Metal Shock Finland‘s Chief Editor Mohsen Fayyazi recently conducted an interview with singer BLAZE BAYLEY (WOLFSBANE, ex-IRON MAIDEN) for the Middle Eastern webzine Jorzine. An excerpt from the interview can be read below:

Jorzine: You’re going to play a show in Dubai on Mayb 31st, how do you feel about it? Have you been here in the Middle East before?

Blaze: "I’m very excited about going back to Dubai as I started my professional career there, we were a house band in a hotel. It was Wolfsbane, our first professional engagement. We learnt lots of cover versions and the money we made from that was enough to to do our first demo of original material, and that’s what started everything for us. That was a long time ago and I’m really interested to see how Dubai has changed. I have really fond memories of when I was there the first time. I’m really looking forward to it, I don’t know how many fans I’ve got in that area, but I’m so pleased to be able to go. The acoustic show has been going down great across Europe and South America, so I’m very excited to bring it to Dubai. When asked how the job came about, Blaze stated “It was a 3 month contract, but we got sacked after the first month, because we were too heavy metal, we played the songs too fast. But we saved enough to do our own original demo. That got us our first agent and our first article in Kerrang! And that’s what got us noticed by Def American Records."

Jorzine: You were a part of Iron Maiden, I’d like to know how your current relationship is with them and also their ex-members, I know you are good friends with Paul Dianno but I’d like to know how are you doing for example with Steve or Bruce?

Blaze: "I knew Bruce for many years before I joined Iron Maiden. I met him many years before in New York and we got on quite well. He supported me in my solo career when he had his radio show on the BBC, he had me on for an interview and played my songs regularly. I’m not in touch with him a lot, but he’s been very supportive of me. I’m still in touch with Steve Harris occasionally and I did part of the work on the King Of Metal album at Steve Harris’s studio. I’m very proud of the music we did and I learnt so much when I was writing and recording with Iron Maiden, and so much about performing live from Steve Harris.

You can listen to the whole of the interview on the Soundcloud here.