Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen detail Smith/Kotzen album - watch Taking My Chances video

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and Winery Dogs axeman Richie Kotzen have announced the details of their debut album Smith/Kotzen. It will be released on March 26 via BMG.

The news comes a month after the pair released the first single from the album, Taking My Chances. A video for the same song was also launched today.

“Richie and I started working together a couple of years ago," says Smith. "We’d been jamming as we’d been friends for a few years before that. We both share a love for classic rock and bluesy rock so we decided to get together and start writing some songs and it went from there.

"Pretty much everything on the album is handled between Richie and myself including the production. We had developed a really strong idea of how we wanted it to sound and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. There’s a lot of cool songs on there that we are really happy with."

“We had a very fluid process in writing," adds Kotzen. "Sometimes Adrian would send me a riff and I would immediately hear some kind of melody or a vocal idea. And sometimes it was the other way round so it was a kind of circular motion.

"We’d get together whenever we could and throw some ideas around and it just evolved, which was great because there was no pressure and nothing other than just a natural course and I think the record really speaks for that."

Smith/Kotzen was recorded on the Turks & Caicos Islands in February 2020. It
was produced by Richie and Adrian, and mixed by Iron Maiden and Joe Bonamassa man Kevin Shirley.

The album is available on CD and vinyl, and as a limited edition red and black smoke coloured vinyl variant. Smith/Kotzen is available to pre-order now.

Smith/Kotzen tracklist

Taking My Chances
Running
Scars
Some People
Glory Road
Solar Fire
You Don’t Know Me
I Wanna Stay
‘Til Tomorrow

Smith/Kotzen album — (Image credit: BMG)

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.