Former IRON MAIDEN singer BLAZE BAYLEY spoke to Heavymetal.no recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Do you think there will be any more WOLFSBANE reunions?

Bayley: "Ehh, probably, ehh, we’ve left it open, I mean it was a... It was a lot of years since the break up, and when we got back together just to do a little show in Tamworth. We played about six songs together just to. Just as a bit of a jam after my own set. It went so well that we... just had a lot of fun. And then we were offered THE WILDHEARTS tour just through the UK. And that was five really big sold out shows. And it was just great fun. So we’re all doing different things, and committed to different things, but we’ve kind of just.. We’ve.. At the end of the tour we just said Well, we’ll leave it open. If anything comes up again like this, and we are all free, and nothing else is going on then we probably do it. Ehm, but the main focus is the Blaze Bayley band."

Yeah, but you don’t think there will be more albums?

Bayley: "I wouldn’t say never, but there’s no plans for any Wolfsbane albums. Because... It’s from a different time, I wouldn’t say never because, you know, ehm hopefully then the Blaze band will be big enough, that we will be able to take little brakes, but at the moment we’re just planning to keep touring. Touring as much as we can, play everywhere, you know, we don’t care if it’s at the Inside-bar or the Garage or..."

Some Maiden fans were not pleased when Bruce left and you joined, how did the fans treat you?

Bayley: "Well the fans I’ve met, were absolutely fantastic. You know, I had so much support and encouragement from most of the Maidenfans. I think most people just wanted me to do well, I was the new guy, and I think the people who been there historically, ehh, you know, they knew about Paul Di’Anno, the change with Paul Di’Anno, they knew about the change with Clive and stuck by that. So they knew about the problems about, you know, that were in the band, ehh, at the time when Bruce left. So most fans, especially as time went on, and all these things came out in the press about the bad things that Bruce said about Iron Maiden at the time. Then most of the fans gave me lot of support and encouragement and wherever I went I was really treated really, really well. And I was given a lot of support by the fans, so I have to be grateful for it, you know, will always be grateful for that. The only downside of it to me I suppose was, because the band was so big, ehh, and the schedule for the X-Factour was so tough, that a lot of times there were no signings. So I, I like to meet the fans and sign and, you know, say hello, and stuff like that. But Maiden are so big and the schedule is that tough, that a lot of times there just.. You can’t sign after the show, you’re basically off to somewhere else and on the way to the next show, and then you’re not gonna make it unless you leave on time, so that was.. That was a thing that I didn’t enjoy about it, because I didn’t get to meet as many fans and sign and do that as I would have liked, but the support and encouragement I got from the fans was absolutely incredible."

Obviously, so yeah, how are the Maiden fans treating you today?

Bayley: "Well, pretty good, the ones that know about me. But, the main thing is, not a lot of the Maidenfans from my era, know anything about my solo albums. So, even though they know Blaze Bayley was a part of Iron Maiden, and a lot of fans now, that maybe didn’t enjoy The X Factor because they couldn’t take the difference in the vocals, there is such a big change between Bruce and me, it’s totally different styles of singing. A lot of people are going back now, to The X Factor, and Virtual XI, and enjoying them without that emotional context of it’s new and it’s all I’ve got. Now it’s like oh got that other Maiden-album, and I like to go back, cause I never gave them a chance. So we getting a lot of interest from that, but to be honest, not many of Maidenfans from my era know that much about my own projects, you know, a few of the know about Silicon Messiah, but they don’t know about anything else. And a lot of them have never heard the music. So yeah, the ones that do know about me more or less, people who hear my band and hear some of my work, then they go bloody hell yeah I like it.

Well there’s another band who are like Maiden, with those values, interesting lyrics, melodies, interesting arrangements, and all of that. There is another band that I can like, that has those values. Ahh, true Metal and Heavy Metal. But not many people know about me, so that is what we’re trying to do over the next couple of years, play places like the Garage, and go anywhere with drumsticks and guitars. In the end that is everything that I wanted to do, when I left Iron Maiden, basically all I wanted to do I thought, well, I’ve got a huge catalogue of songs, two albums with Iron Maiden, five albums with Wolfsbane, I thought I’ll just get a band together, and show the fans that this guy who was on these huge stages playing in front of you know, 3000, 10,000 people every night across Europe.

Actually you come and see me, and you could see why I’m doing it. T’s because I love it. It’s because it’s the only thing I can do because it’s my whole purpose and reason for living since I was 19. So ehh, that was what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have a good management at the time, I didn’t have a good record deal, a lots of things weren’t right. So it never happened. But I always thought that was the best way to do it, exactly like we started in Wolfsbane, I thought well, bands must still be able to make it by going out and playing live. You know, being really good. If tributebands can go and get work, then why can’t we go out and get work? Playing our own original material, and we have a name as well, so, but nobody before would support me on that. But now we have a really good manager, who shares that vision. The whole band is committed to get out and play wherever we can, we will go there. As long as we can afford to get there, we’ll get there. And that’s a real difference."

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