Blaze Bayley fronted Iron Maiden for five years from 1994 to 1999 appearing on two studio records and a best of compilation. At the time, heavy metal wasn’t really in fashion, especially in America, but Bayley’s material with the group has grown to be more appreciated since the band let him go and reunited with longtime frontman Bruce Dickinson.
In a new interview with “Scars And Guitars,” bassist Steve Harris talked about Bayley’s tenure in the band. He was asked if the band ever considered “tuning down” to help accommodate Bayley’s more baritone voice as compared to Dickinson.
“Um, not really, no,” Harris said. “Maybe on some things, in retrospect, we could have done. But no, we didn’t really think about it. It wasn’t, really, ’til we got out and played live that we realized there was a couple of things… The weird thing is that he was really confident when we were rehearsing. And then a couple of times on a couple of songs, then we get out live and there was maybe an issue or two here and there, but in general, he handled it really well. But it is what it is. I suppose in retrospect you can do all kinds of things, but Blaze, he helped keep the band alive for that period. So we owe him a lot.”
Harris previously told Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho that he still thinks Bayley’s two albums with the band were strong. “I really like that album,” he said of “The X Factor.” “It’s very personal to me. I remember saying at the time that those albums that we did with Blaze, that people would in the future come to appreciate them a lot more later on. And they are — they are starting to do that now. They definitely are appreciating them a lot more now. They were bloody good albums, in my opinion. It was just a point in time where, whatever we were going through at the time, I think it brought out some really good stuff.”
“I really like that album, and that era as well,” he continued. “We were fighting — everyone was kind of fighting at the time, because everyone thought metal was going down and all this. And it was, to a certain degree — but it makes you fight, makes you change and fight harder. I like that. There’s an element to it, a fire in it, that’s very important. It’s an important part of our career. Every career has highs and lows and ups and downs, whether Bruce is in the band or not, and it is what it is. You just ride the waves, really. At the moment, we’re on the crest of a wave, which is fantastic. You take it all day long, but you never know what’s around the corner, really.”
