Legendary Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith is no stranger to stepping out of the shadow of Iron Maiden to dip his feet into strange waters. After Iron Maiden’s 1988 Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour, Smith parted ways with Iron Maiden to pursue his own musical direction with ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project) and the album Silver and Gold. The album was a departure to the classic NWOBHM sound of Iron Maiden and featured Smith’s outstanding vocals and an ability to write stellar songs in his own right.
After a hugely successful world tour with Iron Maiden’s Legacy of the Beast tour and 31 years since ASAP, Adrian Smith has resurfaced to bring something totally different once again. This time around Smith has teamed up with close friend and legendary shredder Richie Kotzen to form Smith/Kotzen. The result is the album Taking My Chances which features the debut single of the same name. It’s a melodic, hook-filled gem of a song featuring Kotzen’s soulful vocals and some great harmonies from Smith. It’s not known at this point if Smith handles lead vocals on any of the other songs but if this song is any indication of what’s to come, I am psyched!
Both Kotzen and Smith had this to say about working together:
Adrian comments, “I think Richie and I complement each other really well. He’s a virtuoso guitarist but he’s got a great sense of melody – the whole thing just felt very natural.”
Richie adds, “We found common ground in classic and blues-based rock – we both come from that mentality. We’ve been writing and recording together for the past year and I’m ecstatic with the results”.
Taking My Chances will be released in early 2021 but for now, you can check out the first single here:
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