ANVIL's LIPS Floats 9/11 And JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories

In a new interview with Brazil's Alma Hard, frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow of Canadian metal legends ANVIL was asked what inspired the lyrics for songs like "Truth Is Dying" and "World Of Fools" from the band's latest album, "One And Only". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Frustration with having to deal with stupidity of watching… Watch the news. Just sit back and observe the world, and it frustrates you. So how do you get that frustration out? Write it in a song. [Laughs]

"I don't understand this world in the sense that stuff that's right in front of you, and you're in denial that you're seeing it, hearing it, knowing what the truths are," he added.

Referencing the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks involving the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Lips said: "Everybody watched three buildings in New York City get demolished — perfectly demolished — by airplanes hitting it. But meanwhile, those buildings were built specifically — specifically — to withstand an airplane hitting it. But then you ask your question, how can the top 10 floors take out every floor all the way down to the bottom perfectly? How does that work? When there's no fire down there. The fire's all at the top. Why is the floor and all the support from that building giving out? Because it was detonated by set-off internal explosions all the way down the building, and that's why it fell perfectly. That's a demolition job.

"What does that mean? What does that mean?" he continued. "Well, it means a lot of stuff. And the world is going, 'It's okay. We believe the truth. The truth is two airplanes hit it and it just went down.' Well, no airplane hit the other building over on Building Seven. Why did that collapse? 'Oh, it had a fire.' Okay. Looked like a demo job to me. Completely flattened from a fire? How many fires do you see completely flatten buildings? Usually they're able to extinguish a fire and salvage a lot of things. This, nothing? Right to powder? Yeah, right. You watch an airplane apparently hitting the Pentagon — you can watch it on YouTube — and you're going, how the hell does an airplane fly like three feet off the ground without landing? Well, that's a good question, because it's not an airplane."

Lips went on to discuss the assassination of then U.S.-president John F. Kennedy, who was struck by two bullets — one in the head and one in the neck — while riding in a parade through downtown Dallas in November 1963. He said: "Hey, who killed President Kennedy? How many bullets was he hit with? They said one. You watch the video and you can see it, plain as day, he's been hit twice. What the hell? And no one does anything about it. No one says anything. Nothing changes. And then you've gotta ask yourself the question, even important than anything else: does knowing make any difference? Is the truth gonna even make any difference? No. It won't. It won't. It doesn't. All the false flag, the craziness that this world has been capable of — all along, all kinds of things. And it gives me a wealth of things to write about. So, that's part of what I do. I'm alive and it's my take on what I've seen and observed. That's what I do when I write music. And sometimes it's a way of actually cleansing myself."

Asked who he thinks is behind spreading these supposedly false narratives about what happened on 9/11 and with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lips said: "That's a good question. I don't think that you can even begin to answer it, because it's only speculation. You can only guess. And even a guess, it doesn't mean anything. Even if they came out and divulged the fact that it was an inside job, well, who exactly inside and what was the motive? We already know what the motive was. What happened as a result of 9/11? The whole world changed. That was the motive. To change the world. And it did. Eventually, everything comes out in the wash, but not everything. Not everything. What they allow or what we even care about. Because I think if we cared more, we'd find out more things, because we'd be demanding it."

Earlier in the month, Kudlow lamented the fact that social media has given everyone the ability to speak their minds with reckless abandon and little consequence. He told Chris Akin Presents: "The worst thing that's caused this is the fact that everybody's got a soapbox to stand on, and all the voices are of equal volume. So the sensible people are at the same volume as the idiots, but not only are the idiots at the same volume, there's more idiots. So then what happens to the truth? It's lost in the stupidity, man. And it's up to you as the individual to somehow discern the difference — wipe the shit off the fucking gold to find the gold. Pardon all my expression, but sometimes it feels like that. You're looking for the information. Like, can all this garbage get out of the way so I can find out the facts?"

Addressing some of the specific conspiracy theories which have emerged on social media in recent years, Lips continued: "What has brought all this on is the craziness of the pandemic, and it comes down to the vaccine or no vaccine, it comes down to the 5G technology and then mixed with nanobots and you put all this shit together and the next thing you know, government has got remote controls on everybody who gets the vaccine because the vaccine's got nanobots in it, which is 'Star Trek' technology. And they can control you, so if you don't comply, they can put you to death just by pressing a button.

"And this was some of the garbage that was being spread around during the pandemic," he added. "You just think about what level of insanity is that. It sounds like a sci-fi novel. Like, come on. People have got too much time to sit around and think of crazy stuff. That's completely nonsense and you're making it up, making it up as you go. I mean, there are people that were saying that it's alien technology or alien disease, that COVID was put here by aliens. You name it. And what the problem is, and what I'm saying is, initially you've got social media where everybody gets a soapbox. Anybody can say anything about any subject, whether they know what they're talking about or not. And they do. [Laughs] And then because they didn't effectively check the facts or even read about what they're talking about, they're just parroting what somebody else parroted. And it's like a broken telephone, and the conspiracy gets even more cloudy and more crazy as it moves along."

ANVIL released its 20th studio album, "One And Only", on June 28 via AFM Records. The effort was recorded in the summer of 2023 with longtime producer Martin "Mattes" Pfeiffer and Jörg Uken at Uken's Soundlodge studios in Germany. The same production team was responsible for ANVIL's last four albums, "Anvil Is Anvil" (2016),"Pounding The Pavement" (2018),"Legal At Last" (2019) and "Impact Is Imminent" (2022).

ANVIL, a Toronto-based group, was formed in 1978 by childhood friends Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner. Both came from Jewish families and had been playing music together since their teens.

Though initially a four-piece band, ANVIL's current lineup includes Kudlow, Reiner and bassist Chris Robertson.

ANVIL gained popularity and new fans since the 2008 theatrical documentary, "Anvil: The Story Of Anvil", which is currently available on Netflix. The film focused on how ANVIL got together, and stayed together, through decades of hard work and setbacks.