IRON MAIDEN's ADRIAN SMITH On His Musical Relationship With BRUCE DICKINSON: 'He Is Really Easy To Write' Songs With

In a new interview with Made In Metal, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith was asked about his musical relationship with the band's singer, Bruce Dickinson. Adrian responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, even when Bruce first joined IRON MAIDEN in '82, I think it was, we'd rehearse, the band would rehearse and then everyone would go home. And I wasn't married then. I don't think Bruce was then. But Bruce and I would go and have a beer after or play pool, and we'd hang out a little bit. 'Cause he'd only just joined, so I was trying to get him into the band a bit. And I've always written songs, so I used to play him riffs and stuff, and then we'd started writing songs. And that's our musical relationship. He'll always come to me and say, 'Oh, what have you got?', if we're doing a record. 'You got any riffs?' So I have riffs or even have melodies or a title for a song. And he's great. He is really easy to write with. He'll come up with something really quickly, and we write songs very quickly. That's the way he likes to do it. And he's a great singer. He's got a great range. When I'm on my own and getting ideas together, I can visualize him maybe singing over what I'm playing, so there's that side to it too."

Adrian continued: "In the '90s when I was just doing my solo stuff, he came to me and said he wanted me to join his [solo] band. And I really liked the songs he was doing with [the guitarist for his solo band] Roy Z — I think it was 'Chemical Wedding', [Bruce's] first [solo] album; I love those songs. So I sort of threw my lot in with Bruce in the '90s and I had a great couple of years. I really enjoyed that. I learned a lot of stuff like from Roy. So, yeah, Bruce and I, we get on great, and we write, I think, some great music together."

Smith previously talked his collaborative relationship with Dickinson on the MAIDEN singer's solo albums "Accident Of Birth" and "The Chemical Wedding" in the late 1990s this past March in an interview following SMITH/KOTZEN's acoustic performance at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. "That was a fun, fun time," Smith recalled. "I had a project called PSYCHO MOTEL and did a couple of good albums, [but] the grunge thing was happening everywhere. It was difficult. We were trying to put something together for a tour, and we were coming up against a lot of obstacles. Then Bruce just rings me up and says, 'Hey, you've got to listen to this stuff I've been writing with this guy Roy Z over in L.A.' He'd come around the house, and he played me 'Accident Of Birth'. I was just blown away. It was really good. He said, 'Do you want to get involved?' I said, 'Yeah, all right.' My project was on hold, so next thing I know, I was on my way to L.A."

Smith went on to explain that Roy Z introduced him to drop-D tuning, in which a guitar's low E string is tuned down a full step to create a heavier sound. "Roy was the drop-D [tuning] guy," Smith said. "I learned all these songs, but I didn't know about the drop-D tuning, so I just tuned my guitar all the way down to D. It was like a banjo. He said, 'No, no, no. I'll show you how to do it.' I've got to say, I learned a lot from Roy. He's a guitar teacher as well; he was a virtuoso. He gave me a few pointers. What I love about working with different people is you learn stuff, and you grow. It was a fun time, and I'm proud of those albums, and we did a couple big tours as well. It was a good, fun time."

Smith also reflected on writing with Dickinson in IRON MAIDEN. "I think I was the first one in MAIDEN to get a multi-track recorder in the '80s — a little four-track thing," he explained. "I used to start doing demos on that. When Bruce first joined the band, he and I used to hang out because we didn't have regular girlfriends. I should rephrase that. After rehearsal, we used to go down to the pub and play pool. We started writing, because everyone else would just go home to their missus, and we'd hang out and write. That's how it started. '2 Minutes To Midnight', I had on this little cassette. I only write a lyric if I have to, because it's a pain in the ass. You've got to do it [eventually], but Bruce just walks around with books of lyrics all the time. If you've got something [musically], he'll have something very quickly. Sometimes, I'll come up with a melody or a title like 'Speed Of Light' or 'Writing On The Wall', and that will inspire him. It's back and forth."

SMITH/KOTZEN's second album, "Black Light/White Noise", was released via BMG on April 4. The record — mixed by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER) — sees Smith once again join forces with Richie Kotzen (THE WINERY DOGS),with whom he shares guitar and vocal duties.