IRON MAIDEN Bassist: 'We Would Love To Tour With JUDAS PRIEST'

IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris spoke to Phil Freeman of Cleveland Scene about the group's forthcoming CD, "Dance Of Death", due on September 9 through Columbia Records. "It's a really, really strong album," Steve said. "We're really pleased with it. It's quite a varied album. There's two or three songs that veer toward the progressive, '70s-influenced stuff, but there's two or three songs that are more '70s hard rock, THIN LIZZY sort of stuff. The songwriting is split more on this album. I spent a long time, about six months, editing the 'Rock in Rio' DVD, and it gave the other guys time to get stuff together. It's a good thing. It makes it more diverse."

One thing that's interesting about MAIDEN, notes Freeman, is that the band have kept picking up new fans as years pass — at least overseas. "It's funny," said Harris, "because in Europe, we've got new fans all the time. Young kids as well as the older people. But in the U.S., it seems to be that we don't pick up as many new, young fans. I don't really know why that is. But here, the average age is a bit older than when we play elsewhere. We'll see what happens on this tour."

"There's a lot of young bands citing us as influences or wearing our T-shirts in the videos and things like that," Harris added. "We'll take whatever we can get. Anything that'll get people to come see us. I think once people come to see us, we'll do what we do, and 9 times out of 10, people will leave with a smile on their face."

Asked about the possibility of a co-headlining tour with JUDAS PRIEST next year, Steve said, "We'd love that to happen." Read more.