“A song I wrote when I was 16 ended up on an Iron Maiden album! And the chugging guitar was inspired by a Queen track”: Guitarist Adrian Smith reveals the origins of his first song for Maiden

Iron Maiden in 1982.

Adrian Smith has written some of Iron Maiden’s greatest songs over the years - but when he first joined the band in 1980 he had to wait for his chance to prove himself as a writer.

As an instinctively melodic guitar player, Smith has composed various Maiden classics - some of them written alone, and others written with singer Bruce Dickinson, or bassist Steve Harris, or both.