But his contribution to Maiden early on will forever remain great, as it was the “punk metal” direction of the two albums with Di’Anno, 1980’s self-titled debut and 1981’s Killers, which got the Maiden train a-chuggin’, before the arrival of Bruce Dickinson and a more “prog metal” direction made the band a global stadium headliner.
In 2015, I interviewed Di’Anno at length for the book Iron Maiden: 80 81, which as its title suggests, thoroughly studies this early era of the band. During which, he recalled how he originally joined the band – included in this excerpt below.
“Steve [Harris, Maiden’s bassist/leader] was just leaving high school, and I was just joining it,” Di’Anno explained. “We knew a mutual friend. They were looking for a singer, I was playing in a punk band. I think I went down to have a look at them with their old singer, Dennis Wilcock. I went down to see them, and I thought they were absolutely rubbish. [Laughs] I absolutely hated it. I walked in with a wrong attitude in the first place – I was more into punk and stuff. I didn’t like it. They were just like an average pub band, as far as I was concerned. Didn’t like much of the stuff at all.”
Despite being less than impressed initially and not sharing the same musical tastes, Di’Anno decided to give fronting the band a try. Which, turned out to be a very wise decision. “And then I did go and try out for them though, because my mate kept pissing me off – he kept going on and on. I went down and did it. Steve came around on the night after the auditions – after they had auditioned a few people – and said, ‘Oh, you’ve got the job if you want it.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t really. I’m not bothered, to be honest with you.’ And a little while later – about a month or so later – I’m out with Steve again at some pub or something, and went around his house. I listened to the new stuff – which was the first Iron Maiden album – and it was absolutely fantastic. And that was it. I was hooked.”
As a result, Di’Anno would join Maiden in 1978. And several months later, another subsequently important member of the Maiden family crossed paths – manager Rod Smallwood. “Rod joined us later on. He came down to see us play one day, and I got arrested, funny enough – just before the concert. I had come straight from work, and gone up to Hammersmith [at the Swan, on July 12, 1979]. The band was all up there, and the police had come in and done a drug raid. They found the knife that I had to use for work, to get these caps off these oil drums. Found it in my bag, and they carted me off down to the police station. I think I got back for the last song.” [Laughs]
And despite eventually exiting the group in late 1981, Di’Anno still had praise for Maiden’s long-time manager. “Rod is phenomenal. He’s a really good guy. He’s a fantastic manager, obviously – he’s got more money than bloody anybody else in the world, I suppose. He could buy a small country! He’s an awesome bloke. He’s really still down-to-earth, which is what I loved about Rod. I saw him at Rock in Rio when I played there in November [of 2013]. I scared the hell out of him, actually. I saw he was being held up, so I came up behind him, put my finger in his back and said, ‘Give me your money’ – in Portuguese. “[Laughs]
Lastly, Di’Anno also discussed his punk background, which as previously mentioned, was in sharp contrast to the music that Harris fancied.
“Ramones were the #1 band for me, but obviously, I loved the Pistols, I really did – they were phenomenal. I don’t care what people say. The Damned, I’m still a huge UK Subs fan, Stiff Little Fingers – bands like that. I loved them all. I suppose metalheads at the time [comprised Maiden’s audience], and then sort of later on, because of me with my short hair and I’ve always had that ‘punk attitude,’ we started getting a mixture of both [metalheads and punk rockers]. As it was getting bigger and bigger…well, let’s put it this way – it was not so unusual to see people with Mohawks and safety pins coming down to our shows, as well.”
Paul Di’Anno, rest in peace.
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