Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith confirms new side-project
He's recorded music with a mystery musician
Last updated 6th Aug 2021
Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith has confirmed he’s working on a new music project alongside a mystery collaborator.
Adrian recently had a wide-ranging chat with eonmusic to promote his fishing themed memoir 'Monsters of River & Rock: My Life as Iron Maiden's Compulsive Angler’, which comes out on Thursday 3rd September 2020 via Virgin Books.
Eight years on from the Primal Rock Rebellion album ‘Awoken Broken’, Adrian was asked if he has another album in him outside of the day job with Iron Maiden.
Affirmative in his response, Adrian replied: “I do, I do. I’m very excited about it, but I can’t say. I’m doing a lot of singing, but the person I’m working with, we’re sort of splitting the vocals. But that’ll be coming.
“I’m very excited about it, but I’m sworn to secrecy at the moment.”
Questioned about the possibility of live dates, Adrian replied: “Hopefully, hopefully. It depends on the bloody virus, you know? At the moment, everything’s screwed, so…”
Although Adrian has stayed very tight-lipped about who he’s collaborating with, fans have speculated that it’s with Winery Dogs frontman Richie Kotzen.
Before lockdown, Adrian Smith posted two photos of himself on holiday with Richie Kotzen in the Turks & Caicos Islands near the Bahamas, which Kotzen himself also shared.
Shortly afterwards, Kotzen seemingly alluded to a collaboration with the Iron Maiden legend during an appearance on the Another FN Podcast, saying: "I don't like talking about things until they're finished, but if you look at the photographs on my Instagram and who I'm with, and that sort of thing, you could assume that there may be a collaboration in the works."
He added: "It's very surreal, because it's a band that I grew up with; it was one of my favourite bands forever, and one of my first hard rock concerts. So it's very surreal. Very cool. I'm very excited."
Having axed all their 2020 shows due to the coronavirus pandemic, Iron Maiden are due to reconvene the Legacy of the Beast Tour in Europe in summer 2021.