Smith originally wrote “Wasted Years” for MAIDEN‘s 1986 album “Somewhere In Time”. He told U.K.’s Total Guitar magazine about how the track came together: “I was messing around with a little four-track and I’d just put that riff down for ‘Wasted Years’. I was playing Steve (Harris, MAIDEN bassist) some other stuff and I played it to him by accident and he said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘You probably won’t like this as it’s so commercial,’ but he really liked it and insisted we do it. So something you’d think he wouldn’t want to do, he does. But I do like to sit down and visualize us doing different things. Obviously, we can’t do anything too drastic, but whatever works, really.”

Joining Smith and Kotzen as part of their touring band is Richie‘s wife, internationally acclaimed bass player Julia Lage, formerly of the Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian rock band BARRA DE SAIA and currently a member of VIXEN. With a strong pedigree in rock, Lage has played alongside the likes of Pat Travers, Elliot Easton (THE CARS), Nuno Bettencourt (EXTREME) and Mark McGrath (SUGAR RAY). In addition, SMITH/KOTZEN has enlisted drummer Bruno Valverde of ANGRA.

Having first joined together as SMITH/KOTZEN on the 2021 self-titled debut album, which was a Top 20 hit in the U.K. as well as a huge success across the rest of Europe and North and South America, the duo played live to rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. They reconvened in 2024 to record their second full-length album, “Black Light / White Noise”, which was released in April 2025, and has seen a huge demand from rock fans around the world for another tour.