Former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno dead at 66
Paul Di’Anno, the former lead vocalist with Iron Maiden, has passed away aged 66 at his family home in the United Kingdom. At this stage, no cause of death has been revealed, but he’d been using a wheelchair for many years due to health problems.
Although Di’Anno wasn’t a co-founder of Iron Maiden, he did stamp his voice on their earlies recorded material. The group began in 1976 and were fronted by Dennis Wilcock, who left the band in 1978 before Di’Anno arrived on the scene.
Di’Anno played a pivotal role in the band’s rise to fame as the vocalist on their first two albums, 1980’s Iron Maiden and 1981’s Killers. However, due to drug problems, Di’Anno was fired as the band’s singer following the conclusion of their world tour in support of Killers.
Bruce Dickinson then joined the group, and they became astronomically successful across the globe. However, Di’Anno remained committed to the music industry and continued to perform for the rest of their life, embarking upon an impressive solo career as well as fronting bands such as Warhorse and Gogmagog.
Notably, Di’Anno was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2011 due to benefit fraud, but he was released two months into his sentence due to good behaviour.
His health has also been marred in recent years. Nevertheless, rather than retire from playing live, Di’Anno continued to commit himself to his craft despite having to perform in a wheelchair due to mobility issues.
In 2023, it was revealed that Iron Maiden had contributed to a GoFundMe to pay for Di’Anno’s knee surgery. They paid for the last couple of months’ worth of treatments, which was good,” Di’Anno said of their gesture. “I’ll be forever grateful for that.”
News of his death has been confirmed by his label, Conquest Music, who wrote in a statement: “On behalf of his family, Conquest Music are sad to confirm the death of Paul Andrews, professionally known as Paul Di’Anno. Paul passed away at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66.”
“Born in Chingford, East London on 17th May 1958, Paul first came to prominence as lead singer of English Heavy Metal band, Iron Maiden between 1978 and 1981. He sang on their groundbreaking debut album Iron Maiden, and the influential follow up release, Killers.”
Looking back at his career post-Maiden, they added, “Since leaving Iron Maiden, Paul Di’Anno had a long and eventful recording career with Battlezone and Killers as well as numerous solo releases and guest appearances.”
The statement also touched upon his health problems, acknowledging, “Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023.
The message concluded: “Conquest Music are proud to have had Paul Di’Anno in our artist family and ask his legion of fans to raise a glass in his memory.”
Although Di’Anno left Iron Maiden in difficult circumstances, the singer looked back fondly upon his time with Iron Maiden. In an interview earlier this year with Defenders of the Faith Metal, he reminisced, “I love the first album. The songs are fantastic. The production’s a piece of dogshit. They should remix that, you know? It’s a fantastic album! Killers was a little bit strange to me because we ended up with a really professional guy in Martin (Birch) on there. I basically didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but he got the best out of us, that’s for sure. But yeah, I prefer the first album, always have.”
Iron Maiden share tribute to Paul Di’Anno
In a statement, Iron Maiden said of Di’Anno’s death: “We are all deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Paul Di’Anno earlier today. Paul’s contribution to Iron Maiden was immense and helped set us on the path we have been travelling as a band for almost five decades. His pioneering presence as a frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums, will be very fondly remembered not just by us, but by fans around the world.”
Steve Harris also revealed they still regularly communicated with each other via text to speak about their shared love of West Ham United. “At least he was still gigging until recently, it was something that kept him going, to be out there whenever he could. He will be missed by us all. Rest in peace mate,” Harris added.
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