Scott Gorham has heaped praise on Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith, revealing that he even asked him in the 1990s why he wasn't the lead singer in Iron Maiden. The Thin Lizzy guitarist made his comments in a brand new interview with eonmusic about his artwork.
Gorham worked alongside Smith on one track on his band Psycho Motel's 1997 release Welcome To The World. The song, "I'm Alive", featured blistering lead work from the pair, on the largely forgotten release.
Speaking to eonmusic's Eamon O'Neill about how the recording came about, Gorham said; "I'm a big Adrian Smith fan. He showed me the demos of that album he was going to record". At the time, Smith had yet to rejoin Maiden, and the band were being fronted by Blaze Bayley. But Scott was blown away by what he heard. He continued; "I listened to his voice. I said; 'Adrian, why aren't you singing in Iron Maiden? Be the singer!' He's got a great voice, you know? Forget about being a great guitar player - which he is - this guy can sing!"
Smith conceded however, that he had no desire to front a band like Iron Maiden; "He said to me; 'no, that's WAY too much pressure, way too much being the frontman, you know, having to talk everybody every single night. No, no no, I'm good with just playing guitar.'"
Having worked alongside a complete master of stagecraft on Phil Lynott, Gorham continued that he completely understood. "I kind of got that because watching Phil every night, the way he could shrink the audience, no matter how big the arena was, he could shrink it down and include everybody into it, and that's a real art form to be able to do something like that. It takes a long time for most frontmen to learn how to do that, so I got what Adrian was saying, but I still think Adrian Smith ought to get out there and do a little more recording and do more singing."
Smith would go on to rejoin Iron Maiden just a couple of years later in 1999. He has since got behind the mic with Smith/Kotzen, who released their debut album in 2022.
Read the entire interview at eonmusic, where Scott talks about his art, the 'unfinished' release of 1991 single "Dedication", plans for his autobiography, and more.
