Adrian Smith - Psycho Spirit Still Burns Bright Page 2
By Martin Popoff

"I think at the time I just felt the urge to do something different," begins Smith. "And to be honest, at the time I felt a bit stifled in the band. Obviously, these things are never black and white, they're very complex, but I guess I basically wasn't pulling in the same direction as the other chaps. Steve's very prolific, and he's always going to come up with a lot of stuff. His material is kind of the backbone of what we do. Also at the time there was some movement in the band to go back to a really raw sound, almost garagey, and I really wasn't into that either. And we started to do the record, No Prayer For The Dying, and I just lost my enthusiasm and things came to a head and I think I was just burned-out as well about the last ten years. And I started working on a few things and it just wasn't sparking. And we sat down and had a chat and that was it really (laughs). As well I had the ASAP album. I think that was another contributing factor actually. The very fact that I went off and did a solo album, and it was the first one; well there was Bruce's as well. And I think that kind of unsettled people. Especially Steve, who was just kind of wondering what I was doing. So that was sowing the seeds."

And then Adrian dropped off the radar. From 1990 to 1996, he got married, got a house "just chilled out and lived a regular life." After his brother-in-law admonished him to "stop feeling sorry for himself," Adrian got a covers band going, peppering in some originals, first as The Untouchables, then as Skeleton Crew, which as Adrian explains "was a three piece power trio thing. And then I got a singer and then that was the first Psycho Motel with Solli, a Norwegian guy, and that's when we did State Of Mind."

Adrian Smith - Psycho Spirit Still Burns Bright Page 3