“I’ve wanted to make a hard rock album for quite a few years now; the music I grew up on. When I was 15, I heard Deep Purple and Free, and that really got in my blood. I still love listening to it. So, I wanted to make a contribution to that kind of music, and I think there’s still a big audience for it,” says Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, speaking exclusively to BraveWords scribe Aaron Small, about the self-titled debut album from Smith/Kotzen, available now on BMG Records.

Adrian Smith’s partner and collaborator in Smith/Kotzen is Richie Kotzen (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, Poison). Together, this dynamic duo crafted songs that are equally soulful and invigorating. From an outsider’s perspective, Adrian’s imprint on ‘70s blues rock is much more shocking than Richie’s, as Kotzen’s solo albums tend to go down a similar vintage road. Smith/Kotzen is very different compared to anything Adrian’s ever released with Iron Maiden.

“Yeah, in a way, for me, it’s more of a tribute to the music that inspired me when I was young,” admits Adrian. “Richie’s been doing this kind of stuff for years, he’s an expert at it! I’ve always been interested in it. As a matter of fact, I started my career as a singer – only because no one else wanted to sing, so I said, ‘I’ll sing.’ I kind of learnt to play guitar as I went along. We used to play all the Free stuff and Humble Pie. I just wanted to pay tribute to that music. And meeting up with Richie… I bought a place in California a few years ago; my wife’s mother lives there, so we wanted to be closer to her. There’s a great community of musicians here, met Richie and we hit it off. We did some jamming; we’d play a lot of old ‘70s stuff. My wife – who’s co-managing this project – said, ‘Why don’t you get together and write?’ Well, okay. We sat down, and by the end of the afternoon, we had ideas for about three songs; we had a great chemistry. It was obvious we were thinking along the same lines. Like you say, it’s probably closer to what Richie does usually, but it’s definitely part of my makeup as well; the whole hard rock blues thing.”

The big surprise element to Smith/Kotzen is Adrian and Richie sharing lead vocals, especially given the fact that Adrian doesn’t sing backing vocals in Maiden. Yet here he is, splitting microphone time with Richie pretty evenly, and sounding amazing! Believe it or not, Adrian had, “absolutely no vocal training whatsoever. It was in the days of… I was very young. We all were using 100 watt guitar amps, and the PA was 50 watts, so you had to scream and shout to make yourself heard; not much technique. I stopped singing, obviously, when I joined Maiden (in 1980) and concentrated more on my guitar playing. When I left Maiden at the end of the ‘80s, I did an album called ASAP, which I sang on. It was very different than Maiden. It was very sort of AOR, almost Bryan Adams, a little bit heavier maybe. That started the rift with Maiden. Then I took a couple years off, I didn’t really want to do anything. Then I started to get back into playing again; and I was singing and playing. I thought, this is really me. I had a couple of bands, one called The Untouchables, another called Psycho Motel – did two albums in the ‘90s. Then I joined Bruce’s solo band for two albums (Accident Of Birth and The Chemical Wedding). So, my singing has been sporadic. And it is difficult, you’ve got to keep it up. But I have been studying it more. I mean, Richie is a world class singer; he’s got a fantastic range. He’s learnt to sing; I’m still improving hopefully. It’s great to get the opportunity to do this with Richie.”

Smith/Kotzen recorded their eponymous album in Turks & Caicos – a gorgeous island paradise located northeast of Jamaica. In fact, Richie Kotzen was unaware of this sun-drenched vacation spot prior to Adrian introducing him to it. “About ten years ago, Maiden recorded The Final Frontier, and we went to Nassau, in The Bahamas, where we’d done a lot of stuff in the ‘80s,” recalls Adrian. “We went back there, and we finished the record. I had a bit of time to kill, me and the Mrs. The Mrs. found this nice resort on the Turks & Caicos Islands; I’d never heard of it either to be honest. We went there, and I fell in love with the place. It’s just amazing! I love the people and the vibe there. So, when it came time to record, I said, ‘Let’s take some gear down.’ We took a laptop, a couple of mics, and a few guitars. We had already recorded some stuff elsewhere, and we just worked on finishing the album off down there. We took the wives with us and had a great time, got a lot of work done. We rented a house down there and set up ourselves – it’s amazing what you can do. You’ve just got to have the right premises and the right software, and away you go.”

Looking back on the Smith/Kotzen writing/recording sessions in Los Angeles, and in Turks & Caicos, Adrian reveals that Richie is “full of surprises.” Going on to add, “I’d seen him perform a couple of times, so I knew what he could do; he’s a phenomenal guitar player / singer. He’s good at everything; he plays drums better than I thought he could. Certainly, good enough to play on five songs on the album! He did a couple of monster bass tracks as well. He’s learnt a lot off Billy Sheehan and Stanley Clarke. He played keyboards on one song – is there anything he can’t do? I was there when he was tracking his guitar, that was quite an eye-opener, the way he does that. It’s great collaborating with other people, you always learn something.” Unlike Adrian, and the vast majority of guitarists, Richie does not use a pick; he’s a finger player. “That’s right, yeah. He has a very unusual style, he almost plays like a bass player, finger style. He doesn’t use a ton of gain, his sound is quite clean, which is testament to his technique really. We put our skillsets together and we’ve actually got a really broad canvas to paint on. I’d come in with a verse, he’d come in with a chorus, it worked perfectly. We didn’t discuss the direction we were going to go in, it just was unspoken really.”

The usual course of action is to hit the road after an album’s release; however, COVID-19 sidelined any and all touring activities. “Unfortunately, we can’t play live at the moment, which is a real drag,” laments Adrian. “We had planned to do some dates in April and early May, around the release of the album. But, of course, the pandemic has scuppered all those plans. Hopefully in the not too distant future we’ll get out and play on stage, cause we’re proud of the album. We want to take it out there and play it (live) to people.”

Nine songs comprise the Smith/Kotzen record, which relates to the ‘70s vibe, as prior to the advent of the Compact Disc, 12 song albums were not the norm. Given that fact, what songs will Smith/Kotzen add to the setlist when COVID restrictions are eased, thereby allowing for a full headlining slot? “Well, we’ve got another couple of songs we’ve written which we’ll maybe use as extra tracks, quite interesting ones; one’s very different. So, we’ve got other things there. It’d be interesting to hear Richie singing a Maiden song. Some of Richie’s back catalog, maybe a couple of cover versions, maybe stretch some of the songs we’ve got. It is difficult only having one album out though, to make a set. But I’m sure we could pull something together that’d be fun.” Which Iron Maiden song would you pick for Smith/Kotzen to do? “I can imagine us doing a really dirty version of ‘Wrathchild’. Actually, if you slowed that song down a bit, it’s almost got a bluesy rock vibe, the melody’s very tough. Something like that could work… you never know, ‘Wasted Years’, swapping vocals on that might be good, harmonizing on the chorus.”

There’s another Maiden connection to Smith/Kotzen, that being Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, who’s mixed numerous Iron Maiden releases including Rock In Rio, Dance Of Death, and The Book Of Souls, to name but a few. It must have been an altogether different experience for Shirley, mixing Smith/Kotzen as opposed to En Vivo! “Well, you’ve got to bear in mind that Kevin doesn’t mix the Maiden albums on his own, him and (bassist) Steve Harris do it. Usually he does Bonamassa or Aerosmith, he just mixes it and tweaks it – and that’s what he did for us. Kevin knew I was working with Richie, and he was curious. So, I sent him a couple songs, and he loved it! He said, ‘What are you doing about mixing?’ I said, ‘Richie did some mixes and they sounded good.’ He said, ‘Whack a few over to me and I’ll have a go… see what you think.’ Of course, they came back and sounded great. You do get close to it, so it’s nice to give it away and see what someone else can do with it. And get it back with a fresh perspective. So that’s what we did, and Kevin did a fantastic job. I mean, he’s the best rock producer / mixer out there, I think. He’s very quick as well. Some producers will leave the desk set up for days and days and days; they’re agonizing. He just goes with his gut instincts, and he’s usually right.”

It’s like asking which of your children do you love the most? Of the nine songs on Smith/Kotzen, can you pick one favorite? “The first song we wrote was ‘Running’. I think that’s a really good representation of the album. It’s got sort of a driving, tough bluesy riff. But the chorus opens out and it sounds quite fresh, quite different. I’d probably say that’s one of my favorite songs. It’s about running – people who end up running from themselves, their problems, and they can’t look in the mirror. Maybe they bury their problems in alcohol, or just not facing up to reality. I can certainly relate to that. I think most people can; life gets hard sometimes. We spent a lot of time on the lyrics as well. We wanted to make the songs mean something and have a bit of depth to them. Yeah, I’d say ‘Running’ is probably my favorite track.”

The lyrics to all of the songs on Smith/Kotzen do mean something and possess depth, yet they’re also open to personal interpretation. “Yeah, it’s about life experiences. ‘Scars’ is fairly self-explanatory, I suppose. It starts off, the guy’s a bit lost. Then the chorus is about things that happen to you in your life, which may be a little bit traumatizing, or have a massive effect on you in later life; you’re scarred in a way. People can relate to that one as well, we’ve all been through that. A lot of the stuff’s like that – and set against that kind of music, which is quite atmospheric as well, it seems to work.” The song “You Don’t Know Me” is another prime example. “Yeah, exactly. Sometimes you write songs and you’re noodling around, and you sort of scat sing. A classic example is Paul McCartney when he wrote ‘Yesterday’. When he was writing it, he was calling it ‘Scrambled Eggs’. You’re just trying to get something going… with ‘You Don’t Know Me’, I just kept singing that phrase over and over for some reason. So, we said, ‘That’s strong, we’ll keep that.’ Then you’ve got to write the song around it. And it’s the man behind the mask. A lot of people think they know me because I’m in a band, but everyone’s different, and everyone’s got their… I wouldn’t say deep dark secrets, but everyone’s got another side to them. Maybe you don’t know someone as well as you think.”

In 2020, Adrian Smith published his memoir, Monsters Of River & Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden's Compulsive Angler. We end with a fishing story from Smith/Kotzen’s time in Turks & Caicos. “Richie kept saying to me, ‘I’d like to go fishing with you. I used to go when I was a kid.’ And I knew what’d happen. We had a canal outside the house we were using, and I used to go out there every evening when we’d finish recording, and fish for an hour or so before dinner. He came out, and I gave him a rod – he lasted about three minutes before he got bored and went back inside.”