MARK TORNILLO: How I Ended Up Singing For IRON MAIDEN At Club Show Four Decades Ago

On a recent episode of the "Talk Louder" podcast, hosted by veteran music journalist "Metal Dave" Glessner and lifelong hard rock/metal vocalist Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS),ACCEPT's Mark Tornillo reflected on the experience of fronting IRON MAIDEN at an impromptu performance at a New York club four decades ago. Regarding how the unexpected collaboration came about, Mark said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[My pre-ACCEPT band] T.T. QUICK, we had a steady Thursday night at L'Amour [legendary club in Brooklyn]. We played every Thursday night. We were the headliner — doing six, seven hundred people on a Thursday night. Not too shabby; it was respectable. [Drummer] Glenn Evans was in the band at that point. The EP hadn't come out yet. It had to be '83, I'm gonna say. And one of the [L'Amour] owners, Mike, comes into the back, into the dressing room, and he goes, 'Hey, the guys from IRON MAIDEN are here. They wanna know if it's okay if they hang out in the dressing room.' And we were, like, 'What?' Like we were gonna say 'no.' I was, like, 'Yeah, of course. Tell 'em to come on back.' And, of course, we had a party going on back there. It was 1983. What do you expect? So they all come back, hung out. And we asked them, 'Do you guys wanna play?' [And they said], 'Nah, we don't wanna play.' The opening act was on; I don't remember who it was. So, changeover, they're still hanging in the dressing room. We're getting ready to go. And we go on. And we must have played about five or six songs, and my guitar tech goes, 'Hey, come here. Come here.' I'm, like, 'What?' 'They wanna come up and play.' 'Tell 'em to come on and have a play. I'm fine with that. Great. Tell 'em after the next song.' 'Okay.' We did the next song. And they're starting to walk up. We're starting to walk off. I'm gonna introduce the band. And the crowd knew they were there. And the swell in the crowd just went from 'Aaahhh' to 'Ooooaaahhh.' You couldn't miss [MAIDEN guitarist] Dave Murray walking out on stage, and [MAIDEN bassist] Steve Harris. So I'm getting ready to introduce the band… Actually, I'm trying to remember how it went. And I have a cassette recording of this; my soundman, brilliant that he was, had the foresight to push the 'record' button on a cassette. I think I walked off before I introduced them 'cause I figured they didn't need any introduction. And as I'm walking off, Steve Harris just grabbed me by the shoulder, and he goes, 'Where are you going?' I said, 'I'm gonna [get off and watch you play].' And he goes, 'Bruce [Dickinson, MAIDEN singer] isn't here, mate. You're singing.' I'm, like, 'Okay.' He goes, 'What are we doing?' I go, 'How about 'Wrathchild'?'"

Tornillo went on to say that he was freaking out over the fact that he was performing with MAIDEN. "I lost my shit, man," he said. "I didn't sleep for three days. The adrenaline flow was just [off the chart]. The crowd just lost their frickin' minds. And then we [T.T. QUICK] had to finish the show. It was, like, 'Oh my God. How do we top that now?'"

This past February, Tornillo joined the all-female IRON MAIDEN tribute band THE IRON MAIDENS on stage at the final concert of ACCEPT and THE IRON MAIDENS' joint European tour in Saarbrücken, Germany to perform the MAIDEN classic "Wrathchild". Video of his appearance can be seen below.

Tornillo joined ACCEPT in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original lead singer, Udo Dirkscheider. He can be heard on ACCEPT's last five studio albums: "Blood Of The Nations" (2010),"Stalingrad" (2012),"Blind Rage" (2014),"The Rise Of Chaos" (2017) and "Too Mean To Die" (2021).

In a 2018 interview with Metal Shock Finland, Tornillo stated about what it was like to first join ACCEPT: "It was frightening. When we first announced what was going to happen, there was really not many people on board with it. Online, there was a lot of naysayers, a lot of badmouthing. It was very disheartening. We all sat down and said, 'Look, we have to make an amazing record, or else we're gonna die here. This is going to be a swansong. We have to make an amazing record.' And that's what we did. We spent a lot of time writing 'Blood Of The Nations' and a lot of time recording it, and I think in retrospect, it paid off. If that album wasn't what it was, we wouldn't be here."

Asked about fans who have yet to "accept" him, Mark said: "Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I'm a purist too with certain things. I get it. But I think we've moved on. We're almost a different band at this point. We really are a different band at this point. We still pay tribute to the old ACCEPT by playing the old songs — I mean, we have the two people that wrote most of the songs, [so] we have to. That's always going to be part of ACCEPT's history. You can't change it. All we can change is the future. But everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I get it. I wish them all well, and I wish Udo well, and his band, you know. No hard feelings on my part, that's for sure."