The Classic Rock Podcast has uploaded a career spanning interview with Blaze Bayley. The chat covers growing up in Birmingham, the Wolfsbane years, and receiving the call on Christmas Eve with the offer to join Iron Maiden.
Blaze on the call to front Iron Maiden: “Well, I lived with my girlfriend at the time and we were, you know, pretty much broke. We were hoping that we’d, maybe that I’d get a chance and we were thinking, ‘oh well, will we hear or not and everything.’ And that was it, it was just sitting at home and then the call came, you’ve got it. And it was, first it was a bit, well, first it was a big relief, like, oh, I’ve got a future in music. And then it was, wow.
“I bought myself a crate of Guinness and an answer phone were the first things that I got. And I remember my girlfriend at the time saying, we’re spending a lot of money, you know, when we bought because we bought an answer phone because you had to have one.
Blaze Bayley said that being an ex-Iron Maiden singer is a “matter of pride” for him, noting how he was fully aware of what happened to non-classic members after they left a major act.
The fate of an “ex-man” has become somewhat of a trope in the broader rock and metal music community, so much so that guitarist Doc Coyle has a whole podcast dedicated to the subject.
Although that fate often includes a struggle to find a new artistic identity after leaving a major band as well as coming to terms with the fact that one will hardly ever reach the same levels of mainstream recognition, the former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley has famously been perfectly fine with that state of affairs.
During a recent interview on SoundMojo’s “Innersleeve” music podcast, Blaze said (transcription via Blabbermouth):
“Well, I’m very lucky in a way. Before I joined Iron Maiden, I was an Iron Maiden fan and I knew what happens to the singers of Iron Maiden and from KISS, ex-members of KISS, bands like that. You will always be associated with that famous band. If you played with Ozzy Osbourne or whatever, you’ll always be associated with those guys. And so I was ready for that.”
One thing that made it easier to swallow was that he was friends with members of the legendary NWOBHM band, Bayley adds:
I’m still friends with the guys. I go and see [Maiden bassist] Steve Harris with his British Lion band. And also I saw Maiden twice on this tour and said hi to the guys. So I’m incredibly lucky that in my chosen profession of being a heavy metal singer, I got what is to me the top job, the number one job in the world of my profession. That is being the singer of what I consider to be the most important heavy metal band in the world. I’m very lucky to have had that, to have spent five years with Iron Maiden, two albums, a few B-sides — I’m incredibly lucky.”
A matter of pride
Explaining his point of view further, Blaze added:
“For me, it’s a matter of pride. Where I come from, where we are in the world of heavy metal, you look back at where you come from. Ronnie James Dio, when he was alive, he always acknowledged where he came from. And for me, as a metalhead and as someone who sings in this genre, it’s important to say, ‘Yeah, I come from there. That’s a part of me. That’s what’s made me who I am.’ I’m not gonna say, ‘Oh, this is nothing to do with me.’ No, that’s part of me. But this is what I’m doing now. So when you listen to [my latest solo album] ‘War Within Me’, what you’re actually hearing is this huge influence from Iron Maiden on my songwriting, on my voice, this influence that comes from way back in the day when we started with Wolfsbane, those bits and pieces.”
