In a new interview with Planet Rock, Saxon frontman Biff Byford discussed why they didn’t make it big in the United States as Iron Maiden did back in the ’80s.
He said:
“We could have broken really big. We did well, but we didn’t make the breakthrough that Def Leppard or Iron Maiden did.
“There was always some mess up with the records, and there were forces at work that weren’t exactly helpful.
“We didn’t have a great team around us at that point, and it was a very money-orientated time as opposed to a music- or career-orientated time.
“Unlike Maiden and Leppard, we had no Rod Smallwood or Peter Mensch behind us to kick us up the a*s when we needed it.”
Further, Biff pointed out that Saxon is still in a great place right now, saying:
“We’ve had a lot of luck over the last few years, but we’ve worked for that too. Our manager Adam Parsons – and in fact our manager before him, too, Thomas Jensen – were very focused on the band and had a conscious plan to build our profile again.
“We’re excited about these 40th-anniversary shows, being back in those big rooms, and it’s actually good fun for us again, because we’re doing different things, rather than grinding ourselves into the ground on the same circuit every year.”
1 comment
Personal i did like all three bands in the 80s but musically the only band i can listen to now is Saxon