'666 Days With The Beast' book about PAUL DI'ANNO's final years is now available
16-12-2024
The book “666 Days With The Beast” about the final years of former IRON MAIDEN singer Paul Di’Anno is available for order at www.maidencroatia.com. In the book, Stjepan Juras, a Croatia-based MAIDEN fan and author of many MAIDEN-related books, who had been managing Di’Anno and taking care of Paul while he was getting physiotherapy treatments in Croatia, tells an incredible story about the fight for Paul‘s life and his attempt to return him to where he belongs: to a great constellation of musical legends. This story depicts the battle of all of Paul‘s friends and fans, who tried in every possible way to give the musical legend a dignified life and who faced many challenges in the process. Also covered is the long journey to Paul‘s reunion with MAIDEN‘s longtime manager Rod Smallwood, MAIDEN‘s founding bassist Steve Harris and later with many others, including current MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson. It also shows the extremely demanding treatments and surgeries, the “Beast Resurrection” tour around the world and everything that happened along the way.
This hardcover book with a mammoth 416 pages and a large number of photographs is an incredible document of the time, which shows Paul‘s difficult battle for health, the fight with his own demons, a surprise return to the stage, the recording of the album with his WARHORSE project, the world tour and some of the moments that marked music history.
The test version of this book was released by a combination of circumstances exactly on the day of Paul‘s death, but the final edition includes the author’s obituary for Paul on the last pages of this book. This book, in the form of a trilogy, covers the last three years of Paul‘s life and reveals to us a completely new world that has been little or rarely talked about. Paul at the same time desired this book, but at the same time feared its contents, and when you get your hands on it, you will understand why. You will read this book with a heavy heart and you will get a real insight into what it is like to struggle with mental and physical difficulties, with all the ups and downs.
There are only a little over a hundred copies of the original edition of the book left for sale, which will be gone very quickly and will no longer be available. All books will be shipped to customers worldwide, starting Wednesday, December 18.
For more information, visit www.maidencroatia.com.
Di’Anno was laid to rest on November 21 at the City Of London Cemetery And Crematorium in Manor Park, East London, United Kingdom.
Watch the photos below
Di’Anno, whose real name was Paul Andrews, passed away on October 21 at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66.
On November 11, the following message was posted on Paul‘s social media: “Dear fans and friends, we have received permission from Paul‘s family to bring you the news of Paul’s cause of death, after the results of the autopsy have been received. His sisters Cheryl and Michelle confirmed the following: ‘Basically he had a tear in the sac around the heart and blood has filled inside it from the main aorta artery and that has caused the heart to stop.’ Paul‘s death was instantaneous and hopefully painless. May he rest in peace.
“This weekend, an In Memoriam show was held at Underworld Camden, where many of Paul‘s fans, friends, colleagues and family members came. With a magnificent musical set, his musical colleagues said a worthy farewell to their friend.”
Born in Chingford, East London on May 17, 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”.
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.
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.
His first career retrospective album, “The Book Of The Beast”, was released in September 2024 and featured highlights of his recordings since leaving IRON MAIDEN.
In December 2022, Di’Anno spent time in Split, Croatia recording an album with his new project called WARHORSE. The band was formed earlier that year by Di’Anno and two guitarists/authors, Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante “Pupi” Pupačić. The resulting LP was made available in July 2024 under the PAUL DI’ANNO’S WARHORSE banner.
WARHORSE previously recorded three songs, two of which — “Stop The War” and “The Doubt Within” — were released in May 2022 as a special DVD single along with Paul‘s video message to all fans who bought the single and thus helped raise funds for his knee operation.
The WARHORSE single marked Di’Anno‘s first music release after a seven-year hiatus due to severe health issues.
Di’Anno, who finally underwent his knee surgery in September 2022, played the first show since the operation on October 1, 2022 at the Keep It True Rising II festival in Würzburg, Germany.
In May 2022, Di’Anno came face to face with MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris for the first time in three decades before the band’s concert in Croatia.
Also in May 2022, Paul played his first full solo concert in seven years at the Bikers Beer Factory in Zagreb. The show was filmed and parts of it will be included in the upcoming Di’Anno documentary, which is being helmed by Wes Orshoski, co-director and producer of the acclaimed 2010 film “Lemmy” about the MOTÖRHEAD icon, and 2015’s “The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead”, about punk rock legends THE DAMNED.
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