Iron Maiden's Steve Harris has paid tribute to his band's former frontman Paul Di'Anno, who passed away last year, aged 66.
Harris was speaking to Classic Rock's Paul Elliott, for a cover feature celebrating 50 years of Iron Maiden.
Di'Anno, who sang on the East London band's seminal self-titled debut album (1980), and the quintet's powerful 1981 follow-up Killers, before being sacked by Harris, died of heart failure at his home in Salisbury, England on October 21 last year.
“I was in touch with him until a couple of weeks before he passed,” Harris says.
“Paul was a lovable rogue,” the bassist continues. “He liked to annoy me by dressing up like Adam Ant. Anything to wind me up. He liked to ruffle a few feathers, let’s put it that way. And ruffle he did! He used to call me Hitler. I’ve been called the Ayatollah and Sergeant Major, but Hitler takes the biscuit, really.”
Reflecting on D'Anno's contributions to his band, Harris adds, “Paul’s voice had a certain quality to it. A rawness. But he didn’t look after himself. He had this self-destruct button. And I got the impression that he never really believed he had it in him to go to the next level. I think there was an insecurity there.”
At the time of Di'Anno's passing, Harris issued a statement saying, “It's just so sad he's gone.”
He went on: “I was in touch with him only recently as we texted each other about West Ham and their ups and downs. At least he was still gigging until recently, it was something that kept him going, to be out there whenever he could. He will be missed by us all. Rest in peace, mate.”
Di'Anno had previously acknowledged that he fully understood why he was dismissed from the band by Harris.
“I don’t blame them for getting rid of me,” he admitted to Metal Hammer. "Obviously, the band was Steve’s baby, but I wish I’d been able to contribute more. After a while that got me down. In the end I couldn’t give 100 per cent to Maiden anymore and it wasn’t fair to the band, the fans or to myself.”
Paul Di'Anno's final show was at Hype Park in Kraków, Poland, on August 30, 2024. The set was composed entirely of covers from his time in Iron Maiden. It underlined his enduring connecting to British metal's biggest ever export, and to the foundations of British heavy metal itself.
