Touring is a gruelling lifestyle. It takes up a lot of energy. My band, Anvil, have recently been to New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago… all over the US and we’ve been getting up at 7am and going to bed in the early hours. I think Chicago was the best. The people are so enthusiastic about us.
I always head to art museums. Robb [Anvil co-founder] and I both have a passion for art. We’ve slowly but surely seen almost all of Van Gogh’s paintings around the world.
I’m not too crazy about flashy hotels. We stay in B&Bs – the grottier the better – and I always look forward to the full English breakfast in the morning.
They don’t acknowledge you in Canada until you make waves in other countries. It’s the Canadian way. Right now things are getting quite explosive for us in the US, but they’re not even mentioning us back home or playing any of our music. But that’s OK. It’s something for me to strive for and the anonymity gives me peace.
I’m proud of my country. As they say, there’s no place like home. We have a very tolerant and multicultural society. It’s a safe place. You can leave doors unlocked and feel secure. There’s a decent amount of culture but not to the level in Europe. That’s simply because our history doesn’t go back centuries.
By the time I was a teenager I’d been down the entire east coast. My father made sure we went on excursions every summer from New York down to Florida. I come from a decent background. I was taught values, particularly that you don’t get anything worth having for nothing.
Touring Japan in the 1980s was like landing on a different planet. I’d seen no place like it before. You could be stuck in a traffic jam at 3am. The Japanese treat you like royalty. Our audiences hang on our every word.
The film Anvil: The Story of Anvil is showing on board this month. The book of the same name by Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow and Robb Reiner is out now (£20, Transworld).
Interview by Emma Parfitt
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