Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith recently guested on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, hosted by Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho. Smith talks Maiden live shows from the props to the set list, shares the songs he enjoys playing most, the ones that are a bit challenging, and how Maiden adapted the music to fit their three-guitar approach when he and Bruce Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999. Smith also recounts the circumstances that brought both he and Dickinson back to Iron Maiden, the band’s reaction to Dickinson's cancer scare, and what happened when Johnny Cash turned up at an Iron Maiden soundcheck.

Smith on his return to Iron Maiden:

"Bruce approached me in the mid-'90s. He'd written some songs for his first album; it wasn't his first solo album, but around the Accident Of Birth at the time. So, I really liked what they were doing, and I just contributed a few songs and it went off from there for the next three-four-five years. Then they wanted Bruce to come back. Blaze (Bayley) was fired from the band, I was playing with Bruce, so there was something in the air about me coming back, and I thought 'Maybe I'll just do one tour or come home after set.'

If you would have asked me 10 years before, I'd say 'No, I would probably never do it....' but things change. As you get older, you get wiser. I thought it might be nice just to round it off. Again, Steve (Harris / bass) does come off with some wacky ideas that first you think are not going to work. So he suggested to the guys, 'Why don't we have three guitars?' I joined up and we went up to Portugal to write some songs, and I had the song 'Wicker Man', and so I started playing that, and away we went. And then we just never looked back, really."

Check out the episode here.