Iron Maiden Guitarist Adrian Smith Talks New Doc, ‘Burning Ambition,’ And Band’s 50th Anniversary

Adrian Smith and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden perform at London Stadium on June 28, 2025 (Photo by Jo Hale)

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By the tail end of the 1980s, Adrian Smith was burned out. The Iron Maiden guitarist had just completed a seemingly endless loop worldwide travel, live performances, and recording. He was exhausted and losing his fire. In 1990, he decided to leave the pioneering New Wave of British Heavy Metal band and start a new chapter in his personal life.

“I used to take things very much to heart,” 69-year-old Smith says. “Everyone was plowing ahead […] you’re so busy at the time, you don’t really appreciate what’s going on.”

It may have been hard for Smith to see, but the band’s labor in the ‘80s would ultimately pay off for decades to come. From 1982-1988, Iron Maiden released a barrage of quintessential heavy metal albums, laying the foundation for the lifelong career in music Iron Maiden would provide. The group’s relentless treks across the globe built a dedicated international fanbase which continues to show up in droves in 2026. While most of the musicians are at the cusp of 70, metalheads of all ages still fill the stadiums and arenas in which they play.

Nine years after Smith’s exit from Iron Maiden, both he and the band’s estranged singer, Bruce Dickinson, rejoined the group, ushering in a re-energized Iron Maiden charging into the new millennium.

This journey is documented in detail in the new feature-length film, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, which will hit theaters for a limited time on May 7. The retrospective documentary, which roadmaps the band’s career from its infancy, is being released in celebration of the band’s 50-year anniversary.

In addition to the new film, Iron Maiden will also continue to celebrate 50 years by hitting the road this summer, traveling across Europe before wrapping up with a special celebration in July. The band will host EddFest, a two-day Iron Maiden festival at England’s famed Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire. Next, the band’s Run For Your Lives World Tour will travel across North America, before making its way to South America, Australia, and Japan.

Below, Smith speaks with Forbes about Burning Ambition, reflects on his lifelong journey in Iron Maiden, and the recent departure of longtime drummer, Nicko McBrain.

A good chunk of this film is dedicated to the 1999 era when you and Iron Maiden’s singer, Bruce Dickinson, rejoined the band after having left for a period. The group came back in what would be its “final form” up until drummer Nicko McBrain recently retired from touring in 2024. It seems like the new millennium was a rebirth for the band. Do you find that to be an important period in Maiden’s history?

Totally. I mean, Bruce and I came back to the band and it was like a… I don’t know about a rebirth, but it’s certainly a new chapter in the band’s long history, which has turned out to be 50 years. That’s a very important time. Previous to that, Bruce and I had been touring together in his project and the planets and the stars aligned. We came back and it was great. It was great for me having been in the band in the ’80s to come back and do things a little different and a second bite at the cherry.

In 2001, after the release of Brave New World, the band returned to Brazil to perform at Rock in Rio to hundreds of thousands of people, which was just incredible. The last time you had performed at that festival was in 1985. To return to that stage in a distinctly different decade, but still perform to so many people as the more mature versions of yourselves, did that feel like a full circle moment? You mentioned that you all had “grown up” quite a bit.

Well, yeah, you do. In the ’80s, I joined the band when I was 23 or 24. I was kind of a “young 24,” if you know what I mean. I used to take things very much to heart. Everyone was plowing ahead. We were touring, touring, touring, recording and recording. And you’re so busy at the time, you don’t really appreciate what’s going on.

When I rejoined the band and I was able to take an outside-looking-in perspective, I appreciated it so much more and I could see what the band was all about and how important it was to people. It made the whole thing more enjoyable for me. I mean, I enjoyed the ’80s, but it was like a grind. We did so many tours. We used to do back-to-back American tours, six months straight on the tour bus, all sitting together, looking at each other. It was brutal. I mean, fun times as well, but definitely my second time in the band was more enjoyable, I’d say. I’ve enjoyed every second since I’ve been back.

Speaking of the ’80s, there were some great clips in the documentary showcasing the wardrobe. Do you ever miss the Spandex or are you glad it was retired decades ago?

I could be wearing them now! [laughs] Yeah, I suppose you get caught up in the fashion thing. I mean, everyone was wearing them then. It’s kind of absurd now, but it was like the thing to wear then.

Before I joined Maiden, I was always a jeans and T-shirt guy, but they went for the whole spandex thing.

I mean, if Steve Harris [Iron Maiden’s bassist and founder] is wearing Spandex, you wear Spandex! It must be cool.

He was into UFO and the guy in UFO, Pete Way, bless him, he used to wear the full stripey suit and everything. It’s a different era. Things have changed so much.

And this film, Burning Ambition, it’s a great document, not just for the fans, but for us as well, because as you know, we are not “in it” exactly. Our voices are overlaid against old footage. Us speaking now, we’re looking back on it, and that’s quite powerful. For me to see myself back in the day, and it’s kind of cool, and it’s kind of sad as well. You get a little mixture of emotions.

Were you involved in the filmmaking process or were you somewhat surprised when you saw a cut of the film?

We didn’t have any involvement apart from, we were interviewed for it. But personally, as far as I know, none of the band were present at the edit or had any say. It was an outside thing. That’s what we wanted. We wanted an outside perspective on the band, an independent view. I think there’s a bit more of a deep dive into things that have been covered before, but it’s much more in depth.

You left Iron Maiden in 1990 and rejoined in 1999. The documentary goes pretty in-depth on the time period that you were not in the band. Were you aware of what was going on behind the scenes in Iron Maiden when you were away?

When I parted company from the band, I didn’t really follow them. I broke away and I got married and got a house and did all that stuff. I was sort of catching up on real life, started having a family. And grew up a bit and started doing other things.

Then I picked up my musical career and started writing and working with different people and did a couple of solo albums, ended up playing with Bruce [Dickinson’s solo project] and then ended up back in the band. But yeah, you do get a different perspective when you’re not involved in something and then you come back. That was the great thing about coming back in 1999, coming back with a new energy and a new vision for it really, a fresh start.

You mentioned earlier how chaotic it was when you were doing all those back-to-back-to-back US tours. In the film, Bruce described that period of about 1982-1988 as “six years in a golden cage.” Was that a reasonable metaphor?

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Yeah, it was sort of a be-careful-what-you-wish-for thing. Me and Dave Murray grew up together. When you’re a kid—we used to dream of giving up our jobs and jumping on a tour bus and playing every night.

But when you’re doing it—and like I said, it was a stretch of probably six years where that’s all we did: tour, record, tour, record—it’s fun at first, but it’s definitely a grind.

But that’s what you have to do, especially a band like Maiden that was never going to get Top 40 records. We had hit records, but we weren’t going to ride to success on the back of a couple of songs. It was going to have to be road work, road work. Taking our music to people in the early days, we played everywhere. I mean, I can look at a map of America and I’m like, “I played there, played there,” all over!

Same with Europe. If we did a European tour, we’d do 8-10 shows in France, 8-10 shows in Spain. Now we only do one or two because we’re playing bigger. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’re doing now. People come to see us because they remember we always took our music to them—and that’s the way we had to do it. It was a grind, but it paid off.

It was immediately following the “grind period” when all the lineup changes happened. In the film, it shows how intertwined you and Bruce were. He says how upset he was when you quit the band, and then it wasn’t long after that he quit, too. The documentary showed a brief window where Bruce had lost his enthusiasm to perform with Iron Maiden, noting that it was even felt on stage. It seems like you didn’t really see that because you left before he reached his breaking point. Were you surprised to look back on that?

Yeah, that was one of the things, because I’ve only seen the film once, but that stood out to me. I was quite touched that he felt like that. Obviously it was hard for everyone at the time. I’d sort of lost my enthusiasm for it. We had many discussions. These things are seldom black and white, you get lots of emotion, lots of conflicting thoughts, “What shall I do?” Blah, blah, blah. But once you’re in that frame of mind, it’s the beginning of the end, really. So it’s probably best that I moved on, best for me and them.

But yeah, I was quite… what Bruce said… because thinking about it, when Bruce first joined the band, we did spend a lot of time together outside the band because a lot of the guys had regular girlfriends. They used to make me laugh because they used to call them, you say “the missus,” but that’s if you’re married. And none of the guys were married, but they used to say after we finished rehearsal, “Oh, I’ve got to go and see the missus now.” I said, “Well, you’re not married.”

They were virtually married, but Bruce and I weren’t in longstanding relationships.

So Bruce and I would go down to a pub, we’d play pool, have a beer, talk, and then we started to write because we were hanging out together. We came up with some great stuff, and it turned out to be a partnership that we continued and grew through the ’80s.

So when I left, I suppose he didn’t really have that anymore, but Janick [Gers] came in and Bruce wrote quite a bit of stuff with Jan as well, but that’s the way it goes.

Were you shocked when you heard the news that Bruce had also left the band in 1993? Did you think it could be the end of Iron Maiden?

I didn’t think it’d be the end of the band because I know what Steve is like. He just picks himself up and continues. But yeah, I was a bit surprised, to be honest. I was a bit surprised, but the pressure we all were under—and that run of six or seven years where we just worked our asses off basically—it’s going to take a toll on people. You don’t realize it at the time, but it burns you out for sure. Look, it happens to so many bands, doesn’t it?

It’s a tale as old as time, but not many bands stick around for 50 years. Iron Maiden has a particularly storied trajectory.

Exactly. But Steve has always been the driving force of the band and his drive never seems to falter. He’s always driving the band on and he wants to tour more. He’s the driving force really. So that’s one of the things that’s kept it going for 50 years.

Would it be accurate to say that you never played a single show with Bruce’s replacement, Blaze Bayley? He joined the band after you left, and had left the band before you returned, right?

Exactly. Yeah. I started working on, I think it was No Prayer for the Dying in 1989. I’m not sure I actually put anything on the album, and then I was gone. It just wasn’t happening. But no, I never played with Blaze, no.

Have you ever thought about what it would’ve been like to have performed a show in that Iron Maiden era? It was a different time for the band and they played much smaller venues.

Yeah. In South America and Europe, the band was still big, but in America, I think it struggled. Nirvana came along and that changed everything.

It was like punk in the late ’70s. I’d been probably playing in bands for about five years and our bands were getting to a certain level [of success]. You work hard and all of a sudden, bang! You couldn’t get a gig unless you had spiky hair and played punk. You thought, “Who are these people?” They’ve only been playing for a year and they’re proud of it that they can’t play. And yet everyone’s buying their records and they’re selling out gigs.

It was kind of the same thing with Nirvana [and grunge]. It was a changing of perspective. For bands like Maiden, it was hard. But like I said, the driving force is still there and you just got to weather the storm a little bit.

The film made it clear that there were points in that era where the guys were not excited about the fact that they were playing smaller clubs. On the other hand, it seems like a diehard fan of the band would feel lucky to have seen one of those shows.

Yeah. I never did it with them. I never did the club thing. I mean, I’ve done clubs since then. I did a club tour with Bruce in the States in the ‘90s. So I did have a taste of that, but I just like playing whether it’s in a club or in a stadium, obviously I’d rather play stadium [laughs].

That lineup also faced some disrespect. There was one clip where Steve was ready to fight an audience member for spitting at them on stage. It must have been hard for them to endure moments like that.

No, he doesn’t like that! I’ve seen Steve go into the audience many times. He gets very wound up when he plays. He’s very, very intense, completely into the music. When I first joined the band, it used to be if security were mistreating fans, he’d take his bass off and he’d be in there and he’d jump on a guy’s back and it was like chaos! You couldn’t do that now because you’d probably get sued.

But yeah, I couldn’t imagine people spitting. I mean, why would you want to do that anyway? Why are you even at the gig if you don’t like it? But if you get several hundred people in a room, you’re always going to get an a**hole, aren’t you? Just the law of averages.

When you finally did rejoin the band, they decided to move forward with three guitarists. What was that like from your perspective? Did you think it was possible for Iron Maiden to function with three guitar players or did you think someone was going to be cut? Did you have a relationship with the newer guitarist Janick Gers?

I knew Jan. We were friends. We used to play football together, have an odd beer.

But yeah, I didn’t quite know how it was going to work, to be honest, because I’d been playing with Bruce. We’d been playing clubs in the ’90s because that’s what heavy rock bands had to do in the ‘90s [in the US]. But in South America, Bruce and I were playing in stadiums.

So we came back… well, Bruce rejoined first. I wasn’t in the picture. And then I guess they talked amongst themselves and Steve said, “Well, let’s get Adrian back and try with three guitars.” I’d like to have been a fly on the wall when he said that to the rest of the guys, because it’s pretty off the wall thing to want to do, but that’s Steve, he does think outside the box.

They said, “Well, would you be interested in coming back?” I thought maybe I’d play half a set or something, or it’d be just for one tour. But no, I remember we all got together in a studio in Portugal with all the gear set up and we were looking at each other with guitars and someone said, “Well, what are we going to do? ” I said, “Well, I got an idea.” I had this song I called “The Wicker Man.” I had the riff to it and Bruce had some words and then before you know it, we started and that got the whole thing rolling again.

And then you just kind of figured out how to intertwine all three of them, huh?

Well, I kind of reevaluated what I used to play because Janick was basically playing all the stuff that I used to play and he’s not the sort of guy who likes to change. So I thought, well, if this is going to work, I’m going to have to change what I do. Not so much solos, but riffs, I was playing octaves, different inversions on the chords, using different tunings, trying to add something a bit different to justify having three guitars and it worked. But I had to work out how to make it work.

In 2024, Nicko McBrain retired from touring with Iron Maiden and the band has since named Simon Dawson as your new drummer. How has it been stepping into this new era of the band? Is it complicated for you?

Yeah, I mean, it’s never going to be the same without Nick. Nick is larger than life. He put his mark on the band for sure all these years, but Simon [Dawson] has come in and done a great job. He’s a calmer presence than Nicko, he’s a quiet guy. He gets on with his job and it’s different. It’s different. But it’s enabled us to carry on and play the music for the fans, really. And Nick is still a part of the band. He’s almost like an ambassador. He’s kind of stepped down rather than left, if you know what I mean. He’s always a friend. We still speak a lot. That’ll never change.

What are you looking forward to most for this upcoming tour? You’re doing a lot of dates in the US, Canada, all over the world!

Touring the US, it’s always great fun. Well, it’ll be towards the end of the year. And yeah, we did Run for Your Lives shows last year in Europe, so we’re excited to take it to the stage. People are really going to enjoy it. It’s all based around the first nine albums. It’s a great show. It’s a lot different to what we’ve done visually before as well.

One random final question: In your 2020 memoir, Monsters of River & Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden’s Compulsive Angler, you told a story about a funny encounter when you and Janick met Oasis vocalist Liam Gallagher at a recording studio. Have you followed along with the band’s recent reunion? It seems like Iron Maiden and Oasis are on the short list of big British guitar bands who can still pack a stadium…

I was quite interested. People like a story, don’t they? And [the Oasis rivalry] is one of the great stories, the two of them. I mean, brothers, I can’t imagine being estranged from your brother because I love my older brother. But I guess when you work with people, it’s a different thing. I guess, money and power and all this sort of stuff. It was interesting to see them go back out and tour, but really it was a no-brainer, wasn’t it? Everyone wanted to see them back doing it. It brought such a lot of joy to people, those songs.

Iron Maiden ‘Burning Ambition’ is in theaters on May 7 &9.

Catch Iron Maiden on the ‘Run For Your Lives’ World Tour 2026.

Follow Derek Scancarelli on X.