ANVIL's LIPS On His Recent Heart Procedure: 'A Couple Of Circuits Had To Be Fixed'

In a new interview with the Disturbing The Priest podcast, Steve "Lips" Kudlow of Canadian metallers ANVIL spoke about his health, several months after he underwent a heart procedure. The 68-year-old musician said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You have things that happen because of your age. I had a heart condition. It's repaired, but I still have to go through getting it repaired. And it wasn't a major thing. It was just a couple of circuits had to be fixed. It wasn't heart surgery or anything. It's really just electrical adjustment; that's the best way I can describe it."

Lips went on to say that he has been smoking pot since he was 14 years old. But he added: "I don't smoke a lot — once or once or twice a day at the most. And I can't say that's every day. Sometimes I don't smoke for weeks on end. There was a period of time I did two years without smoking anything, and that was to stop smoking cigarettes, which is the biggest accomplishment of my life."

Asked when he stopped smoking cigarettes, Lips said: "Six years [ago]. I don't even think about it, and I had to really think about it to come up with the six years, because the time is going. I'm going, 'Well, only a couple of years ago.' No, that's not a couple of years ago. If it was [a couple of years ago], I would still get cravings. I don't get cravings anymore."

Last October, Lips told The Metal Voice that he would undergo a heart procedure. He explained at the time: "I've got this, um, I've got atrial fibrillation, which is not a good thing. They've gotta put a wire into a vein and then up into my heart and burn some nerve endings that are making my heart beat irregularly. And that's how they fix it. It's not open surgery or anything. It's like two hours out, you're out. But the thing is, it's a huge backlog in patients for it, because this is really, really common. And, of course, I'm a baby boomer and the hospital is packed with us. So, in any case, that's what I'm gonna be doing."

Earlier in The Metal Voice chat, Lips touched upon his health while discussing the possibility of ANVIL recording more studio albums after the arrival of the band's upcoming 20th effort. He said: "I've got heart problems. I don't know how much longer I've got. Life has a beginning, middle and end. That's the way it works for everybody. No one gets out alive."

According to Weill Cornell Medicine atrial fibrillation is caused by irregularities in the transmission of electrical impulses through the heart. As a result, the heart is not able to pump blood effectively, which can cause blood to pool and form clots. People with atrial fibrillation have an increased risk of stroke, congestive heart failure and cardiomyopathy.

Atrial fibrillation (AF),the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affects approximately three to six million people in the United States.

ANVIL will embark on the "One And Only" U.S tour this summer. Support on the trek will come from PULSIFIER, with additional appearances by ADAMANTIS (July 10-13),VICIOUS BLADE (July 17-21),BLIND OATH (August 1-4),SERPENT RIDER (August 7-15) and OLATHIA (August 21-25).

ANVIL will release its 20th studio album "One And Only", on June 28 via AFM Records. The effort was recorded late last summer 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).