Ex-IRON MAIDEN Singer PAUL DI'ANNO Dead At 66

On behalf of his family, Conquest Music has confirmed the death of Paul Andrews, professionally known as Paul Di'Anno.

Paul passed away at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66.

Born in Chingford, East London on May 17, 1958, Paul first came to prominence as lead singer of English heavy metal band IRON MAIDEN between 1978 and 1981. He sang on their groundbreaking debut album "Iron Maiden" and the influential follow-up release, "Killers".

Since leaving IRON MAIDEN, Paul Di'Anno had a long and eventful recording career with BATTLEZONE and KILLERS as well as numerous solo releases and guest appearances.

Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023.

His first career retrospective album, "The Book Of The Beast", was released in September 2024 and featured highlights of his recordings since leaving IRON MAIDEN.

In December 2022, Di'Anno spent time in Split, Croatia recording an album with his new project called WARHORSE. The band was formed earlier that year by Di'Anno and two guitarists/authors, Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante "Pupi" Pupačić. The resulting LP was made available in July 2024 under the PAUL DI'ANNO'S WARHORSE banner.

Less than two months ago, Di'Anno, who had been performing in a wheelchair as a result of serious health problems for most of the past decade, discussed the progress of his treatment, two years after he underwent major knee surgery in Croatia. He told SDTV - Stonedead Festival: "It's improving a hell of a lot. The only problem is, and I'm sad to say, with my own country, it's a piece of shit over here [in the United Kingdom] for the NHS [National Health Service, a comprehensive public-health service under government administration]. It's broken completely. I go away, I get — with the lymphedema [a chronic condition that causes swelling in the body's tissues due to a compromised lymphatic system] thing I've got here, it's like it's all full of fluid. Two hours with a medical staff over in Croatia, it's gone down. Come over here [back to the U.K.], they don't even do that, lymphatic drainage [a gentle massage that targets the lymphatic system, which resides just beneath the skin]. Or they wrap you up in bandages. We just took them all off yesterday and put compression stockings on them. And they won't even put that on unless you go through all these channels. Fuckin' England, you're finished, mate."

Paul also reflected on his recent meeting with the singer who replaced him in IRON MAIDEN, Bruce Dickinson, in Croatia. Bruce, who was promoting his new solo album, "The Mandrake Project", performed with his solo band on July 13 at Hala Zagreb in Zagreb, where Di'Anno had been receiving treatment after undergoing his knee surgery.

Paul said: "[Our conversation was] private, so I say no more. Everyone thinks that we hated each other, which is bullshit. That's the press for you. But we've known each other, obviously, from when he was in SAMSON and all that. So, yeah, it's all good."

Di'Anno also discussed his meeting with Dickinson during a recent appearance on "The Neil Jones Rock Show" on TotalRock. He said: "Well, I can't tell you too much. I came out of the clinic I was in, 'cause I was going on stage that night, in Zagreb as well, doing signings basically, and I was gonna go up and do three songs with a MAIDEN covers band sort of thing. All I remember is my transport came to pick me up from the clinic. I'm, like, 'Where are we going?' So I went down to this open-air concert thing. And Bruce was on stage. I was like, oh, I'm clueless. That was my initial thought. Anyway, so after it was all over, I went backstage. All of Bruce's band came down to say hello and all that stuff. They said, 'We're gonna come down and watch you later on, in about an hour or two.' And then next thing I know, Bruce came in. We just gave each other a hug, shook hands and had a little chat, which is private, obviously. But, yeah, it's all good. But the press have put the bad things up about us, that we don't like each other, et cetera, et cetera. But, yeah, it's all good. He's had a little snipe at me over the years, and I'd snipe back occasionally, but yeah, it just kept it all interesting. Yeah, he's a great singer, man. Absolutely brilliant."

Asked if that was in fact the first time he and Bruce had actually met in the flesh, as had been reported, Paul clarified: "No, because, obviously, [we had met when he was] with SAMSON [before he joined MAIDEN] and all that."

In 2005, Di'Anno was asked by Classic Rock Revisited editor Jeb Wright about his previous comment that Bruce is a better singer for MAIDEN than he was. He said: "Yeah, I did admit that Bruce is a better singer for MAIDEN than me. I still do think that but only related only to the MAIDEN albums that were made after my first two initial MAIDEN classic albums. My feeling is that I could never have stamped my mark properly on the MAIDEN albums that came after 'Iron Maiden' and 'Killers' because Bruce's voice is much better suited to that material than my voice ever could be. However, that aside, I am not actually comparing our voices against each other either, as I feel as much as I could not sing Bruce's period of MAIDEN songs, Bruce definitely does not have — and never did have — the voice to replace me on the first two classic albums either. My voice is, and always will be, mega aggressive and that is what helped make those first two classic albums what they are. On the other hand, Bruce's high-pitched, and sometimes operatic voice, is what has helped give the later albums their different character. I will say this though: Bruce sounds incredible on many later MAIDEN tracks such as 'The Trooper', 'Number Of The Beast' and 'Two Minutes To Midnight' but let's face it — without meaning to sound arrogant here, just saying what everyone knows — when Bruce tries to emulate me on classics such as 'Remember Tomorrow', 'Running Free', 'Wrathchild', 'Killers' or anything from the first two MAIDEN albums, he just does not have the tools for the job as the aggression just isn't there. Your voice can often explain a lot about your background, and I think my voice shows the kind of rough, lower-class background I came from. Bruce's voice kind of gives an impression of a public schoolboy background."

In a 2022 interview with Sakis Fragos of Greece's Rock Hard magazine, Di'Anno addressed the circumstances that led to his departure from MAIDEN and whether it's true that it has something to do with his vocal performance. He said: "My record stands for itself. I've played more shows than IRON MAIDEN have ever played… They play a lot of concerts, but I played a hell of a lot more than they ever had. So it was nothing to do with my voice. It was nothing to do with that. I was just upset about certain things, which were private things in the band. And the way I dealt with them maybe was not right, but I dealt with them. And that's the end of it. And that's as much as I'm gonna say."

Pressed about whether it's true that he wasn't properly compensated for his work on the first two IRON MAIDEN albums, Paul said: "I have nothing to comment on that at all, because, to be honest with you, it's nobody's damn business. I got paid very well. I'm very happy with that. See, if I try to say, 'Oh, IRON MAIDEN didn't pay me enough money,' it's a bad reflection on IRON MAIDEN. And I'm not taking that. I got paid very well. They looked after me. End of story."

Photo credit: Marco Benjamin Alvarado (courtesy of Central Press for Conquest Music)