What or who got you into Iron Maiden?

PlayLikeHarris

Partner in Crime
For me the reason I got into Maiden is that I remembered having Iron Maiden shoes as a little kid and I decided to look them up years later and started to listen to their music. I don't know if those shoes made me like Iron Maiden even before hearing them or if it was just a coincidence that I REALLY like Maiden.
 
Searched "Iron Maiden" on YouTube after seeing them mentioned as a legendary band on some website. Rock in Rio '01 version of Fear of the Dark was the first thing to show up, watched that.
 
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If I remember correctly the experience was this: I heard a cool metal song on radio and got the impression that it was Maiden (maybe they said it, maybe I just made the connection thanks to some earlier Maiden hearings). That evening, I looked Maiden up on Youtube and watched the 2001 RiR version of The Trooper. Fell in love with the song, later with the band. I was on a trip to the United States when this happened.
 
I was 11 and not really into music. My grandmother visited one day and gave me $100.00 as a gift and later that day I was at the local mall and saw Metallica's Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets vinyl in the window so I stopped in to get them based on the covers. Ended up getting the cassettes and as I was walking towards the counter I saw the vinyl of Somewhere In Time so based on the cool cover art I picked it up too. My 11 year old mind was blown when I got all four home and started listening.
 
My brother bares responsibility. He is 5yrs older than me and had a cassette collection featuring the likes of Maiden, Metallica, WASP, Leppard. It was some time between 7th Son and No Prayer (I remember me and my bro tuning in to Top of the Pops when Maiden were number 1 in the charts).
So it was some time around 1989 and I was 6 years old. I went into my brothers room and asked him to put on that Iron Maiden song I Wanna Be Somebody. He told me that song was by WASP so who did I want to hear; "Maiden or WASP?"
"Maiden" came my response. So I guess I was aware of Maiden before this moment but from this distance its impossible to tell how long I had been aware for, a day, a week, a year, fuck knows but the day I chose Maiden over WASP is surprisingly vivid in my mind. Cant remember what album he played for me but Im pretty sure it floated my boat.
From those early days of playing old cassettes and watching the VHS videos over and over to the recent gig in Glasgow, Maiden has been an ever present for us both.
Blood Brothers, indeed.
 
I had always heard of Iron Maiden as this "classic metal band". Everyone said that "The Number of the Beast" was their best, classic album. (psst it's good but it's not the best one).

Well one day, I decided to download it on iTunes. I can't remember how old I was. I think in my early 20s about a decade ago. I listened to it in the background one day, but it didn't really stand out for some reason. All the songs sounded the same. I was really dumb then I suppose. I didn't take the time to appreciate it and you also hear the best parts of the music with headphones on, not on a stereo.

Well, about two years ago, I was driving to work and had my itunes shuffle mode on. 22 Acacia Avenue came on the stereo and it was the guitar solos that caught my attention in my highway hypnosis. I hit restart on the song and turned it up to really stop and appreciate it.

Those guitar solos swept me away. I thought, "holy shit. that's perfect".

The rest is history as soon as I took the time to REALLY listen to tNotB and then started with the debut album in order from there. I was hooked immediately and we can thank the guitar solos of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray for that. Bruce's great voice didn't hurt either.
 
Saw Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" video on VH1's metal show, said, "That's really lame. But those solos are cool."

The next week saw Maiden's brand new video "The Wicker Man" on the same show and said: "Holy shit, that's awesome."

And thus Maiden Mania was born.
 
It was probably mid-late 2011, when I saw a friend post a YouTube link to When The Wild Wind Blows on Facebook. I was curious, opened it up and listened to it. Man, it blew my 13 year old mind.
 
My (younger) brother borrowed a cassette of their latest album, Somewhere in Time, from his friend who had an older brother who was into them from the very beginning.

The very first song I've heard just blew my 12 yr old mind :D
 
Number of the Beast from Guitar Hero 3. I slowly started listening to the rest of their stuff, but Dance of Death from DOTR is what really blew my mind.
 
My mom had a vintage clothing store in Dallas back in the late 70s/early 80s. I'd have to go hang out there when I was out of school for the holidays. On the corner, down the street, was a bookstore. I used to go down there and go through all the magazines, and had an affinity for the British ones. I was already into the major stuff like AC/DC and Sabbath, but in the Summer of '81 I came across an ad for Iron Maiden's Killers in Kerrang magazine. The artwork was cool, and I think there was a story about Maiden in the issue, so I went and got Killers that weekend. Then went back and got the debut. Then, when Maiden Japan came out, I ordered it, with the t-shirt, from the back of Kerrang magazine.
So, 100% of my thanks goes to Kerrang for getting me into Maiden.
UP THE IRONS.
 
A teacher at my language school got me into it. Super cool guy and a true Maiden fanatic. In class he was constantly making Maiden references, which seemed silly to me at first (yup, back then I thought metal is all about noise, blood and Satan and wasn't into it at all) but eventually I became intrigued. It was probably around 2006-2007. Perfect time, because I was at a relatively young age and the whole visual aspect of Maiden really resonated with my imagination. I borrowed Somewhere in Time from my friend (Live After Death soon after that) and I was hooked. To say the least.
 
A pal at school gave me a tape in 1987, Hammersmith Odeon 1986, and I was hooked immediately. Next year my dad brought me Killers and Seventh Son vinyls from Italy - totally unobtainable in my country then, which happened to be on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.
 
Love the OP, iron maiden shoes as a kid lol.

I thought the only iron maiden footwear that had ever been around were those ltd edition vans with the killers and trooper eddies. You would expect only a hardcore fan (one with very little fashion sense lol) would hunt these out and purchase them yet the OP reads so casual like it wass something normal to have iron maiden shoes as a kids. Surely the parents were fans otherwise why on earth would any kid have iron maiden shoes on
 
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I was in a car with @Iron Duke and he played me Alexander the Great and The Clansman. Ran out and bought Best of the Beast and the two coolest covers I could find - Powerslave and Brave New World. About three seconds into Aces High I was hooked.
 
My teacher in religion class playing us The Number of the Beast as an example of satanist music with a poorly translated lyrics sheet.
 
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