Paul Di’Anno, the former frontman of Iron Maiden, has died aged 66.
The Chingford-born heavy metal singer was the lead vocalist for the group between 1978 and 1981, and sang on their first two albums.
His death was announced on Monday (October 21) in a statement by his record label Conquest Music, who said they “are proud to have had Paul Di’Anno in our artist family and ask his legion of fans to raise a glass in his memory,” per MetalTalk. He died at his home in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
No cause of death was announced.
Di’Anno was born Paul Andrews on May 17, 1958, and grew up in East London. He spent his early years supporting himself as a butcher and chef while singing in heavy metal bands.
Iron Maiden was formed in 1975 by bassist-songwriter Steve Harris. They recruited Di’Anno in November 1978 after a chance meeting at the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone. In Mick Wall’s book Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills, the Authorised Biography, Harris was quoted as saying: “There’s sort of a quality in Paul’s voice, a raspiness in his voice, or whatever you want to call it, that just gave it this great edge.”
Di’Anno sang on Iron Maiden’s influential self-titled debut album in 1980, and on their follow-up album Killers in 1981. However, as the band gained success and began touring internationally, they began to doubt that Di’Anno was capable of meeting the demands of the band due to his issues with drug addiction.
In Wall’s biography, Di’Anno recalled: “It wasn’t just that I was snorting a bit of coke, though; I was just going for it non-stop, 24 hours a day, every day… the band had commitments piling up that went on for months, years, and I just couldn’t see my way to the end of it. I knew I’d never last the whole tour. It was too much.”
After being fired from Iron Maiden in 1981, Di’Anno fronted his own band called Di’Anno from 1983 to 1985. Later bands included Gogmagog, Battlezone, Praying Mantis and Killers.
In their statement, Conquest Music added: “Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023.”
“His first career retrospective album, The Book Of The Beast, was released in September 2024 and featured highlights of his recordings since leaving Iron Maiden.”
Di’Anno married five times and has six children. In 2021, a CrowdFunder was launched to help him pay for knee surgery after several years of poor health.