Former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley was recently interviewed on Planet Rock’s “My Planet Rocks”, and he discussed replacing Bruce Dickinson in 1994.
“[My previous band Wolfsbane was] still limping along. I had the offer to go for an audition for Iron Maiden. Then, I don’t know why, they offered me the job. I’m so different to Bruce — I mean, just so different — in my presentation, voice, everything. But I think they wanted a change, and they offered me the job. So I left Wolfsbane at that point and went on to the greatest job in the world for a heavy metal singer. So it was fantastic — an incredible time. I don’t know why they chose me, but they did. And the things that I learned then, and already being a fan of Maiden, it stayed with me. And that confidence that I’d got as a songwriter, that was unshakeable.”
Blaze told Eonmusic last year that he likes seeing Iron Maiden perform his songs live today. “I absolutely love Bruce Dickinson’s voice. He’s been a great supporter of me before, during and after Iron Maiden. His voice is one of the hallmark voices of metal; that’s the epitome of what heavy metal singing is.
Bruce always said that he had no problems whatsoever in singing anything from my era, and for me, what is very cool is that those two albums are obviously considered as important as other albums in the Iron Maiden catalog. And the fact that these two huge, beautiful songs [‘Sign Of The Cross’ and ‘The Clansman’] feature in the Iron Maiden setlist now is just fantastic, and I’m so lucky to be a part of that.”
