In a new interview with Canada’s The Metal Voice, former IRON MAIDEN singer Blaze Bayley spoke about the passing of another ex-MAIDEN vocalist, Paul Di’Anno, who died last October at the age of 66. Asked how he initially reacted to the news of Paul‘s death, Blaze said: “Well, he wasn’t in good health the last time I saw him, and he’d been stuck in a wheelchair for a while. But we did a lot together. We went to a lot of places together. Before all the problems with Ukraine, we did a tour of Russia. We played Sweden Rock (Festival) together. We went to Australia and New Zealand together. And we did a a lot together.

“I wouldn’t say that I didn’t expect it, but I was absolutely gutted when I got the news that Paul had gone,” Blaze admitted. “I didn’t think he would go then. It just didn’t feel right. Of course, it was too soon. He shouldn’t have gone at all. But it was a lot. And you think we did so much together. And his voice, man. There were some nights on tour when we were together — we had some good bands together that people put together for us — and you close your eyes and you listen to him singing those early MAIDEN songs, and you go, ‘He sounds better than he ever did on the record.’ It was incredible. If you were lucky, there was a couple of times that he had a good rest and a good sleep and he hadn’t been too stressed and he just sounded incredible. And he’s a legend. That is the voice that began, that first record. You can never take that away. Those first two albums, they’re the Di’Anno records. And that’s a band that doesn’t care about the rules, that’s doing their own thing, that’s making music that they think is the best that they can do. And they really don’t care too much about what people are saying, ‘Oh, the chorus should be here,’ or, ‘The guitar solo should…’ They didn’t care at all — absolutely didn’t care. There’s no click track, there’s no nothing. Everything they did in the studio is all about vibe and the timing, and you can hear what Paul does. It just feels like, wow, he’s there pissed off and expressive. And that’s in his voice. You can hear it… That’s his energy. And his energy was there. His solo albums that he did, he did some fantastic work as well. He’s done some great recordings. So it’s tragic, that he’s gone.”

Blaze added: “So what I’ve been doing in my setlist at my solo shows is a small tribute, and it’s fun for me. I do (MAIDEN‘s classic song) ‘Wrathchild’ in my set. And it’s for Paul — it makes me think of Paul. And so it’s for Paul, it makes me think of Paul. It’s an excuse to do a song I like as well. And it’s, yeah, let’s remember Paul. Just for four minutes, think of Paul. And that song comes to life. It’s a great song. It breaks the rules, the way the arrangement is and everything. So all of that, it fits right in with my mentality.”

Bayley went on to call Di’Anno‘s passing “a sad loss” and he expressed his regret that he, Paul and current IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson never got a chance to perform together. “I always hoped that it would be Paul, Bruce and me somewhere on stage together,” he said. “One gig. It would be so fantastic for the fans. And that dream died with Paul, which is a great shame. Because I thought it was unlikely, but I didn’t think it was impossible. Now it is impossible, which is sad.”