Film Shoots Aging Rockers to Success

After decades, the heavy-metal band Anvil has finally broken into the mainstream thanks to a well-received documentary—and “kismet,” guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow tells CNN. After he saw the film, he said, “I started crying, because it seemed like kismet, as if it was all meant to be this way. And quite honestly, it is.”

With 13 albums and 30 years of touring under their belts, the members of Anvil saw the band as a success already. But the film, which at times evokes This Is Spinal Tap, wowed audiences. “I am about as metal as your aunt, and I was spellbound” by the “hymn to the human spirit,” said a critic. Anvil! The Story of Anvil was “a rocket launcher to the mainstream,” says drummer, um, Robb Reiner, but the band would have “kept rocking,” movie or not.
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