IRON MAIDEN Guitarist JANICK GERS Talks Finnish Storm, New Album

Bryan Reesman of Attention Deficit Delirium recently conducted an interview with IRON MAIDEN guitarist Janick Gers. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Attention Deficit Delirium: I heard there was really bad weather at your recent Finnish festival gig, and some bands canceled. What happened?

Janick: We did the Sonisphere gig in Stockholm, and it was torrential rain all day. The minute we went on, it stopped and the sun came out. Then we finished, and it thundered and lightninged again. It was unbelievable. Our crew were just drenched all day. When we landed in Finland the next day, there was a plane on its side on the runway. Our tour manager said, "Hey, I ordered a crew plane just like that!" Then we went, "Really?" Bruce [Dickinson] asked, "How many seats do you have?" The tour manager went, "30". "That's a 30-seater right there." What had happened is a tornado or something similar came through, and it just literally ripped half the trees out and turned the crew's plane over — luckily the crew weren't on it. We went up to the stadium where there were two huge stages. MÖTLEY CRÜE and ALICE COOPER were playing there as well, and MÖTLEY CRÜE's stage literally got bent in half. It was unbelievable; the scaffolding was just snapped in half. It all happened in ten minutes. Our gear was completely kaput; the tarpalin above the stage cracked and the water came down on the mixing desk. It was bedlam. IGGY POP went on to do an acoustic set for a couple of numbers. ALICE COOPER went on about an hour and a half late, then I think we went on about two hours late. We got the job done. There were a lot of kids there and canceling would not have been the thing to do. We went out with half the P.A. and half the lights and very little monitors on stage because the mixing desk was kaput. We did a great gig and had good fun.

Attention Deficit Delirium: I feel like in America we're spoiled because we get so many tours, whereas someone in Japan or South America doesn't get to see some of these bands as often as we do, and therefore they are much more passionate in their support for bands.

Janick: I would assume that Japan has many, many tours. I had been there before MAIDEN with other bands. They have lots of tours there. South America is more difficult to tour. We took a plane on the last tour because it's more difficult to carry the gear there. You have to hop around certain areas. With the gear in the plane we can go to places like Ecuador which we couldn't go to before. It's impossible to get the gear in through customs and get it out again. There's a lot of paperwork involved. You can spend six months setting up a tour like that. The logistics are quite frightening, really. I don't even get involved in it, but we have people working on those tours like a year before. It is quite difficult to tour there, and you have to have a fanbase that is definitely going to come because the promoter has to risk his money putting a band on. If he puts the band on and nobody turns up, he's in big trouble. You have to have a big following to start with. You can't just go there and expect everybody to turn up.

Attention Deficit Delirium: "The Final Frontier" encompasses ten songs over 76 minutes, some of which you contributed to. You notably co-wrote the shortest song on the new album, "The Alchemist", which reminds me of the "Powerslave" era.

Janick: It's just a rock 'n' roll tune. I brought in about an hour's worth of material, as everybody else does. They all bring loads of stuff in. That was a rock 'n roller I brought in because I thought there might be a few long songs on, so I thought I'd bring a short, more straight-ahead power rocker in. I had a few different things, probably a lot more progressive things in there, but that was just one that was on the side that everybody seemed to get off on. Steve [Harris] found a melody for it, Bruce wrote some lyrics and it just seemed to work.

Read the entire interview from Attention Deficit Delirium.