The Deep Cut Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris Really Wants to Play Live

In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Iron Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris revealed one super deep cut he really wants to play live.

Over the last 20 years, Maiden have embarked on eras tours between jaunts in support of new albums, dusting off some rarities while placing special focus on certain historic albums.

It’s been a great way for younger fans who weren’t around to witness the band’s ’80s ascent to get a slice of the band’s rich history and see some songs live that ordinarily would not enter the setlist on new album tour.

This year, on The Future Past Tour, Maiden even broke out one song that had never been played live before — “Alexander the Great.” The Somewhere In Time closer was one fans have been begging for for decades and with this tour being a hybrid of sorts, prioritizing the classic 1986 album as well as 2021’s Senjutsu, it felt like the perfect time to debut it.

With that in mind, Metal Hammer asked Harris about what other deep cuts excite him.

Harris offers, “There’s a few tracks that would be nice to dig out once in a while, I suppose,” and then shouts out a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son song, noting, “I think ‘Only The Good Die Young’ is a really nice song that would be nice to play.”

Yes, another album-closer!

Although setlist.fm indicates this song has never once been played, Harris says otherwise. There’s a couple possibilities here that can explain the conflict — setlist.fm may not be 100 percent accurate (totally possible) or perhaps Maiden had rehearsed this song in preparation of playing it live, but it never made it to the stage and ‘Arry’s memory is a bit fuzzy in trying to recollect 40-plus years of touring.

Regardless, it’s still a true deep cut that would be a welcome shock to see live.

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“We did play it a couple of times,” Harris contends, “It would be nice to play that, maybe. It’s a bit more, one of those obscure songs. But it’s just…what do you drop out?! That’s the problem. So many songs, so many albums.”

Notably, on The Future Past Tour, Maiden dropped some setlist staples — “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” “The Number of the Beast” and “Run to the Hills.”

“This might be blunt and brutal, but we don’t do it for the audience. We do it for our own thing first. We’ve gotta feel comfortable with what we’re playing and enjoy it, and then hopefully they’ll like it,” the bassist adds, “That’s always been our stance all the way through. We don’t do a census of, ‘Oh does everyone like this or like that?’, or whatever. We don’t do that.”

Well, it’s your band, Steve. Go play “Only the Good Die Young” if you want. You won’t hear a complaint from us!

PLAYLIST: Early Traditional Metal

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