Ok, here goes.
Whenever I started secondary school (what you Americans would call 'high school'), I knew no metal bands at all. I knew OF Ozzy Osbourne, thanks to the MTV show, and I knew of Slipknot, as one of my friends once said 'Slipknot are evil, they kill puppies' (not saying thats true or not, I don't know). My first encounter with Maiden (other than Teenage Dirtbag) was in music class in 1st year. One of my friends brought in a CD to sing to (we all had to do some kind of musical performance), and although I can't fully remember I think it was NotB. I think I'm right, as there was a quiet bit at the start, and the teacher must have heard the 666 part, because she gave him a detention [!--emo&:angry:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/mad.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'mad.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
Anyway, that passed, and my life continued without music at all. It was a year or two later that my friend introduced me to Metallica, lending me Master of Puppets. I lapped it up 100%, but still didn't get into metal.
The turning point in my life came about a week before easter 2005. I was in Italy with a school trip, and we were going home to Rome Airport. We were four hours on the coach [!--emo&
--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--] . I asked my friend (same one who lent me MoP) if I could have a lend of his CD player, as he had recently bought Queen's greatest hits a few days before, and I liked Queen. He told me he didn't have his CD Player, that was someone else's, but he lent me his minidisc player. Flicking through his discs (and skipping RiR thanks to my n00b-ness) I put in S&M. That began it. Next day, I bought MoP, Black Album and a CD Walkman.
What does this have to do with Maiden? Well, I started off with a lot of Metallica, borrowed some Led Zeppelin, but it wasn't until one of my other friends got me into Children of Bodom that it began. My first encounter with Maiden was Aces High, the Bodom Cover. I loved that song. I also loved Sentenced's cover of the trooper. So, before the summer, I had two Maiden covers, and had heard some 10 second clips via MSN Plus. It wasn't until the start of the summer that I decided to get into Maiden. I clearly remember slipping a note to my friend in class asking which Maiden album to get-he said NotB, ed the great or RiR. so i decided to get RiR after doing some research. I went to my music store and to my dismay saw that they had no Rock in Rio's. I asked when they would get some and they said next week. I'm an imaptient bastard, so I got Edward the Great for three quid instead (god I love sales and gift vouchers [!--emo&:rock:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/headbang.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'headbang.gif\' /][!--endemo--] ). As soon as I got to the car, I popped the Cd in and opened the booklet. From that first drum intro to the end, I was in love. Completely. No other album ever had me so hooked. That was when my affair began.
And I never would've guessed it would've ended up like that. Maiden is my life now-no other band equals them in my opinion. Priest, Nightwish and Bodom come close, as do Megadeth and (old) Metallica, but first and foremost I love Maiden. They've changed my life. Hell, they ARE my life.
Now that I've sent all you to sleep, I hope you weren't too bored by my life story. (And if this doesn't post and I have to type it all again, I will cry)