{"id":237238,"date":"2025-10-24T15:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237238\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:39:11","slug":"iron-maidens-steve-harris-had-to-convince-sabaton-to-let-him-play-their-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/237238\/","title":{"rendered":"Iron Maiden\u2019s Steve Harris had to convince Sabaton to let him play their festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sabaton<\/a> initially said no when Iron Maiden<\/a> bassist\/founder Steve Harris asked to play at their festival.<\/p>\n

Talking in the new issue of Metal Hammer<\/a>, singer Joakim Brod\u00e9n and bassist P\u00e4r Sundstr\u00f6m reveal that Harris, who was arranging dates for his side-project British Lion, had to talk the power metal<\/a> band into putting him on the bill for Sabaton Open Air in Falun, Sweden in 2017.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sabaton turned him down at first because they worried that they wouldn\u2019t be able to properly accommodate the heavy metal<\/a> legend. However, they relented when they found out that his list of must-haves was surprisingly short.<\/p>\n

Sundstr\u00f6m tells us: \u201cIn 2017 Steve Harris\u2019 British Lion played. I couldn\u2019t believe it! We toured with Iron Maiden [in 2013 and 2016], and Steve said he wanted to come and play the festival. I actually said no at first!<\/p>\n

He explains: \u201cI told him, \u2018This is only a small town, we don\u2019t have the infrastructure for an artist like you!\u2019 But he said, \u2018I\u2019ve seen the crowds, I\u2019ll stay at any hotel you can offer me, and I\u2019ve seen you have a Sabaton cheeseburger \u2013 I\u2019ll eat that.\u2019 And he came! It was an unbelievable honour for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brod\u00e9n adds that the only thing Harris needed to have access to was somewhere where he could exercise. Fortunately, Falun \u2013 despite only having a population of 37,000 \u2013 is home to a large sport complex called Lugnet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing he demanded was access to some sports,\u201d says Brod\u00e9n. \u201cAs you can see, that\u2019s the one thing we have plenty of here. So we closed off the swimming pool for him and he was happy as can be!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Brod\u00e9n and Sundstr\u00f6m are the covers stars of the new Hammer, and inside they give our writer a tour of Falun, their hometown, as well as their base of operations on the outskirts of the city.<\/p>\n

The new Hammer also includes interviews with Malevolence, Trivium<\/a>\u2019s Matthew Heafy, Biohazard, Bury Tomorrow and more. New albums from Sabaton, Testament<\/a> and Creeper get reviewed, and we report back from gigs by Bring Me The Horizon, Scene Queen, Limp Bizkit and more. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sabaton released their new album, Legends<\/a>, on October 17 via Better Noise Music. The band will embark on the Legendary Tour of Europe on November 17. The run will include their largest UK headliners to date, including stops at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena in London and 23,500-capacity Co-op Live in Manchester. The opening act will be the Legendary Orchestra<\/a>: a string collective performing classical renditions of Sabaton tracks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Iron Maiden will return to the road in spring 2026 for the second European leg of their Run For Your Lives world tour. The band have also just announced a North American leg for August and September<\/a>. The shows, celebrating the veterans\u2019 50th anniversary, will see them exclusively play material from their first nine albums.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Sabaton\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabaton initially said no when Iron Maiden bassist\/founder Steve Harris asked to play at their festival. Talking in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-237238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}