Guitarist Adrian Smith has a long history with Iron Maiden. Smith joined the band in 1980, left in 1990, and then rejoined in 1999 where he remains to this day.
While Smith was out of Iron Maiden, he kept himself plenty busy. Smith had a band called Psycho Motel that put out two records in 1995 and 1997, and even played on then-former Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson‘s Accident Of Birth and The Chemical Wedding records in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Oh, and he totally tried out to be in Def Leppard.
In a new interview with MetalJournal.net, Smith confirmed long-standing rumors that he tried out for Def Leppard following the death of guitarist Steve Clark in 1991: “I went over to L.A. for a couple of days. Phil [Collen, Def Leppard guitarist] phoned me up — him and Ross Halfin phoned me up and said, ‘Would you be interested in coming over?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’
“So I went to L.A. I played with him for a couple of days. I sat down with Phil. We went through some songs. It sounded good, it sounded good. And they’re a great bunch of guys. But it didn’t work out. Plus I had — my Psycho Motel album was just about to come out, so I was kind of, you know… But who knows? It was worth pursuing. They did okay without me.”
Smith’s recollection lines up with comments previously made by Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen, who confirmed that Smith was indeed one of several high-profile musicians considered to replace Clarke. Speaking to Eonmusic at a pre-show press conference at Hellfest in Clisson, France on June 16, Collen explained the band’s mindset during the audition process and why Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell got the gig.
“[Vivian] just fit in straight away; it was just like [it was] meant to be. [But] Adrian is great — he’s a great singer. That was one of the other things [we were looking for], if you can sing. And there was some other people. We played with John Sykes — also an amazing player, amazing singer.
“With Adrian, he played in context with what we were doing when we were rehearsing. I mean, we were doing Def Leppard songs — we weren’t doing Iron Maiden songs, we weren’t doing Dio songs; we were doing Def Leppard. So, whoever comes into our house has to kind of play by the same rules.
“So that was the thing. And Viv fit straight in. And like I said, there was only five people. We didn’t do, like, cattle calls or anything like that, because it was still a bit painful after losing Steve, to be quite honest. So we wanted someone who emotionally would work with us as a family member. And Viv did straight off the bat. It was just wonderful.”
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