession of bad luck. Just the same as it could be a succession of good luck that brings you stardom and everything that you want. It’s really, really, really simple and stupid things that when it happens you don’t even realise it because you don’t have the subjectiveness to see it. You’re too close to the trees to see what is really going on.

You know, it could come down to two guys that you have a choice of doing business with, and you just choose the wrong one. Simple as that. Then that’s it, you can’t go back. There’s no way to change that. Then something gets attached to that decision, and so on, so it becomes a succession of bad luck. You have to be at the right place at the right time with the right people.

I mean realistically, Anvil has sold millions of copies of the first two albums that were bootlegged by a company in France, and those records were available at a quarter of the price of the regular stuff in stores all over the world, in picture disc. When picture discs came out they were usually more expensive than the regular printing. In this particular case, it was the other way around because it was bootlegged. So someone would buy an Anvil Metal On Metal album in Toronto from the record store and it would cost them a minimum of $10. You go to the flea market, and there it is as a picture disc for $5."

Q: Speaking of good or bad decisions, you famously turned down Lemmy when he invited you to join Motörhead – do you have any regrets about that?

Lips: "No, no regrets about that because it would have changed everything – it would have changed everything for Motörhead and it would have changed everything for Anvil. Wishing for that or regretting it? No. I regret that I never got the opportunity to at least try it, but beyond that no, you can’t really regret it. It means that the Forged And Fired album, our third album, would never have existed. It would’ve become Another Perfect Day and I don’t like the idea that both of those albums wouldn’t exist, if you understand what I mean."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Anvil have released their first digital single and lyric video for the new song, "Ego". The song is taken from their forthcoming studio album, Pounding The Pavement.

"Ego" is a song where Lips spread his razor-sharp guitar riffs over the dynamic rhythm foundation courtesy of Robb Reiner and Chris Robertson, adding additional bite with his familiar raw vocal style. You can watch the video below.

Of course there are bands that have garnered higher chart positions, sold more albums and filled bigger venues than Anvil. Yet there are few metal acts that have earned as much respect from their colleagues as the act surrounding vocalist/guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner. The most renowned Anvil aficionados include, among others, international stars such as Metallica and the late Lemmy of Motörhead, who have expressed their unreserved admiration time and again. The reasons for this evident respect are obvious: since 1978, Anvil have been the epitome of a passionate heavy metal band that refuses to be thrown off course by setbacks, adverse conditions and inconsistencies on the business side of things. Their latest album Pounding The Pavement proves their impressive stamina: never before have Anvil sounded as diverse, determined and inspiring.

Why has Pounding The Pavement turned into such an awesome offering? Kudlow’s explanation is simple: “The songwriting process started immediately after the work on our previous album, Anvil Is Anvil, had been completed,” he says. “So our thoughts instantly turned to the future again. After Anvil Is Anvil had been cut, everybody knew what we had just delivered and what Anvil’s future should sound like.”

Despite the diverse range of their ideas, Kudlow, Reiner and their bassist Chris Robertson have succeeded in filling the typical trademarks of this unusual band with life once again - which is an important aspect for every Anvil release, after all tradition and reliability play an essential role in this group. Kudlow: “Of course we always allow inspirations from earlier recordings to seep in, but always with an emphasis on evolving the characteristic Anvil sound. Lots of fans keep asking us to play the way we did in the so-called good old days. That’s why I try from time to time to pick up on that exciting feel of our older material. Mind you, it’s always exclusively about the basic atmosphere of that time, never about copying an older song.”

Pounding The Pavement was produced at the Soundlodge studios in Rhauderfehn in the northwest of Germany, where Anvil found not only the necessary peace and seclusion to concentrate on their recordings, but also met in studio owner Jörg Uken the ideal producer for their ambitioned work. Talking of which: the programmatic album title Pounding The Pavement is a synonym for the consistently serious challenge of ensuring Anvil’s financial survival. Kudlow: “I feel nothing could describe the way we’ve been working for the past forty years better than Pounding The Pavement: Anvil have tried for four decades to earn enough money to survive and continue to make music.”

The new album, Pounding The Pavement, will be released on January 19th through SPV/Steamhammer as a digipak version (+1 bonus track and poster), 2LP gatefold coloured version, download and stream.

Tracklisting:

“Bitch In The Box”
“Ego”
“Doing What I Want”
“Smash Your Face”
“Pounding The Pavement”
“Rock That Shit”
“Let It Go”
“Nanook Of The North”
“Black Smoke”
“World Of Tomorrow”
“Warming Up”
“Don´t Tell Me” (bonus track)

“Ego” lyric video:

Anvil will embark on a massive European tour from February to April 2018 - here are the confirmed dates:

February
1 - Leiden, Netherlands - Gebr. De Nobel
2 - Venlo, Netherlands - Poppodium Grenswerk
3 - Hengelo, Netherlands - Metropool
4 - Tilburg, Netherlands - Little Devil
6 - London, UK - Underworld
7 - Stoke, UK - Eleven Music
8 - Newcastle, UK - Trillians
9 - Grimsby, UK - Yardbirds
10 - Glasgow, UK - Cathouse
11 - Wigan, UK - Pure
13 - Belfast, Ireland - The Limelight
14 - Dublin, Ireland - The Academy
16 - Buckley, UK - Tivoli
17 - Bridgend, UK - Hobos
18 - Brighton, UK - Green Door Store
20 - Bilston, UK - Robin 2
21 - York, UK - Fibbers
22 - Evesham, UK - Iron Road
23 - Weston, UK - The Bear
24 - Kortrijk, Belgium - De Kreun
25 - Paris, France - Le Trabendo
27 - Colmar, France - Le Grillen

March
1 - Irun, Spain - Sala Tunk
2 - Madrid, Spain - MON
3 - Valencia, Spain - Paberse Club
4 - Barcelona, Spain - Sala Boveda
10 - Florence, Italy - Circus
11 - Brescia, Italy - Circolo Colony
13 - Solothurn, Switzerland - Kofmehl
14 - Munich, Germany - Backstage
15 - Essen, Germany - Turock
16 - Mannheim, Germany - 7er Club
17 - Münster, Germany - Sputnikhalle
18 - Berlin, Germany - Musik & Frieden
20 - Flensburg, Germany - Roxy
22 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Sticky Fingers
23 - Finspang, Sweden - Hugo
24 - Uppsala, Sweden - Katalin
25 - Stockholm, Sweden - Fryshuset Klubben
28 - Oslo, Norway - Olsen Pa Bryn
29 - Haugesund, Norway - Flytten
30 - Hamar, Norway - Gregers
31 - Odal, Norway - Odal Rock Club

April
4 - Frankfurt, Germany - Nachtleben
5 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
6 - Siegburg, Germany - Kubana