(born
February 27 ,
1957 in
Hackney ,
East London ,
England ) is one of three
Guitarist s in the
Heavy Metal band
Iron Maiden .
Whilst at school, Adrian befriended
Dave Murray , and joined Dave's band, "Urchin", as lead singer. During this time, Adrian bought his first guitar from Murray. Murray left to join the band of another friend, Steve Harris, Iron Maiden. Smith continued to front "Urchin" until joining Maiden in late 1980 for the ''
Killers '' album (released in 1981), replacing
Dennis Stratton . Smith first wrote songs for Maiden on the 1982 album ''
The Number Of The Beast '', and was the bands secondary song writer from then on. Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars helping to forge the trademark sound of Iron Maiden. Some notable dual lead solos are "2 Minutes To Midnight", "
Alexander The Great " and "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner". Notable solitary solos include "Wasted Years", "Stranger In A Strange Land" and "Caught Somewhere In Time".
Adrian's solos are usually composed rather than improvised, with a clear structure and direction. His legato playing is very smooth and fast, and typically even his very fast passages have a musical function and relationship to the chord structure behind the solo, drawing from modes and arpeggios more often than blues licks.
Smith released a solo LP with the band
ASAP (Adrian Smith Album Project) titled ''
Silver And Gold '' in 1989. Following it's release,Smith departed from Iron Maiden in 1990 and was replaced by
Janick Gers . Later, Adrian formed the band Psycho Motel. The band recorded two albums, State of Mind (1996) and Welcome to the World (1997). Smith would also play on
Bruce Dickinson 's ''
Accident Of Birth '' and ''
The Chemical Wedding '' albums.
In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden for the "''
Ed Hunter '' tour", a tour in support of the
Video Game of the same name. Since then, Smith and Maiden have released 2 studio albums, ''
Brave New World '' in 2000 and ''
Dance Of Death '' in 2003. He remains with the band to this day.
In his spare time, Adrian loves fishing, as can be seen on the ''
Rock In Rio '' DVD.
Smith's preferred guitar is the
Fender Fat
Stratocaster , though he has used a variety of others over his career including several different
Dean models, a custom built
Jackson ,
Ibanez Destroyer, Stratocaster and a
Gibson Les Paul Goldtop. His current Stratocaster features a
DiMarzio Super Distortion
Humbucker in the bridge position, which is the
Pickup he uses almost exclusively, and a
Floyd Rose locking
Tremolo system. Adrian uses gauge 9 strings and has his action set slightly higher than average. Contrary to common belief, Adrian does not use the
Seymour Duncan JB Junior pickup, which is favoured by fellow Iron Maiden guitarist
Janick Gers .
