“It wasn’t really till we got out and played live that we realised it was a couple of things”: Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris admits there was “maybe an issue or two” with Blaze Bayley’s voice at shows

Iron Maiden with Blaze Bayley in 1995 — (Image credit: Brian Rasic/Getty Images)

Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has admitted there was “maybe an issue or two” with former frontman Blaze Bayley’s voice when the band played live.

Bayley joined Iron Maiden in 1994, replacing longtime vocalist Bruce Dickinson, and had a noticeably deeper register than his predecessor. However, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal stars didn’t downtune their instruments when touring with Bayley, leading to some perceived wobbly performances from the singer.

In a new interview with the Scars And Guitars podcast, Harris is asked if Iron Maiden ever considered downtuning for shows with Bayley. “Not really, no,” he answers (via Ultimate Guitar). “Maybe on some things in retrospect, we could have done, but no we didn’t really think about it.”

Harris then adds: “It wasn’t really till we got out and played live that we realised it was a couple of things.

“The weird thing is that [Bayley] was really confident when we were rehearsing, and then a couple of times on a couple of songs, we got out live, and there was maybe an issue or two here and there. But in general, he just handled it really well.”

The bassist finishes by tipping his hat to his former frontman: “It is what it is, I suppose. In retrospect, you can do all kinds of things, but Blaze helped keep the band alive through that period, so we owe him a lot.”

Bayley was a controversial addition to Iron Maiden, with certain fans taking umbrage with his vocal differences from Dickinson as well as his more lighthearted lyricism in previous band Wolfsbane. He reflected on the uproar, and the support he got from his then-bandmates, in a 2023 interview with Metal Hammer.

“One time we were onstage in Italy,” Bayley remembered, “and there were signs in the audience saying, ‘Come back, Bruce!’, people were going, ‘Bruce! Bruce!’ And as we finished a song, Steve walked over and said, ‘Just fuck ’em. They said the same about Bruce when Paul [Di’Anno, Dickinson’s predecessor] left.’”

Bayley appeared on two Iron Maiden albums, 1995’s The X Factor and 1998’s Virtual XI, before being dismissed from the band in 1999. He was replaced on the microphone by a returning Dickinson.

Bayley now leads a prolific solo career and released his latest album, Circle Of Stone, in February.

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.