IRON MAIDEN Bassist's Daughter On Nepotism, Touring The World And Solo Career

Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with Lauren Harris, daughter of IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris. An excerpt from the chat follows.

Metalshrine: When did you first realize, if you can remember, that your dad is a rock and roller? Did you realize that at an early age?

Lauren Harris: (laughs) Yeah, I think so. We were always out on the road with him anyway, when I was pretty young. I kind of never really got it until...I mean, obviously I knew what he did, but I never got the whole thing until I was a lot older and I remember... I was probably around ten or eleven and I just remember people coming up to him and literally like freaking out and shaking and crying and stuff like that and I was like "Oh my God, this is so weird. This is my dad!" (laughs)

Metalshrine: Did he guide you in any direction or did it happen all by itself, you taking up music and singing?

Lauren Harris: No, he never really guided me. I started singing when I was nine in school and I always just kind of carried it on and I wished I would have picked up an instrument really, but I never did. I carried on singing after school and I did the whole pop thing and that kind of went on, but no, he never really pushed me. Like "You should do this or that!"

Metalshrine: Whose idea was it to have him play on your album? Yours or his?

Lauren Harris: A bit of both really. At the time he was kind of there (laughs),so it was easy to have him do it and I kind of spoke to him like a long term plan and obviously people would look at it and be interested in it and it would kind of give it a boost, I suppose. Kind of help me get out the door as well. I don't think it was a bad thing. I'm really pleased he's playing on it and I got to play... there's a small place near where I live and he got up on stage and played with me, so that was cool! It's nice as well! It's nice for me because he's my dad.

Metalshrine: Do you think it opens more doors or closes more doors because you're Steve Harris' daughter? I guess some people might think it's all because you're his daughter.

Lauren Harris: Yeah, I get both sides. It's a double-edged sword really. You know, in some respects it's good. Some people have been really welcoming, because they know who I am, but then on the other side people have got that kind of like, I don't know... they've got that thing about them where they just think "Ah you know, she's just the daughter of...!" I don't worry too much about that, because I think I'm still here and if I didn't do it well, then I wouldn't be on this tour again. I've been out with a few more bands, you know, like WITHIN TEMPTATION and THUNDER and I wouldn't still be doing it if it was just him.

Metalshrine: Well, I think you've proven that you've done things on your own. Did you get to travel on Ed Force One?

Lauren Harris: Yeah, I did! (laughs). I did the whole thing, which was nice actually because a lot of my family was out as well. It's so big, you know. They took out all the seats in there and they put them in again and we had like big leather seats and a lot more leg room than normal and they each gave us a DVD player and we had food all the time and stuff. It was really good actually.

Metalshrine: Sounds like a nice life!

Lauren Harris: It was like a big tour bus, but in the air. (laughs)

Metalshrine: What's that like? You're still young and now you're playing in front of tens of thousands of people every night. That's got to be very special?

Lauren Harris: Oh my God! It's amazing! I honestly can't even explain to people what it's like. It's just incredible. The whole traveling around the world and seeing different places is unbelievable as well, but when you get on stage and, you know... and especially for me since I'm the support and I'm trying to get out there and make a name for myself at the moment and obviously people don't know who I am and they don't know the songs, but to have people being really into it is a big triumph for me. That's what I try to do every night. Try to steal a little bit of their audience and people seem to be responding really well, so I've been lucky so far.

Metalshrine: Have you always been a fan of IRON MAIDEN or when you were a kid, did you just think that their music was the worst crap in the world?

Lauren Harris: (laughs) No, not at all! I've always grown up and listened to it and I've always liked it. I suppose the kind of stuff I listen to now or the stuff I'm doing is because of my dad really. Stuff he played around the house and stuff my friends weren't really listening to bcause it wasn't commercial and it's not the kind of stuff you hear on the radio. I definitely loved that stuff.

Read the entire interview at Metalshrine.