Di'Anno Left Iron Maiden For Band's Sake

William Lee | 01-06-2020

Former Iron Maiden frontman Paul Di'Anno has explained the circumstances surrounding his decision that he no longer wanted to be in the band.

Di'Anno was the lead singer for the legendary band on their first two studio album, their self-titled debut and then their sophomore record "Killers" before being replaced by Bruce Dickinson.

Paul discussed his departure from the band during a recent interview with Eonmusic. He recalled, "I'll tell you what it was. The second album, I like the album and I liked it a lot, but it didn't have as much impact on me as the first album. Some of the songs on there were a bit... and I couldn't give 100% of myself, which was not fair on the band, on the fans, or on me.

"And yeah, I was trying to find other ways to make if exciting for me when I was on the road, and yeah, there was a few problems with a bit of cocaine now and again. It wasn't as bad as what most people say it is - it was nothing like that.

"But no, all it is at the end of the day is, when you've got such a fantastic working machine like Iron Maiden, if one little cog goes a bit wrong, the whole thing falls to bits, and I wasn't prepared for Maiden to go through that, and I wasn't prepared for me to go through it as well.

"So, I sort of mentioned that I was unhappy, we had a little chat and all that, and that was it. We all sort of parted ways amicably."