49 Fun Facts About Iron Maiden

Which football club does Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris support, wearing its crest on his bass?

West Ham United coached the teenage Harris as a youth player before music won out, and in 2025 Iron Maiden headlined the club's London Stadium home.

In which part of London, home to founder Steve Harris, was Iron Maiden formed in 1975?

East London: the Cart and Horses pub in Stratford, where the band played some of its earliest gigs in 1976, now trades as "the birthplace of Iron Maiden".

Which old film did Steve Harris say gave him the idea for the name Iron Maiden?

The Man in the Iron Mask, an old film of the Dumas novel, put Harris in mind of the iron maiden, a spiked torture cabinet, and the band had its name.

Whose wartime speech introduces "Aces High" on Iron Maiden's live album Live After Death?

Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech of 1940 sets the scene, because the song is told by an RAF pilot scrambling to fight in the Battle of Britain.

Who has been Iron Maiden's lead singer on most of its albums since 1982?

Bruce Dickinson was still fronting rivals Samson when Maiden's manager cornered him backstage at the 1981 Reading Festival; he quit in 1993 and came back in 1999.

Which singer fronted Iron Maiden on its first two albums before being dismissed in 1981?

Paul Di'Anno was let go after the Killers tour, by which time the band had quietly auditioned his successor behind his back.

What is the name of Iron Maiden's skeletal mascot?

Eddie started out as a mask hung at the back of the stage, rigged to dribble fake blood during the set, long before he appeared on a record sleeve.

Which artist painted Iron Maiden's mascot for the band's record covers from 1980 into the early 1990s?

Derek Riggs kept the creature's face in shadow on the first single's sleeve, so that the debut album cover would be the first proper look at him.

What was the title of Iron Maiden's self-released debut EP of 1979?

The Soundhouse Tapes began as a demo that a London rock-club DJ played until it topped his weekly request chart, and the EP took its name from his club night.

Which label signed Iron Maiden in December 1979?

EMI put out Running Free as the band's first single; invited onto Top of the Pops, they refused to mime, and the BBC reluctantly let them play live.

Who became Iron Maiden's manager after hearing the band's demo tape in 1979?

Rod Smallwood had been a booking agent, and those contacts helped him put his little-known band on Kiss's European tour as the support act in 1980.

Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" is told by a cavalryman riding to his death in which doomed attack?

The Charge of the Light Brigade, Britain's cavalry disaster of 1854, is retold from one rider's saddle, and the band later named its own Trooper ale after the song.

The title of Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight" refers to which symbol of nuclear danger?

The Doomsday Clock stood at two minutes to midnight in 1953, after American and Soviet H-bomb tests, and it had crept back to three minutes in 1984, when the single came out.

Which two live clips made Iron Maiden the first metal band shown on MTV?

"Iron Maiden" and "Wrathchild" both aired on MTV's launch day in 1981; the first was only the sixteenth video the channel ever played, between Rod Stewart and REO Speedwagon.

Which veteran producer worked with Iron Maiden from Killers until retiring in 1992?

Martin Birch, who had already made records with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, was brought in because the band disliked the thin sound of its debut album.

Which 1982 album was Iron Maiden's first to top the UK chart?

The Number of the Beast came with its own legend: during the sessions the producer's car hit a minibus full of nuns, and the repair bill came to £666.

Which film gave Steve Harris the nightmare behind the title track of Iron Maiden's 1982 album?

Damien: Omen II gave Harris the nightmare. The band wanted Vincent Price to read the spoken intro, but he asked £25,000, so another actor was hired instead.

Which drummer played on Iron Maiden's first three albums before leaving at the end of 1982?

Clive Burr later developed multiple sclerosis, and his former bandmates set up a trust fund and played benefit concerts to help cover his living costs.

Iron Maiden recorded Piece of Mind and Powerslave at Compass Point Studios in which island country?

The Bahamas: for both albums the band wrote the songs in an out-of-season hotel on wintry Jersey, then flew out to Nassau to record them in the sun.

Which 1983 song, the first single Iron Maiden released in the United States, became a rare American radio hit?

Flight of Icarus was held to a steady pace because its singer bet that would get it onto American radio; Steve Harris always found it too slow and prefers it faster live.

Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", from Powerslave, retells a poem by which writer?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ballad is retold across more than thirteen minutes, and Steve Harris says he is proud that teenage fans went off to read the poem because of it.

Iron Maiden's World Slavery Tour opened in 1984 with five shows in which Eastern Bloc country?

Poland got the band's full stage show, trucked through the Iron Curtain for five concerts in six days at one of the frostiest points of the Cold War.

Iron Maiden played the opening night of the first Rock in Rio in 1985 as special guests to which headliner?

Queen topped the bill that night; Maiden broke off a winter tour of the United States to fly down for the single show, then went straight back to the snow.

Most of Iron Maiden's live album Live After Death was recorded over four nights at which arena?

Long Beach Arena in California supplied the first three sides and the whole concert film, but the fourth side was taped months earlier at London's Hammersmith Odeon.

Iron Maiden's concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was inspired by a 1987 fantasy novel by which author?

Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son gave Harris a theme for the band's seventh album; the first song written for it came from his wondering whether a famous psychic had foreseen her own death.

Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" describes the conquest of which people by European settlers?

Native Americans tell the first verse and the invading soldiers the second; it was the band's first single with its new singer and its first UK top ten hit.

Iron Maiden drew a record 107,000 fans in 1988 headlining which British festival?

Monsters of Rock at Donington drew the largest crowd in its history that day, but the band's triumph was tinged with tragedy: two fans had died in the crowd during an earlier set.

Which guitarist replaced Adrian Smith in Iron Maiden in 1990, straight from playing on the singer's solo album?

Janick Gers was still making the solo record when Maiden asked him to step in; when Smith came back nine years later, the band simply kept them both.

Which single gave Iron Maiden its first UK number one, over Christmas 1990?

Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter began as a solo song its singer wrote for a Nightmare on Elm Street film; Steve Harris liked it so much that the band took it over.

Which country's Christian groups stopped Iron Maiden from performing there in 1992?

Chile's church leaders had the 1992 concert cancelled, yet the band's 2012 live album and film En Vivo! was shot in Santiago's national stadium.

Which singer, formerly of Wolfsbane, fronted Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999?

Blaze Bayley was picked from a mountain of audition tapes sent in by hopeful singers, though the band already knew him: Wolfsbane had opened for Maiden on tour in 1990.

Iron Maiden's 1995 single "Man on the Edge" is based on which 1993 film?

Falling Down stars Michael Douglas as a laid-off defence engineer who snaps; the band's new singer wrote the lyric because he read the film as a story about losing your job.

What nickname do Iron Maiden's three guitarists share, coined after the band's 1999 reunion?

The Three Amigos exist because Steve Harris refused to choose: when Adrian Smith came back, the guitarist who had replaced him offered to quit and was told to stay.

Iron Maiden's reunion album Brave New World (2000) was recorded in Paris with which producer?

Kevin Shirley chose a Paris studio built in an old cinema and had the band play together live in the room, something they had never done on a studio album before.

Which song won Iron Maiden its first Grammy, for Best Metal Performance in 2011?

El Dorado was given away as a free download, and its singer says the lyric mocks the easy-money promises that led to the 2008 financial crash.

What name did Iron Maiden give the Boeing 757 it toured the world in during 2008 and 2009?

Ed Force One's paint job went down so well with passengers that the airline that owned the jet asked to keep it for its ordinary charter flights.

For its 2016 Book of Souls tour, Iron Maiden swapped its Boeing 757 for which larger aircraft?

The Boeing 747-400 was hit by a tow truck at a South American airport mid-tour, and two replacement engines had to be flown out before it could rejoin the band ten days later.

Besides flying airliners, Iron Maiden's lead singer has competed internationally in which sport?

Fencing: he took it up at school, went back to serious training in the 1980s, and put it into the sword-fight song Flash of the Blade on Powerslave.

Which 2015 track, at 18 minutes, became Iron Maiden's longest song?

Empire of the Clouds tells of the R101 airship crash of 1930; its singer wrote it alone at the studio piano over about a month while the others recorded around him.

What is the title of Iron Maiden's seventeenth studio album, released in 2021?

Senjutsu, loosely "tactics and strategy" in Japanese, was recorded in early 2019 during a break in a tour and then sat unreleased for over two years, the pandemic adding to the wait.

Who became Iron Maiden's touring drummer for the 2025 anniversary tour after its long-time drummer stepped back?

Simon Dawson already played with Steve Harris in the bassist's other band, British Lion, so the two were a ready-made rhythm section for the 2025 tour.

Which 2009 documentary followed the first leg of Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time world tour?

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 takes its name from the call sign of the band's own jet, which carried them 50,000 miles to 23 concerts in 45 days with their singer at the controls.

Which London stadium hosted Iron Maiden's only UK concert of its 2008 world tour?

Twickenham, the home of English rugby, staged the show in July 2008, and a photograph of that night later appeared on one of the Royal Mail stamps issued in the band's honour.

Steve Harris says he drew Iron Maiden's logo himself, using the skills of which day job?

Draughtsman: Harris once drew building plans for a living, and he says seeing Genesis swap a great logo for a dull one taught him never to change his.

Which 2026 Iron Maiden documentary features superfans Javier Bardem, Lars Ulrich and Chuck D?

Burning Ambition tells the story through archive photographs and video; today's band members are heard in voice-over but never filmed talking to the camera.

Which Swedish firm, co-founded by a member of ABBA, bought into Iron Maiden's catalogue and image rights in 2026?

Pophouse Entertainment had already struck a similar deal with Kiss; its first Maiden project was a museum of the band's history, opened at the 2026 Knebworth festival.

Steve Harris traces Iron Maiden's early twin-guitar harmonies to the album Argus by which band?

Wishbone Ash's 1972 album is all anyone needs to hear to understand early Maiden's harmony guitars, he said, with Thin Lizzy a lesser influence and a dash of prog from Genesis.

Which ancient civilisation supplies the cover art and stage set of Iron Maiden's 1984 album Powerslave?

Ancient Egypt: the title song is sung by a pharaoh who cannot accept that a god must die, which its writer meant partly as a picture of his own life as a rock star.

Which Iron Maiden member became a born-again Christian around the turn of the millennium?

Nicko McBrain says he found faith on a visit to his wife's church in Florida, and that playing in its worship group made him more nervous than playing to 250,000 people.