Ex-IRON MAIDEN Vocalist BLAZE BAYLEY: 'My Singing Has Always Been The Most Important Thing'

In a new interview with Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic, British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley, who fronted IRON MAIDEN three decades ago, spoke about singers who blow out their voices when they sing too hard. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): 'If you're not careful, it's really easy to do, and if you do it big, it's just tough to recover from. You're not coming back from it. And I'm very, very lucky that I've had breaks away from singing. And I've never used drugs. I've never smoked. I've stopped drinking now as well.

"My singing has always been the most important thing," Blaze explained. "I haven't always been the best-behaved singer, but I've always put my singing and my fans first. I've always wanted to do my best for my fans, and that's really helped me, especially over these years.

"The other thing is that — and I really feel that people don't understand this about singing — you can't go to the shop and get a new voice box, a new vocal cord," he added. "It can only be what you have, and recover and show the wear and tear of what you have. We say it's character. You can get new strings on your guitar. It doesn't matter how old that guitar is; it can sound new. It doesn't matter. You get those strings on, that bass, something on that drum kit, it doesn't matter — that's gonna be good as new. But your voice is never gonna be that. You blow that out too many times, it's not coming back. And one of the real problems is if you sing after you've been drinking alcohol, it will affect the sensitivity of your voice, it'll affect your hearing. You'll push too hard — bang. You do that a few times and you've got real problems."

Last spring Blaze embarked on a European tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of his first post-MAIDEN release, "Silicon Messiah". On this tour, Blaze played songs from "Silicon Messiah", previously unperformed songs from his most recent album "Circle Of Stone" and classic IRON MAIDEN songs from his era with the band.

Bayley fronted IRON MAIDEN from 1994 until 1999. The two MAIDEN albums he appeared on, "The X Factor" and "Virtual XI", sold considerably less than the band's prior releases and were their lowest-charting titles in the group's home country since 1981's "Killers".

Since leaving IRON MAIDEN in 1999, Bayley has released a number of albums, including several under the moniker BLAZE and more than a handful under his own name. He also appeared on 2012's "Wolfsbane Saves The World", the first album of new material by WOLFSBANE since the group's self-titled 1994 effort, and a follow-up LP, 2022's "Genius".

Last year WOLFSBANE released "Live Faster", a full-throttle reinvention of the band's iconic debut, "Live Fast, Die Fast", which was originally produced by Rick Rubin and released on Def American Recordings in 1989.

Bayley's latest solo album, "Circle Of Stone", came out in February 2024.

The now-62-year-old musician underwent a quadruple bypass surgery following a heart attack in March 2023.