Guitar heroes Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen show their Scars, a second taste of forthcoming collaboration

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By ( Classic Rock ) last updated

Listen to the ‘moody and mysterious’ Scars from the forthcoming Smith/Kotzen debut album

Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen
(Image credit: John McMurtrie)

Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith and his guitarist pal Richie Kotzen have shared a second single from their forthcoming debut album. Following on from the release of Taking My Chances, the bluesy, earthy Scars offers another taster of the duo’s forthcoming Smith/Kotzen album, which is set for a March 26 release via BMG.

“I remember Scars being one of the songs we wrote in the very beginning of the process,” says Kotzen. “There is something moody and mysterious going on in this track that I find quite engaging. This would be a great track for us to stretch out live for some guitar improvisation between the two of us.”

Speaking about the pair”s creative union earlier this year, Adrian Smith said: “Richie and I started working together a couple of years ago. 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."

Smith/Kotzen was recorded on the Turks & Caicos Islands in February 2020. It was produced by the guitarists and mixed by Iron Maiden/Joe Bonamassa producer 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.

Classic Rock
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