This Day In Metal History

On this day in 1981, Paul DiAnno backed down as lead vocalist for Iron Maiden after a meeting between him and the band and its manager Rod Smallwood. In Di’Anno’s words: “It’s like having Mussolini and Adolf Hitler run your band. Because it is Rod Smallwood and Steve Harris and that’s it. There can’t be anyone else and my character is too strong for that so me an’ Steve was always fighting”

DiAnno was the singer for Iron Maiden from 1978-1981 and sang on the self-titled debut album and “Killers.” These two albums are considered to be two of the most groundbreaking albums in Heavy Metal and had Iron Maiden at the forefront of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) movement. DiAnno was replaced by Samson vocalist Bruce Bruce who once in Iron Maiden dropped that dumb ass stage name for his real name, Bruce Dickinson.

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