Adrian Frederick Smith was born on 27 February 1957 and is an English guitarist best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he writes songs and performs backing vocals both live and in the studio.
16 Facts About Adrian Smith
2.
Adrian Smith soon formed a friendship with future Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray, who inspired him to take up the guitar.
3.
Adrian Smith joined Iron Maiden in November 1980, replacing Dennis Stratton.
4.
In 1997, Psycho Motel was put on hold when Adrian Smith joined the band of former Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.
5.
Adrian Smith purchased his first record, Deep Purple's Machine Head, at the age of 15.
6.
Adrian Smith began writing his own material, including a song called "Countdown," which evolved into "22 Acacia Avenue", later included on Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast.
7.
Adrian Smith was offered a place in Iron Maiden while they were in the process of signing with EMI in 1979, but turned them down to continue with his own band, a decision he later regretted as Urchin split up in 1980.
8.
Shortly after Urchin split, Adrian Smith encountered Steve Harris and Dave Murray on a street in his neighborhood, and the two asked him to reconsider joining Iron Maiden as the replacement for guitarist Dennis Stratton.
9.
Unhappy with the direction the band were taking for their next release, No Prayer for the Dying, and feeling that he could not help enough in the creative work, Adrian Smith left Iron Maiden in 1990 during the album's pre-production stages, and was replaced by Janick Gers.
10.
The project was put on hold when Adrian Smith joined Bruce Dickinson for his 1997 album, Accident of Birth, after which he became a full-time member of Dickinson's solo outfit, embarking on two world tours and contributing to one further studio release, 1998's The Chemical Wedding.
11.
Adrian Smith remains in Iron Maiden, with whom he has released five further studio albums, 2003's Dance of Death, 2006's A Matter of Life and Death, 2010's The Final Frontier, 2015's The Book of Souls and 2021's Senjutsu.
12.
In 2011, Adrian Smith formed the side project Primal Rock Rebellion with Mikee Goodman.
13.
Adrian Smith was born in Hackney Hospital and grew up a few streets away from his childhood friend, and current bandmate, Dave Murray.
14.
Adrian Smith, whose father was a painter and decorator from Homerton, was the youngest of three, with an older brother, Patrick, and a sister, Kathleen.
15.
Adrian Smith currently prefers to use his Jackson signature 'San Dimas' Dinky, although he has used a variety of guitars over his career, including several different Dean models, various Jacksons, including the Randy Rhoads model, Fender Stratocasters, Gibson Les Pauls, Gibson Explorers, Gibson SGs, an Ibanez Destroyer, a Hamer Scarab, and Lado Guitars.
16.
Adrian Smith still uses it to this day, stating that "it's still probably the best guitar I've got".