Bruce on Blaze as his replacement
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/br...hose-blaze-bayley-as-his-replacement-in-1994/
On his conversations with
IRON MAIDEN manager
Rod Smallwood about replacing
Paul Di'Anno in 1981:
Bruce: "It was a similar thing when they got [
Dickinson replacement]
Blaze Bayley in [1994]. I really like
Blaze. I like him just as a human being. He's a lovely guy. I remember going to the management offices and there was a guy, he doesn't work for management anymore, but he was telling me how great this whole thing was and how brilliant it was going to be. I said, 'Look, he's got this great gig. Of course, he's going to take the job. He's been offered the job. Of course, he's going to take it.' I said, 'Has anybody given any thought to where he's going to go with the old stuff? Has anyone given any thought to how he is going to manage it? Not just singing, but how are you going to deal with the fan reaction?' Because I was surprised it was
Blaze. I was delighted for
Blaze, but there was a whole bunch of other really good singers out there. [Editor's note: Rumored candidates also included
ANGRA's
André Matos and
HELLOWEEN's
Michael Kiske.] I thought 'Wow, they could have picked somebody with a voice that could do what my voice did.' But they picked
Blaze. Obviously, they picked somebody different, but that came with its own set of challenges. I just wondered whether anybody in the management was really giving anybody any serious words of truth on how hard this could be.
"But anyway, so in that same vein, that was me when I fronted up
Rod about when he asked me to audition. I said, 'Look, don't beat about the bush. I wouldn't be here talking to you now unless you were pretty sure that you wanted to offer me the job. But, the question is: Do you want the whole package that comes with it? Because that's what you're going to get. I don't do zero, one, two, three. I go to zero and I go to ten. [
Laughs] That's what you get. You get full-on ten, that's it. If you want a shrinking violet, just let me know now and I'll slink away and you can give it to somebody else.' I was full-on. I'm not sure where that comes from. That's the way I thought. I suppose the same kind of bullheadedness was why I left, because I just said, 'I don't like the way this is going creatively. There's nothing wrong with it. It just doesn't feel right to me. So I better go.'"