Wolfsbane and former Iron Maiden vocalist Blaze Bayley recently spoke with Greg Prato at Songfacts, discussing the creative process for his two albums with Maiden, The X factor ('95) and Virtual XI ('98). An excerpt is available below:

Bayley: "No music was written before I started recording The X Factor, so Steve (Harris) said, 'I don't care who has the ideas that go on the album, they've just got to be great ideas.' 

So it doesn't matter who writes the song, it just has to be a great song. That's reassuring. I got quite a few of my ideas onto a work with Steve or with Janick Gers that became part of The X Factor. The first single from The X Factor was my lyrics for 'Man On The Edge'. 

One of the sadnesses of my life, a twinge of sadness, is I was working on the lyrics and melodies for a third Iron Maiden album when they fired me. So a lot of those ideas that I was going to use on a third Iron Maiden album are actually on my Silicon Messiah album: 'Stare At The Sun', 'Ghost In The Machine', 'Born As A Stranger', 'The Launch'. A lot of the ideas I'd already got on my dictaphone or got lyrics sketched out, then I didn't get the chance to work with the guys. 

But I'm so proud of my Silicon Messiah album. It turned out great. I put that level of satisfaction that I have with that to the experience I had with Iron Maiden songwriting and with everything I learned there. I never doubted myself after that like I may have done before. Now if I feel it's good, I'll follow that idea through."

Go to this location for the complete interview.