ADRIAN SMITH Is 'Sad' About DAVID COVERDALE's Retirement: 'When Your Main Thing Is Your Voice And You're 80 Years Old, It's Time To Stop'

In a new interview with Finland's Chaoszine, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith was asked if he can ever see himself retiring completely from music, like David Coverdale apparently has, or if he considers himself a "lifer in a way that music is kind of everything" to him. The 68-year-old musician replied (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It used to be everything to me, almost not in a good way, because my whole life was centered around music. And if it wasn't going well, I was, like, depressed. And you shouldn't be like that. But on the other end, if you're trying to make it, you've gotta care about it that much. And if I hadn't done that, maybe I wouldn't be where I am. But it wasn't easy. It was a struggle, mentally as well. But now I enjoy it. I'm on top of it. I'm in a good place. And I just wanna enjoy it for as long as I can."

Adrian continued: "It's sad about David Coverdale [retiring from music] 'cause he was a great artist with [DEEP] PURPLE and WHITESNAKE. But when you're just — I'm not saying he's 'just' a singer, but when your main thing is your voice and you're 80 years old, man, it's a time to stop. But I'm a lot younger than that. I'm still in my sixties, so I still feel pretty good. I know I haven't thrashed my voice, like probably David Coverdale has over the years. I'm still developing it, which is nice. So, I can see it happening for a few years yet, hopefully."

Earlier this month, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris — who will turn 70 in March 2026 — told Sam Law of Kerrang! magazine that he is not planning on stopping anytime soon. "I'm not thinking about retirement," he said. "But we all know that it's coming at some point when you'll be forced into it by one thing or another. I still stay fit, playing football and tennis and things, but you never know what's coming round the corner. That's why you've got to make the most of this while you can, going out enjoy every gig for the sake of it. I've been saying that for the last 10 years, but it's truer now than ever."

Harris, who was in the middle of a fall 2025 U.K. club tour with his long-running side project BRITISH LION, added: "I'm scared to stop in a way, scared to slow down. But playing shows like these does bring that old feeling back. They're very similar in many regards. It's about that feeling of trying to be out there fighting for the band, trying to get as many people in as possible, proving yourself every night to try and get exactly where it is that you want to be."

Earlier this year, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murray insisted that he and his bandmates will know when it's time to quit, telling Music Radar: "To me, there's nothing worse than seeing a band you like on stage and they look like they shouldn't really be there doing it. We're nearly hitting the seventies mark now, but I think we will all know when it would be time. It would be a mutual decision.

"I think there's a time and a place to bail out with dignity and grace — as opposed to dragging it out," he continued. "If you can leave it at that high level, and then bow out gracefully, I think it would be satisfying for us. And not just flog a dead horse, when you're doing it for the wrong reasons."

Referencing MAIDEN's recently launched "Run For Your Lives" world tour, which started in May 2025 in Hungary, Dave said: "We're all set up for this tour, and after that we'll see what the future holds. But at the moment the band sounds great, we still have that excitement and adrenaline when we go on stage. We're still enjoying it, and that's what it's all about, really."

IRON MAIDEN's longtime drummer Nicko McBrain played his last-ever gig with the band a year ago in São Paulo, Brazil.

The 73-year-old British musician, whose real name is Michael Henry McBrain, announced his retirement on December 7, 2024 in a statement on MAIDEN's web site and social media. He also said that night's concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil would mark his final show with the iconic heavy metal act.

Despite the fact that he was stepping away from touring, McBrain said that he would remain closely connected to IRON MAIDEN and continue to be involved in "a variety of projects" with the band, while also focusing on personal ventures and his existing businesses.

On December 8, 2024, IRON MAIDEN announced Simon Dawson as its new touring drummer. Dawson is a former session drummer and Harris's longtime bandmate in BRITISH LION.

Back in 2019, Harris told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that there has been no talk of MAIDEN retiring anytime soon, despite the fact that all the members are in their late 60s.

"We all feel that if we feel we're not cutting it anymore, then we'll discuss it and that will probably be the end of it," he explained. "But at the moment, we don't feel like that. We feel that we definitely still are pulling our weight, so to speak. We're just doing well. So far so good. I don't wanna tempt fate, but we are doing good."

In 2022, MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson told Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show about the band's longevity as well as the group's multigenerational appeal: "We're not planning to retire at all, really. I think we'll probably drop dead onstage. I can think of worse places to drop dead. But no, we're not planning on retiring. We're all still firing away [with] loads of energy and loads of enthusiasm.

"With respect to our fans, we've got generations of fans now," he continued. "Even at [my] spoken-word shows, I can crack jokes about the age of the audience only because half the audience is, like, my age, but the other half of the audience is often way, way younger. So it's brilliant. We've got this whole intergenerational thing going. And, obviously, at the MAIDEN shows, it's even bigger, the emphasis on that. And huge numbers of women. It's fantastic. 'Cause it always used to be cliché, back when I was starting in the early '80s, that heavy metal was just, like, misogynist, male-dominated stuff… But no, it's not true. There's loads and loads of heavy metal fans who are girls."

Photo credit: John McMurtrie