Adrian Smith

ADRIAN SMITH as known by Bruce Dickinson

I first met Adrian when I was in Samson and he�d just joined Iron Maiden. We were over the road from each other in different studios; we were doing the second Samson album and he was doing �Killers�. He was very much the new boy in the band, but I was really impressed with the style of his guitar playing. And he was dead rock and roll. He was skinny, pasty and waiflike, and he looked really cool!

He�s a pretty mellow person, and he�s got a very dry sense of humour. His nickname in the band used to be Willie-Orwontee - not for nothing! He likes to take his time over things, which is not a bad thing and in the old days when we used to do soundchecks together, we�d all be waiting for him, he�s such a perfectionist over sound.

In a world populated by faceless guitarists who all go to school to learn how to do it and end up all sounding virtually indistinguishable, Adrian has evolved a tone and style that is all his own and is unique. Nobody sounds like Adrian, and that is priceless. His guitar playing sounds lazy, like the notes are almost falling over each other but they never do. You actually hang on every note that he plays, because you don�t quite know where it�s going to go next.

He�s a very good athlete. When he plays football or tennis, he has a natural grace, and that�s what his guitar playing�s like. When he plays football, he gets the ball and you think, �He�s never going to get past that guy�, but suddenly, there�s a little shuffle and he�s dribbled past him. And it�s like watching him play guitar. I swear to God the timing is the same!

When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don�t think anybody had realised how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn�t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn�t in the band. I just don�t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it�s great having three guitarists.

I think possibly one of the greatest tracks he�s ever written is on the new album; it�s called �Paschendale�. When I was writing stuff with him for the album, I noticed he had lots of Siegfried Sassoon and other war books lying around, and he was researching this track. It�s a fantastic song and really evocative of the whole horrific period of warfare - a stunning piece of music, ten minutes long.

Adrian�s philosophy, I guess, goes back to something we were talking about one drunken night. He turned around and said, 'The thing about me is, all I�m interested in is just having a bit of a sing and a play', and that is at the root of everything that is Adrian. He�s happy having a drink, having a sing and playing guitar. And for something that�s that simple, he does it alarmingly well - especially the guitar playing.