Rolling Stone's interview series, King Of A Day, features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and singers who had the difficult job of fronting major rock bands after the departure of an iconic vocalist. Some of them stayed in their bands for years, while others lasted just a few months. In the end, however, they all found out that replacement singers can themselves be replaced. The latest edition features former Iron Maiden singer, Blaze Bayley.
Says Andy Greene: "It would be easy to forgive Blaze Bayley for being at least slightly bitter at this point in his life. The heavy metal singer was the frontman of Iron Maiden for a five-year period in Nineties, traveling the world by jet and headlining massive venues; now he traverses Europe by van to play out-of-the-way places like the 300-seat Bastard Club in Osnabrück, Germany, and the Blast From the Past Festival in Kuurne, Belgium. But when we caught up with Bayley via Zoom at his home in England between tour stops, he was radiating with positivity and joy."
“I’m not a wealthy man,” says Bayley. “I have an ordinary motorcycle and an ordinary car and I live in an ordinary house, but I spend my time on tour and I perform in wonderful places. In so many ways, I’m living the dream. I’m not trying to be huge. I’ve been huge. I’ve been in the biggest band in the word. I don’t need to go back there.”
Andy Greene: Were you a big Iron Maiden fan back in the Eighties?
Blaze Bayley: "Yeah. I loved it. And this is difficult to believe, because I’m so old, but this was before arenas. This is why I’m so lucky to have experienced it. It’s a thing that so many fans now won’t be able to experience for some bands. Bands played theaters back then.
"The theater in Birmingham was the Birmingham Odeon. It was 1,500 seats. It seemed huge to me. It was the world to me. I saw Iron Maiden twice there. They played there four nights. I saw Ozzy there. I saw Metallica with Anthrax on the Master of Puppets tour. I saw Jon Bon Jovi there, twice. I saw Ronnie James Dio on the Holy Diver tour. You cannot imagine. This was incredible. There were no arenas for heavy metal. It was here in the theaters. It’s close. You can hear it. You can feel it. It was an amazing time."
Greene: At that time, what separated Iron Maiden from other bands?
Bayley: "I think it’s the energy. And it’s Bruce [Dickinson]. There were some magical things. It was like two suns joining together in the galaxy to become this huge new thing. To hear Bruce singing after the [Paul] Di’Anno years…I wasn’t a big fan of Paul. He’s a wonderful performer, wonderful voice, but not completely my cup of tea. To hear Bruce bring that kind of vocal to that music, it’s another level. There was something spiritual about it, for me, as a young man. On the night shift at the hotel, listening to those big songs… They were completely unapologetic it was like, “Here’s the riff. And we’re going to play it.” That was it for me."
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