Steve Harris reveals the song he wants to bring back to Iron Maiden’s setlist: “It’s difficult to do a set from any part of our career and not miss things out”

Steve Harris onstage with Iron Maiden in 2025 — (Image credit: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)

Iron Maiden bassist/founder Steve Harris has revealed which song he wants to bring back to the legendary heavy metal band’s set.

Talking exclusively in the current issue of Metal Hammer, the 69-year-old, who started Maiden in 1975, says that there are a number of songs that the band don’t currently play but that he’d be eager to pull out again. He names The Evil That Men Do, a single from 1988’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son album which hasn’t made a setlist since 2019.

When asked which track he was most excited to dust off when the band’s 50th-anniversary tour, Run For Your Lives, kicked off last year, Harris tells us: “I like them all! It’s hard to pick one. There’s certain songs like The Evil That Men Do that aren’t already in the set and I’d like to play. But we’ve bandied the ideas around and not ended up playing them this time.”

He adds: “But it’s difficult to do a set from any part of our career [and not miss things out]. It’s a nice problem to have, I suppose.”

The Run For Your Lives trek kicked off in Europe last May and saw the band bring a number of old songs back from retirement. Among them were Killers and Murders In The Rue Morgue, both from the 1981 album Killers and untouched since 1999 and 2005, respectively. 1984’s Rime Of The Ancient Mariner was performed for the first time since 2009 and The Clairvoyant, another Seventh Son… cut, came back after last being played in 2013.

The 2025 Run For Your Lives shows, during which Maiden exclusively play material from their first nine studio albums, featured a special date where the band returned to their home turf of East London and played to 80,000 people at London Stadium. The venue, a stone’s throw from where Harris grew up in Leytonstone, is the stomping ground of the bassist’s beloved football club, West Ham.

Hammer attended the London Stadium show and awarded it four-and-a-half stars out of five. This journalist wrote: “Finale Wasted Years lets London disperse in high spirits. ‘Realise you’re living in your golden years!’ the lyrics command, before [Bruce] Dickinson makes it clear that he’s doing just that, grinning while calling tonight’s audience his ‘best friends’. After returning to Maiden’s birthplace for a mammoth show and playing in magnificent form, it’s easy to understand why he’s so bloody happy.”

The tour will pick up again in the spring. Maiden will do a second run across Europe from May to July, capping it off with a blockbuster gig at Knebworth House in the UK. Then, from August to November, they’ll perform in North, Central and South America.

Meanwhile, frontman Bruce Dickinson remains busy with his solo career. He revealed last year that he hopes to record his eighth solo album, the follow-up to 2024’s The Mandrake Project, this month.

“We’re doing it, everybody on the floor, with the intention of keeping it all,” he said on the Talk Is Jericho podcast. “Not with, ‘Oh, we’re gonna do it, everybody on the floor, and then we’re gonna keep the drums and re-record everything.’ No! The idea is, we’re gonna keep it all. Only if it really stinks will we redo it.”

Read the full interview with Harris in the latest Hammer, which offers a blockbuster look back at 2025 with interviews from Ghost, Babymetal, Parkway Drive, President and more. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.

Iron Maiden - The Evil That Men Do (Official Video) - YouTube

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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.

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