Guitarist DENNIS STRATTON Says “Never Say Never” About Reuniting With Former IRON MAIDEN Singer PAUL DI’ANNO

The Metal Voice recently interviewed former Iron Maiden Lionheart guitarist Dennis Stratton about the Lionheart album, The Grace Of A Dragonfly, which was released earlier this month via Metalville. Stratton lasted less than a year in Iron Maiden, but played on their legendary debut.

When asked about the early years of Iron Maiden he says “I was in the band Remus Down Boulevard before Iron Maiden, which was a twin harmony guitar band that followed Wishbone Ash all over the world and all over the country. We had harmony guitars and harmony vocals. Dave Murray and Steve Harris used to come down and watch me play at our residency in West Ham. That's why when they signed the deal in ’79 to EMI (with Iron Maiden) they offered me the job, I didn't go down for an audition. They sent me a telegram. Basically they said here are the Soundhouse tapes, we want you to let us know what you can do and I went great. So they offered me the job straight away but my impression was to go home to listen to the Soundhouse tapes and listen to the songs that they had recorded or demoed already which were very punky, very single guitar rhythm, single guitar solo and very raw. Basically I said to Steve ‘Listen I come from a harmony guitar band.’ I sat down with Dave and I said ‘Dave would you be into this?’ And he went ‘I’m open to any suggestions.’ Dave was so easy to get on with and Steve loved it. The first lot of songs we laid into I started putting the harmony guitar parts into some of the riffs which they liked. We also started doing some harmony vocals with Paul (Di’Anno) in the rehearsal studio and that's how the harmony guitar style got introduced to Iron Maiden. But remembering that most songs from the first two Iron Maiden albums were already written so all I had to make them bigger and make the production bigger by adding these harmony details and adding the harmony vocals. Not to change the sound of Iron Maiden but to make the songs more interesting. Songs like ‘Running Free’, ‘Phantom of the Opera’ all the harmony little riffs that you hear were just little bits to polish the song up a bit more so it wasn't to change the sound of Iron Maiden."

Would he tour with former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'anno again? 

"Stjepan Juras who's basically looking after his affairs has contacted me about 20 times. I even met him in Milan at the Maiden gig. I had a long chatand he asked me outright if I would you ever join Paul Di’Anno on the stage and I said 'm never going to say never. At the moment it's just the wrong time. I said ‘because I'm committed to a tour that I was booked in in 2020’. But I did say to him ‘Never Say Never  because you know many years have passed now so I don't carry things on silly little arguments and move on there's more things to worry about in this world than petty arguments so we move on we've all grown up." 

When asked what song off of Iron Maiden’s Killers album he should have gotten more credit for?

"A very important question, because most of the songs on Killers were already written. We were rehearsing both albums because we needed a one and a half hour set for Metal For Muthas Tour 79-80. So all them songs were already written and put down as demos, I just added my harmony guitar bits and everything else. And then it was a case of Steve (Harris) choosing what songs are going on the first album. Then when we got halfway through the Metal For Muthas tour doing an hour and a half . We went on the Judas Priest tour where we did a 45 minute slot, so then we reverted back to first album and maybe ‘Wrathchild’ or two songs from Killers. We did work on ‘Killers’ (the song) and Steve wasn't a lover of that riff. But I think everything was so rushed that everything had to be done yesterday for the record company. I didn't like 'Women In Uniform’, but I must admit I've told a lot of people I don't think we should have done a cover They had so many good songs of their own. But as I say the song I did the most work on was was Killers because we were working on that right up until I departed from the band."

Watch the entire chat below: