In a new interview with Headbangers News, Blaze Bayley looked back on joining the band over 25 years ago.
The musician commented:
“25 years ago, I joined Iron Maiden, and we started writing ‘The X Factor’ album together. There was no music before I joined Iron Maiden, and [bassist] Steve Harris said, ‘I don’t care who writes the songs as long as they’re really good songs.’
“I was very lucky that my ideas were good enough and they were accepted. ‘Man on the Edge’ was the first single from the new album with Iron Maiden, with the new singer, and it did very well.
“It was a great time in my life that I wanted to celebrate, and I know those songs so well, they’re like old friends, and rehearsing them and performing them again, I realized that my voice is so different to the man that recorded those albums in the studio in Essex in England. It’s a really great feeling.
“With the experience and the voice I have now, I feel I’m able to interpret those songs and bring them to life in a way that I couldn’t when I first recorded them. I did my best work, that I could do at the time, but now there is a depth of emotion that I can find and reveal in those songs.
“So, it’s a great tour for me to do so far, in Brazil, that we’ve done my anniversary 25-year setlist. Fans have loved it, and tonight I have a sold-out show, and the first show was almost sold out.
“Every show has been absolutely full. Normally, I meet and great for free for all my fans after the show, but on this tour in Brazil, there’s so many people I have to start the meet-and-greet before the show and finish after the show.”