Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith says he was “kind of dreading” the prospect of being part of Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, the new documentary about the band that’s opening May 7 in theaters worldwide. But the guitarist is pleased to report that he “was pleasantly surprised” with the results.
“I enjoyed it,” Smith tells Billboard via Zoom from Turks and Caicos. “It’s a pretty deep dive. It’s great for the fans to have this.” And, he adds, it’s nice for the members of the band as well.
“For me, personally, it’s nice to see the old footage,” Smith acknowledges. “It’s like another life back 40 years ago, whenever. There’s some things in there that are discussed more thoroughly than it’s ever been. It’s an interesting piece, I think.”
The film comes on the heels of news that Maiden will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14. The group — whose frontman, Bruce Dickinson, famously called the Rock Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks” — will not attend the ceremony, which falls on a day in between two stops on the Australian leg of its Run For Your Lives World Tour.
Directed by Malcolm Venville (Churchill at War) and produced by Dominic Freeman (Depeche Mode: Spirits in the Forest), Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is as much about the fans as it is the band. There are some famous faces among them, too — including actor Javier Bardem, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Tom Morello, Kiss’ Gene Simmons, Anthrax’s Scott Ian and the Cure’s Simon Gallup, who are interviewed alongside the rank-and-file faithful. The Maiden members, present and past, spoke with Venville for the film but are heard off-camera rather than seen.
“It felt like something that needed a clear point of view from the outset,” Venville explains. “From the beginning I wanted to avoid the conventionally narrated documentary. The Iron Maiden story felt like it had to be told through the fans. What struck me was how difficult Maiden fans are to define. They cut across countries, backgrounds and generations but behave like a single community. That became the foundation of the film. The fans themselves became the story. They don’t just attend shows. They organize their lives around the tours, forming social groups that span continents. It began to feel less like documenting an audience and more like observing a culture.”
That, of course, extends to Eddie, Maiden’s longtime, ghoulish mascot whose history and evolution is treated in depth during the film. “He isn’t just a mascot, he’s a visual expression of the band’s identity,” Venville says. “That idea informed how we approached the animation throughout the film.”
The director’s approach was illuminating for the band, too, according to Smith.
“I thought Javier Bardem reading the lyrics to ‘Run to the Hills’ was amazing; he made them sound so deep and meaningful. I’ve never heard them like that before,” Smith says. “I always get a kick when people turn up who are very successful in other fields, and they like what you do — like Chris Jericho, Javier, people like that. I’ve heard the new (prime minister) of Japan (Sanae Takaichi) is an Iron Maiden fan. The fans of yesterday are now part of the sort of establishment. I find it amusing, and quite flattering.”
Numbering the Beast
The guitarist feels that connection with fans, famous and otherwise, has been forged mostly by Iron Maiden’s continued presence on stage. “It’s always been a touring band,” he says. “We took the music to the people. I think in the long run people remember that, and it’s a very honest way to build up a following.” Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is loaded with live footage from throughout the band’s now 51-year career, right up to longtime drummer Nicko McBrain’s final performance during December 2024 in Sao Paulo before retiring due to health issues.
Smith describes Burning Ambition as an independent endeavor by the filmmakers. “It’s got very little to do with the Iron Maiden organization,” he says. “I think in the past we’ve always been involved in the production of these things, but this is a totally outside job rather than an inside job. The only part we had was people from the film company came to our homes and interviewed us and then laid our voices over some of the footage, but we don’t actually appear. It’s quite a powerful way of doing it.”
A particularly illuminating segment of the film for Smith was the treatment of his time out of the band from 1990-1999, during which frontman Bruce Dickinson also left the group for several years. “Bruce is talking about that (in the film) and how he felt, and that was quite nice to see that he kind of cared a bit, and that I was kind of missed, I suppose,” says Smith, who played on two of Dickinson’s solo albums during that time. “I think it needed to happen at the time. It was the right thing to do. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t jump up and down and stamp my feet and storm off; it just kind happened over a period of time. It was difficult.
“When I came back to the band I had a different perspective. I could see it for what it was and appreciate it a lot more and be part of it. And I haven’t looked back since.”
Maiden Voyage
Smith and the rest of Maiden — including new drummer Simon Dawson, though McBrain remains a band member — are in the midst of the Run For Your Lives World Tour, which began last May and runs through November. A North American leg will take place during late August and September. The setlist this time out is drawn from Maiden’s first nine albums, including the first performances in many years for early favorites such as “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “Killers,” “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “The Clairvoyant” and others.
“It’s great playing that set,” Smith says. “It’s songs from way back, and they still sound great when you give them an airing. They still sound fresh and powerful. We try something different every time, a different kind of theme, to keep it fresh rather than just playing the same old thing, and it’s great fun. The fans are loving it. And for me…I mean, it changed my life, joining Iron Maiden (in 1980) and then we went on to record Killers. So playing those songs just takes me back in time, temporarily.”
Smith advises that fans should get their Maiden fix this year, since the group is planning to be inactive during 2027. He’ll fill the time with his other band, Smith/Kotzen, with Richie Kotzen, which has so far released two albums. Smith will likely do some fishing, a passion he chronicled in his 2020 memoir Monsters of River and Rock. He’s not worried about Maiden’s break being too open-ended, however.
“I can’t see that happening,” Smith notes. “We all love doing it. (Bassist and founder) Steve Harris, he’s 70 now, and the guy can go and play (soccer) in the afternoon, 90 minutes, a proper game, then go on stage and play tours of a Maiden set — then get up and basically do the same thing the next day. That’s the kind of spirit that drives all of us, so…I’m sure we’ll be back to it before too long.”
