Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham once encouraged Adrian Smith to return to Iron Maiden as the band’s frontman: “This guy can sing!”
Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham once told Adrian Smith he should return to Iron Maiden as frontman due to his impressive vocals.
In 1997, Gorham worked with Smith on the track I’m Alive from Welcome To The World, the second album from Smith’s Psycho Motel band, formed five years after he departed Maiden in 1990.
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As Gorham was working with Smith, he suggested that the Maiden guitarist should take front and centre as vocalist, meaning he would have replaced Blaze Bayley, who was providing lead vocals for Maiden at the time.
Asked during an interview with eonmusic what it was like working with Smith, Gorham says, “I’m a big Adrian Smith fan. He showed me the demos of that album he was going to record and I listened to his voice. I said: ‘Adrian, why aren’t you singing in Iron Maiden? Be the singer!’ He’s got a great voice, you know? Forget about being a great guitar player – which he is – this guy can sing!
“And he said to me, ‘no, that’s way too much pressure, way too much being the frontman, you know, having to talk everybody every single night. No, no no, I’m good with just playing guitar.’ And I kind of got that because watching Phil [Lynott, Thin Lizzy vocalist] every night, the way he could shrink the audience, no matter how big the arena was, he could shrink it down and include everybody into it, and that’s a real art form to be able to do something like that.”
He adds, “It takes a long time for most frontmen to learn how to do that, so I got what Adrian was saying, but I still think Adrian Smith ought to get out there and do a little more recording and do more singing.”
Smith rejoined Maiden on guitar in 1999 at the same time as Bruce Dickinson.
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