Heavy metal legends Iron Maiden are currently rattling through Europe on their latest adventure, taking in arenas and stadiums across the continent under the banner of The Future Past Tour. The tour's setlist has had Maiden fanatics salivating thanks to it revisiting some of the band's most beloved deep cuts - namely highlights from their classic, futuristic 1986 studio album, Somewhere In Time. The track that has unquestionably drawn the most excited response has been Alexander The Great, the epic, eight-plus minute Somewhere In Time album closer that Maiden's fans have been requesting to finally see live for almost four decades.
A few weeks back, Metal Hammer got to witness the Future Past tour live (spoiler: it was pretty damn epic), and we spent time with band founder, bassist and leader Steve Harris for an exclusive interview. During our chat, Harris revealed another Maiden deep cut that he'd be interested in dusting off somewhere down the line - and it's another classic album closer that we're pretty sure fans would be similarly delighted to see.
“There’s a few tracks that would be nice to dig out once in a while, I suppose," Harris admits. "I think Only The Good Die Young is a really nice song that would be nice to play."
Interestingly, Harris goes on to say that the song has been played live before, though setlist bible Setlist.fm has no record of it ever appearing in any Maiden set (though its listings are not necessarily complete).
"We did play it a couple of times," he says. "It would be nice to play that, maybe. It’s a bit more, one of those obscure songs. But it’s just…what do you drop out?! That’s the problem. So many songs, so many albums.”
While fans would no doubt be ecstatic to see Only The Good Die Young added to a Maiden setlist down the line, Harris is also keen to stress that when it comes to picking what songs to play on each tour, the metal legends answer to only one voice: their own.
"This might be blunt and brutal, but we don’t do it for the audience," he explains. "We do it for our own thing first. We’ve gotta feel comfortable with what we’re playing and enjoy it, and then hopefully they’ll like it. That’s always been our stance all the way through. We don’t do a census of, ‘Oh does everyone like this or like that?’, or whatever. We don’t do that."
Iron Maiden's Future Past tour continues this summer. Pick up the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine next week to read our exclusive interview with the band.
