Sadly earlier this week, former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno passed away at the age of 66. Di’Anno fronted the band on their first two albums, and many Maiden and heavy metal fans consider those records to not only be influential but among the band’s strongest efforts.
On Tuesday night, Maiden performed in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and singer Bruce Dickinson paid tribute to Di’Anno on stage. “So, this next track is actually called ‘The Time Machine,’” Dickinson said. “And I was watching ‘Back To The Future’ last night on TV and it’s true. It is 1.21 gigawatts of power that you need to put a DeLorean through the portal of time itself. I normally tell a story about that and we have a bit of fun. But tonight is — I don’t wanna put a downer on the proceedings at all, because our friend, our bandmember Paul Di’Anno passed away, as you are probably aware. And if you’re not aware of that fact, you are now.”
He continued: “Paul was instrumental in the first two albums, groundbreaking with ‘Killers’ and the first album. An amazing voice, devoted to rock and roll right up ’til the last minute of his life. So… for those of you who were born and still remember those early albums, when obviously I wasn’t in the band and he was, and those of you who were fans of the stuff he did with Battlezone and his own projects afterwards, and for anybody else that fancies having a listen to tracks like ‘Remember Tomorrow’ and stuff like that, which are absolutely awesome, I’m just gonna ask everybody to just take like a few seconds to just close your eyes in silence and say, just internally, mentally — if you believe in God, if you don’t believe in God, it actually doesn’t matter; just believe in what you believe in and just say, ‘Thanks, boss, for doing what you did.'”
After a brief pause, Dickinson concluded: “So, Paul, if you’re listening, this is a little message from Minneapolis to wherever you are, upstairs or downstairs, Minneapolis, for Paul Di’Anno, scream for me.”
Di’Anno, who had been suffering numerous health problems in recent years, died at his home. Dickinson’s tribute can be viewed in fan-filmed footage below.
