IRON MAIDEN's ADRIAN SMITH Names His Favorite Song To Perform On 'The Future Past' Tour

IRON MAIDEN has released a short video in which guitarist Adrian Smith is asked to name his favorite song to perform on the band's ongoing "The Future Past" tour. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "My favorite song on 'The Future Past' set has been… Wow, this has been one of my favorite [tours] because I get a lot of room to express myself with my guitar playing — I've got a lot of solos, a lot of songs in the set. So, wow… 'The Writing On The Wall' is a good one. I like that. When you play that opening chord, just a simple chord on the guitar, on the acoustic, the venue just goes quiet and they're, like, 'What's coming next?' I love that. And I love that pause. So that's always a good song to play. And it gives me a bit more room, because it's not so frantic pacing-wise. There's a bit more space for me to sort of put a bit more feel into it. So, I do enjoy that song."

IRON MAIDEN kicked off the fall 2024 North American leg of "The Future Past" on October 4 at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in Chula Vista (a suburb of San Diego),California.

"The Future Past" tour, which includes songs from both IRON MAIDEN's most recent studio album "Senjutsu" as well as 1986’s seminal album "Somewhere In Time", alongside other fan favorites, played to over 750,000 fans at more than 30 sold-out shows across Europe in the summer of 2023. The band also performed in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver alongside their highly praised appearance at California's Power Trip festival in October 2023 which had Consequence stating: "IRON MAIDEN set the bar high at Power Trip" and The Desert Sun saying "IRON MAIDEN didn't disappoint and delivered a hard-hitting performance to open the festival on a high note." Featuring one of the most spectacular stage productions of the band's career, it has received rave reviews in every city and country that IRON MAIDEN visited.

MAIDEN's latest album, "Senjutsu", was released in September 2021 via BMG. The band's first LP in six years was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

In the U.S., "Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

According to Billboard, "Senjutsu" logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales.

"Senjutsu" topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.

Last month, IRON MAIDEN announced the "Run For Your Lives" world tour, which will launch on May 27, 2025 in Budapest, Hungary, followed by 27 stadium, festival and arena shows around Europe. The tour marks 50 years since Steve Harris formed the band in late 1975 and, to celebrate this, MAIDEN fans are promised a very special setlist, spanning the nine studio albums from "Iron Maiden" to "Fear Of The Dark", with their most spectacular and elaborate show ever. The tour includes five shows in the U.K. and Ireland, with arenas in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, and outdoor shows in Dublin and London. So it is with immense pride that IRON MAIDEN will celebrate their 50th anniversary with one of the most notable concerts in their history.

On Saturday, June 28, 2025, MAIDEN will perform at the London Stadium, home of West Ham Football Club — the team that band founder Steve Harris has supported throughout his life, and with whom IRON MAIDEN have a long and storied history. This concert in front of over 60,000 fans at the London Stadium, which was constructed in Stratford for the 2012 Olympics and four years later became the new home of West Ham, will be the first time that IRON MAIDEN have performed on the club's hallowed turf. A true homecoming show — with Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Nicko McBrain all born in the surrounding area — it will also be the biggest U.K. venue the band have ever headlined outside of their festival appearances.

Having been established in 1975 in the East End of London, IRON MAIDEN have, over the course of 17 studio albums, more than 110 million records sold and some of the greatest world tours that music has ever witnessed, become one of the greatest and most influential British rock bands of all time. Yet despite their enormous success, they have remained down to earth and true to their roots throughout their career.

The final leg of "The Future Past" tour started in September in Australia and New Zealand and continued through Japan before hitting Canada, United States, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina and concluding in Sao Paulo, Brazil with two concerts at the huge Allianz Parque Stadium in December.