Adrian Smith - Psycho Spirit Still Burns Bright Page 4
By Martin Popoff

Both albums the band made came and went with little fanfare. Adrian stands by the records, and rightfully so. They are both heavy, classy, well-executed albums, somewhat crucified or at least vilified for their mix of stripped-down metal with the aforementioned grunge element, a reaction that holds little water now that that whole era of backlash is over. And remember, Maiden were busy stinking up the joint with The X Factor and Virtual XI. I see two smirks up there on the Brave New stage, two smirks that will inevitably one day break into wide grins when Bruce collars Adrian to join him and Roy Z at another Chemical Wedding at some sunny studio out west.

"Psycho Motel was a whole different thing from Maiden," sighs Smith. "Getting a new band off the ground, I mean, I don't think I even realized the work it took. And the management insisted I make it a band project. I think in retrospect it would have been easier just to have stuck my name on it and market it like that. You know, Psycho Motel, State Of Mind, people don't know it. And now with the reissues, there are stickers on and at the time there weren't. There's been problems with the marketing. I think if I was to do another album now, I'd just put Adrian Smith on it so people know where they stand."

What did you do tour-wise for these albums? "Nothing really. This is another one of the problems of doing this. It was all down to money. And at the time, we're talking the late '90s, rock was getting really, really trodden down; they didn't hook me up with any tours. And the band was there, it was ready to go and we did some stuff off our own back. But the financial muscle wasn't there, really. We had a deal with Castle Records who basically reimbursed me for the money I had laid out doing the album and that was it really. There was no support. They thought it would sell because I was in Iron Maiden, but I knew that wasn't the case. This is what I'm talking about, breaking a band; you know yourself it takes tons of money. It just wasn't going to happen. The whole plan was wrong."

Adrian Smith - Psycho Spirit Still Burns Bright Page 5