Former IRON MAIDEN singer Paul Di’Anno recently reunited with the band’s bassist, Steve Harris, for the first time in 30 years last Sunday night (May 22) before the legendary British band’s show in Croatia.
Paul has been spending the last few months in Croatia in order to receive physiotherapy and lymphatic drainage treatments while preparing for an upcoming knee surgery. IRON MAIDEN just happen to have commenced the 2022 leg of its “Legacy Of The Beast” world tour at Arena Zagreb in Croatia with Harris taking some time to catch up with his old singer just prior to the band’s performance.
After the meeting, Di’Anno attended the majority of the concert however left a little early in order to avoid the expected traffic jam after the performance wrapped up.
Di’Anno sat down with the guys over at The Metal Voice yesterday (Saturday, May 28) and discussed his recent reunion with Harris. He said: “Last weekend was absolutely amazing. ‘Cause me and Steve [have exchanged messages] about football [in the past]. But we actually hadn’t met [face to face] for a long time. And it was brilliant, because I met up with Steve’s sister Linda first, whom I hadn’t seen her in about 30 years. And then [seeing] Steve was amazing, and then [meeting up with MAIDEN‘s longtime manager] Rod [Smallwood] as well, it’s made my whole year, actually. It was fantastic. It was pretty awesome.”
Paul noted that the last time he saw Smallwood was back in 2013 when both he as well as IRON MAIDEN performed — separately — at Brazil’s Rock In Rio festival.
“I missed the MAIDEN show because I got swamped by bloody press and stuff, so I couldn’t actually do anything to watch the band,” he explained.
When Paul was asked if he felt “awkward” meeting up with Steve Harris for the first time in 30 years, Paul replied: “No. It was great. I wish I wasn’t in this sort of position [being in a wheelchair]. Yeah, it was quite emotional. If it had been the first time we spoke together in 30 years, it would have been maybe a little bit more weird. But, as I said, we talk about football and stuff like that, and Steve phoned me up a couple of times from [his home in] the Bahamas.”
Paul also noted that owes the iconic bassist dinner “big time, because he looked after my missus and son over in the States on the last MAIDEN tour in Connecticut, in Hartford. He really looked after them — gave them backstage VIP stuff and all of that. It was great. So when I get my legs back, I’ll take him out to dinner.”
Paul also said that Harris actually called him the day after the IRON MAIDEN show in Croatia but he missed his call. “But I did text him back,” Di’Anno said.
Paul also made it a point to communicate to fans that he has nothing but respect for his former bandmates, saying: “What annoys me is that everyone’s spreading rumors around that we don’t like each other and stuff like that. I ain’t got nothing [against] IRON MAIDEN at all. I tell you, the show was brilliant on Sunday — absolutely amazing.”
You can check out the video interview as well as the backstage meeting between Di’anno and Harris in Croatia below.