In a new interview with Neil Jones of TotalRock, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris spoke about the book “Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams – The Official Visual History” which was released on October 7 via Thames & Hudson. “Iron Maiden: Infinite Dreams – The Official Visual History” is described in a press release as “a magnificent visual celebration of the first 50 years of IRON MAIDEN, chronicl(ing) the evolution of heavy metal’s most prestigious band, with unparalleled input from band members and management.”

Asked if it was “weird” for him to have to “look backward” while putting together the book after previously stating that he always looks forward and rarely gets nostalgic, Harris said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, it wasn’t weird, but it was difficult because I was the only one who could really do it because I was the one that had all the archive stuff and could comment about it and stuff like that, really. I suppose David (Murray, IRON MAIDEN guitarist) could comment on a few things, but I suppose back in the day I was the only sensible one at the time, because I had to be, ’cause I pulled the bull by the horns and did a lot of the driving, so I didn’t get sort of too drunk back in them days. And some people working (with us back in) them days can’t remember a lot because they were sort of inebriated a lot of the time — people like Dave Murray or (our old) drum road or whatever. So, yeah, it was down to me to sort of pull it all together, I suppose. And obviously I had a lot of help from Ben Smallwood, (MAIDEN‘s longtime manager) Rod‘s (Smallwood) son, and so that was great. But, yeah, it’s all good stuff, really. But it’s nice to get it out there, really. It’s almost a relief in a way to get it out there because it’s stuff that’s been lying around for a long time. It needed to be sorted out and then put into some sort of perspective and some sort of formulated form so that people can just hopefully enjoy it.”

Asked if he always was “a bit of a scrapbook keeper” who deliberately hung on to stuff, Steve said: “Well, I’ve always been sort of a bit of a hoarder, I suppose, with stuff like that, but it’s come in handy in later life, I think. There’s so much stuff that I’ve kept. And, yeah, it’s just an archive of this historical stuff. And in fact I suppose these days I wish I’d kept more, even more stuff. I wish I’d kept a diary for longer as well, because I only kept a diary in the first place just because to log, really, how much we were getting paid or how much we weren’t getting paid in (some) cases. And then I used to make a few notes on what the gig was like and stuff like that. But I wish I’d carried it on, really.”