Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith c. 1999
Adrian Smith c. 2005Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born February 27, 1957 in Hackney, East London, England) is one of three guitarists in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
Biography
Whilst at school, Adrian befriended Dave Murray, and joined Dave's band, "Urchin", as lead singer. During this time, Adrian bought his first guitar from Murray. Murray left to join the band of another friend, Steve Harris, Iron Maiden. Smith continued to front "Urchin" until joining Maiden in late 1980 for the ''Killers'' album (released in 1981), replacing Dennis Stratton. Smith first wrote songs for Maiden on the 1982 album ''The Number of the Beast'', and was the bands secondary song writer from then on. Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars helping to forge the trademark sound of Iron Maiden. Some noteable dual lead solos are "2 Minutes To Midnight", "Alexander the Great" and "Rime Of The Ancient Marriner". Noteable solitary solos include "Powerslave", "Stranger In A Strange Land" and "Caught Somewhere In Time".Smith departed from Iron Maiden in 1990. It is widely believed that Adrian left due to his unhappiness with the direction the band was taking: after releasing the experimental ''Somewhere in Time'' and ''Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'' albums, Steve Harris had decided to take the band back to a more traditional hard rock direction.After leaving Iron Maiden, Smith released a solo LP as the band ASAP (Adrian Smith and Project) titled ''Silver and Gold'' in 1989. He created the prog metal band Psycho Motel in 1996, and recorded two albums, ''State of Mind'' (1996) and ''Welcome to the World'' (1997). Later, he played guitar for Bruce Dickinson, who had left Iron Maiden himself, on the Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding albums. In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden for the "Ed Hunter tour", a tour in support of the video game of the same name. Since then, Smith and Maiden have released 2 albums, Brave New World in 2000 and Dance of Death in 2003.