{"id":414615,"date":"2026-04-24T04:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414615\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:30:07","slug":"i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-iron-maiden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414615\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills | Iron Maiden"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I ask Iron Maiden<\/a> bassist and founder Steve Harris about the fact his band have lasted for more than half a century, he sounds bewildered, as if he\u2019s put something down then forgotten where he\u2019s left it. \u201cIt\u2019s gone so quick. You go on tour for a few months and it seems to fly, but so much happens. Our whole career is an extension of that \u2013 for 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s looking back on how he steered one of the most influential \u2013 and deeply idiosyncratic \u2013 British bands in history. Catapulted to the premier league of 80s metal on the back of galloping, theatrical, multi-platinum LPs including The Number of the Beast, Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Iron Maiden not only survived the mid-90s slump that befell many metal bands, but got even more heavy and ambitious.<\/p>\n

Last year they celebrated that 50th anniversary with the Run for Your Lives tour, which continues till this November and includes their biggest UK headline shows to date at their own two-day EddFest<\/a> at Knebworth in July. Next month there\u2019s also the cinema release of Burning Ambition<\/a>, a through-the-decades documentary featuring rare archival footage spliced among talking heads including Tom Morello, Chuck D, Lars Ulrich and \u2013 less expectedly \u2013 Javier Bardem.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiehard Maiden fans will be saying: why isn\u2019t it 10 hours long?\u201d laughs ebullient singer Bruce Dickinson when I meet him alone in a hotel in London\u2019s Soho. \u201cBut hopefully it\u2019s an entertaining romp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formed in London in 1975 by Harris, Maiden went through multiple lineup changes before settling on Paul Di\u2019Anno as vocalist in 1978, and clawing to the forefront of the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) via constant gigging. A roughshod movement typified by eccentric theatrics and DIY ethics, the NWOBHM played out in backstreet pubs to crowds in customised denim and leather, all during the heyday of punk. Because of the band\u2019s velocity and East End roots, critics sometimes made comparisons between punk and Maiden, but \u201cI would\u2019ve rather swept the roads than play that shit,\u201d Harris says in Burning Ambition.<\/p>\n

Dickinson was entrenched in the NWOBHM with his band Samson, who recorded in the studio next to Maiden when the latter were making their 1981 album Killers. \u201cThe NWOBHM! It was like: OK, if you can spell it you might as well say it,\u201d Dickinson says. \u201cBut at ground zero, we were all: what are you talking about? This has been around for years.\u201d He cites the Marquee Club in Soho and Music Machine (now Koko) in Camden, north London, as being \u201cthe pinnacle, where you wanted to be. Before then you were doing a bit of carpet in the corner of a pub.<\/p>\n

Bruce Dickinson (left) and Steve Harris. Photograph: Ross Halfin\/ Idols<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing metal did adopt [from punk] was the idea of \u2018Let\u2019s just do it ourselves\u2019. People released their own singles, got deals with indie labels. Then punk kind of morphed into new wave and new romantic, but we didn\u2019t morph into anything \u2013 we just cracked on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maiden\u2019s self-titled debut went into the UK charts at No 4 in 1980. However, by the time they released Killers, Di\u2019Anno was burnt out. A wild figure partial to booze and drugs, he left the band in 1981 after a long, high-pressure tour. Dickinson joined after a comically blatant \u201cclandestine chat\u201d with Maiden manager Rod Smallwood, conducted under a vast floodlight in the middle of the hospitality area of Reading festival. A markedly different proposition to Di\u2019Anno, Dickinson had what was soon to become one of the most instantly recognisable trademarks in metal: an octave-shattering, vibrato-laden beast of a voice, built to put blood on the walls. He was also disciplined, with the fortitude needed for months on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like being a striker for the Conference and they say: go and play front and centre for Man City,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I was grossly overconfident because I was 21 years old: \u2018Of course I\u2019m going to get the gig, because I can do exactly what you want and a whole lot more.\u2019 I knew how ambitious Steve was, and where he wanted to go with the music. It was obvious the band could be absolutely immense. I loved the fact that they were technically so accomplished as musicians \u2026 there were no limits, musically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson\u2019s visceral narratives \u2013 what he describes as \u201ctheatre of the mind\u201d \u2013 became the vital hallmark of Iron Maiden. He unleashed ceaseless literary references, from Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u2019s Rime of the Ancient Mariner to Aldous Huxley\u2019s Brave New World, and even 1950s social realist Alan Sillitoe with The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Equally numerous are historical battles, epic political struggles and violent set pieces, as heard on songs such as Paschendale, Alexander the Great and The Trooper.<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden hunkered down to record The Number of the Beast (1982). Containing three bona fide classics off the bat \u2013 the title track, Run to the Hills and Hallowed Be Thy Name \u2013 as well as slightly deeper cuts such as The Prisoner and Children of the Damned, the album did what Maiden had hitherto hinted at, but not definitively nailed: theatrical and thematically epic heavy metal that was as melodically soaring as it was raw, aggressive and immediate.<\/p>\n

Steve Harris. Photograph: Ross Halfin\/ Idols<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go in with a batch of songs, you don\u2019t necessarily think you\u2019ve made a classic album,\u201d Harris says in typically understated fashion. \u201cI just think: well, we\u2019ve made a bloody good album and people will either like it or they won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all his Coleridge-quoting, Charge of the Light Brigade-evoking songwriting, Harris has a steadfast manner, like a stoical football manager \u2013 very different to the swashbuckling Dickinson, whose perspective on The Number of the Beast is almost diametrically opposite. \u201cDid we know it was special? Yeah, we did! We\u2019d stay in the studio afterwards listening back. We\u2019d sit there drinking Watneys Party Sevens\u201d \u2013 the era\u2019s instantly recognisable cheap seven-pint mini-keg. \u201cWe built a wall of those bloody things and we\u2019d get home at four in the morning after we\u2019d stopped recording at eight or nine. The rest of the time we were just sat there pinching ourselves going: fucking hell, isn\u2019t this great?\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the early 80s, a routine was set: write and record an album every year, tour, and then \u2013 if they were lucky \u2013 get a few weeks off for Christmas. For follow-up album Piece of Mind (1983), they went for broke. Smallwood took the gamble of booking arenas, rather than theatres, throughout the US \u2013 Madison Square Garden included. It paid off. Maiden were now a platinum-selling arena act, albeit one that operated outside music industry norms: no glossy videos, scant radio play and even less mainstream media coverage.<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden in 1983. Photograph: Ross Halfin<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in your 20s it\u2019s amazing how much punishment your body can take,\u201d says guitarist Adrian Smith, over a video call. \u201cBut a band like Maiden had to do that kind of schedule, because we\u2019d never have a massive hit single and wait for royalty cheques landing on the mat. We went out there and took the music to the people. It pays back later on, though, because people remember that. But we got to the stage where we should have had a break \u2026 it does catch up with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gruelling and grimly named World Slavery Tour in support of 1984\u2019s Powerslave was a case in point. By the end of it, the band were fried, Dickinson in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was definitely a wobble for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI had no life. It started to feel like a golden cage. And that can\u2019t be right. I started to think: is it worth it? Because I\u2019m young enough to do something else. I was thinking of packing it in to become a fencing teacher. I wanted to walk away, because that\u2019s preferable to losing your soul and everything else that goes with it.\u201d He was worried he was getting disconnected from \u201cthe reason why I got into music in the first place: because it was a form of dramatic storytelling\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the Maiden faithful may be well versed in what amounts to a hefty reading list, does it ever grate that the lay listener may have no idea as to just how deep they go? \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say annoy, that\u2019s too strong,\u201d says Dickinson. \u201cBut it is irritating if people go, \u2018You\u2019re just a bunch of shallow idiots and that\u2019s why you do the kind of music that you do, because you can\u2019t do anything else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson performing at Ozzfest 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion in San Bernardino, California. Photograph: Karl Walter\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

By 1990, heavy music was changing. Hard rockers such as Guns N\u2019 Roses and thrash metallers such as Metallica were huge, and Maiden\u2019s bombastic storytelling was in danger of seeming outdated. After 1988\u2019s concept LP Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, 1990\u2019s No Prayer for the Dying was to be a return to the roots of the Maiden sound, and a rickety mobile studio once used by the Rolling Stones was set up in the grounds of Harris\u2019s Essex country house. The album included Bring Your Daughter \u2026 to the Slaughter, which became one of the only heavy metal songs to ever top the UK singles chart. But all was not well, and Smith, one of the most fleet-fingered and melodically intuitive guitarists of the era, decided to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things are never clean cut,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut I was in a kind of turmoil. I just couldn\u2019t seem to come up with anything \u2026 Seventh Son, I was happy with that and it was getting bigger. But I wasn\u2019t into getting back to a more garage sound. They said, \u2018We can tell you\u2019re not happy because of your body language.\u2019 We had a meeting. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Dickinson was a big fan of Alice in Chains and the \u201cedgy and musical and emotional\u201d Soundgarden. \u201cThere\u2019s this huge chunk of talent and I was looking at it going: are we still on the zeitgeist, or is the Iron Maiden furniture looking a bit faded at this point? And nobody seemed bothered about it.\u201d So he also left in 1993. \u201cIt was a period of reflection and self doubt. Realising that I had been in an institution since my early 20s and that I didn\u2019t know how to do anything else outside that institution \u2013 I found that absolutely terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris remembers lack of communication in the band at the time as a serious limiting factor. \u201cIt was almost: \u2018All right, I\u2019m leaving.\u2019 \u2018Oh, OK \u2013 well that\u2019s it then.\u2019 We didn\u2019t really talk about it. It could\u2019ve been avoided but you could argue that people needed to go away and find their own space.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the explosions of grunge and then nu-metal, the 90s became even more difficult for many 80s metallers, Maiden included. They soldiered on without Dickinson and Smith \u2013 both of whom had embarked on various solo and band projects, sometimes working together \u2013 recruiting Janick Gers (now one of three guitarists in 2026\u2019s lineup alongside Smith and the long-serving Dave Murray) and singer Blaze Bayley, formerly of Wolfsbane. The albums they recorded in this period \u2013 The X Factor and Virtual XI \u2013 were strong, but Maiden\u2019s star was waning, particularly in the US where, for the first time in decades, they were struggling to sell out theatres, let alone arenas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult in America,\u201d says Harris. \u201cMetal was struggling everywhere, though. With a long career you learn to go up and down with the waves, but you carry on regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson and Smith rejoined the band in 1999 and recorded the majestic Brave New World. Dickinson recalls a secretive meeting between himself and Harris that had been set up by management. \u201cI just found the whole thing ludicrous,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThe degree of paranoia lest me and Steve be seen together in public \u2013 I mean, it was like a bloody Len Deighton novel. I said: why don\u2019t we just get together and have a talk? And Rod Smallwood said: no, no, no! So we ended up doing it in a yacht club in Brighton marina, where Rod cleared everybody out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden on stage at the PGE stadium in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph: John McMurtrie<\/p>\n

It led to a tight, energised Iron Maiden headlining the 2001 Rock in Rio festival in front of 250,000 people. Since then the albums have come at a less frenetic pace than in the 80s, but the quality bar has remained high, with a notably progressive, slow-building element coming to the fore: both Harris and Dickinson are long-time prog rock heads, namechecking bands such as Jethro Tull, Van der Graaf Generator, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Genesis. But though the songs may be longer and more complex, they are often heavier, too. Post-millennial albums like 2015\u2019s The Book of Souls<\/a> and 2021\u2019s Senjutsu<\/a> proved that combining their heat-off-the-valves intensity with unabashedly proggy theatrics could make them as vital \u2013 and in demand \u2013 as ever.<\/p>\n

The eternally chipper Harris seems almost sorrowful at the prospect of the current tour coming to an end. \u201cIt looks like we\u2019re taking next year off,\u201d he says. \u201cPersonally, I didn\u2019t want to, but that\u2019s me. I\u2019m just one of six people, despite what people might think. They don\u2019t just all do as they\u2019re told,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cOtherwise we\u2019d be doing stuff next year, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for new music, \u201canyone can harp on about the early stuff, but what\u2019s the point in doing Run to the Hills Part Two or The Trooper Part Two?\u201d But he won\u2019t be drawn on details of a possible next album. \u201cWe tend to get together in rehearsals and have a chat and see what everyone wants to do and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson, meanwhile, gives off the same waves of confidence that he had as a 21-year-old, even as he sips coffee in a posh hotel. \u201cAny song on the planet, if you give it to Iron Maiden it\u2019ll always sound like Iron Maiden,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s incredible. You give the Rolling Stones something and \u2018oh my God, it\u2019s the Rolling Stones!\u2019 \u2013 well, Maiden is like that, too. Don\u2019t ask me how, don\u2019t ask me why, don\u2019t ask me where the magic comes from \u2013 at that point my analysis skills go in the dustbin. It just is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is in cinemas from 7 May. Eddfest<\/a> is at Knebworth, Hertfordshire, 10 and 11 July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I ask Iron Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris about the fact his band have lasted for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-414615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}