{"id":657739,"date":"2026-10-26T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/657739\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T16:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:46:11","slug":"i-think-we-really-should-have-helped-him-out-by-transposing-the-key-of-the-songs-for-him-but-we-didnt-and-it-was-a-tough-time-drummer-nicko-mcbrain-admits-that-iron-maide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/657739\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI think we really should have helped him out by transposing the key of the songs for him. But we didn\u2019t, and it was a tough time\u201d: Drummer Nicko McBrain admits that Iron Maiden didn\u2019t do enough for singer Blaze Bayley when he replaced Bruce Dickinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Speaking to Barry Robinson of Classic Album Review<\/a>, McBrain says of Bayley: \u201cTo be fair to him, we didn\u2019t transpose the songs. We should have gone down a note. We should’ve stepped it down half a step or a full step.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He explains: \u201cThat range that Bruce had\u2026 Blaze was a totally different. Bruce is soprano, almost, and [Bayley is a] baritone. There was a difference in the timbre of each of the voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before his tenure in Iron Maiden, Bayley had fronted the band Wolfsbane, whose debut album Live Fast Die Fast was produced by Rick Rubin and released on Rubin\u2019s label Def American.<\/p>\n

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Bayley recorded two albums with Iron Maiden, The X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998). But after both albums received a lukewarm response from fans and critics alike, Bayley was dismissed and Dickinson rejoined Maiden along with another returning former member, guitarist Adrian Smith.<\/p>\n

Looking back on that whole period in the \u201990s, McBrain says: \u201cI think it was very hard for Blaze. The Virtual XI tour was really tough for him. And I think we really should have helped him out by transposing the key of the songs for him. But we didn\u2019t, and it was a tough time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Iron Maiden live 1998, Buenos Aires, ARG (HQ)(Blaze Bayley last show) \ud83d\udc80 Virtual XI World Tour – YouTube
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He reveals: \u201cIt was like a dark cloud for me, that period of my life. And I know it was affecting just the general vibe in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n

McBrain says that he and Bayley enjoyed a close relationship during that time, and that he advised Bayley on how to work with Maiden\u2019s bassist and leader Steve Harris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like a mentor to him,\u201d McBrain says. \u201cI took him under my wing, being the granddad of the band, right? We used to hang out a lot, and I was his confidante. He\u2019d talk to me about, \u2018What would Steve think if I did this?\u2019 So it was very hard at the end of the day to feel a little disappointed in the performances that he was coming up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He continues: \u201cObviously, when it was discussed to have Bruce come back with Adrian, that\u2019s when we had to say, \u2018Okay, Blaze, we\u2019ve got Bruce.\u2019 And finally, when we had the meeting with him, all of the band were present, and Rod [Smallwood, band manager], and he took it on the chin, as they say. And he turned around, he said, \u2018Maiden is too good not to carry on, and you\u2019re gonna carry on with the best.\u2019 And that is still his attitude today.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he was kind of disappointed \u2013 obviously, he was disappointed to not be the singer in the band anymore. But he was very, very gracious. Very gracious. And I love him for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, Steve Harris told MusicRadar<\/a> how he felt it was important for the band to continue performing songs from the Blaze Bayley era after Bruce Dickinson\u2019s return. Harris named Sign Of The Cross from The X Factor and The Clansman from Virtual XI as two of the key songs from the Bayley years<\/p>\n

Harris recalled: \u201cTo be fair to Bruce, he didn\u2019t have a problem doing those songs. He never put up a fight or said, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do them because it\u2019s not my era.\u2019 Bruce is a team player when it comes to that type of thing. He knows that it\u2019s the history of the band, whatever period. He wasn\u2019t there for all of it, but he realises how important it all is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respected him for that, definitely. But also, I suppose there\u2019s maybe an element that he wanted to prove that he could do this songs better, perhaps, or differently, or whatever. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter When Blaze Bayley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-657739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}