![Iron Maiden's Onstage Showdowns: Bruce Dickinson vs. Steve Harris]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Iron-Maidens-Onstage-Showdowns-Bruce-Dickinson-vs-Steve-Harris-758x426.jpg "Iron Maiden's Onstage Showdowns: Bruce Dickinson vs. Steve Harris] 1")
These days Iron Maiden looks like a band of brothers as it circles the globe on its Run for Your Lives World Tour. But the new documentary Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, which opens in theaters Thursday, May 7, shows that harmony wasn’t always the case during the British metal institution’s 51-year career.
One sequence in particular revisits an early onstage rivalry between founder and bass guitarist Steve Harris and frontman Bruce Dickinson shortly after Dickinson joined the band in 1981, replacing the late Paul Di’Anno.
“They literally were pushing each other out of the way,” guitarist Adrian Smith recalls via Zoom from Turks and Caicos.
“Steve had put a lot of work into the band from the very start, and I think his vision was to have the bass upfront rather than standing in the back propping everything up,” Smith explains. “And I think that’s great. Bass players make the whole thing swing along — when the bass drops out, it’s horrible in any band.
I remember it was in America when it really came to a head — that’s in the film. They were literally barging into each other onstage.”
— Adrian Smith
“So Steve had this vision of the bass being upfront, which made the whole thing unique. There aren’t many bands like that. He wanted to be more forward than usual.”
Dickinson, however, had a different view of the stage hierarchy.
“Bruce was old school: ‘I’m the lead singer. I’m the frontman. Center stage is mine!’” Smith says with a laugh. “There was definitely friction there.”
That left Smith and fellow guitarist Dave Murray largely staying out of the way.
“Dave and I were pretty easygoing,” Smith says. “We had our space. But watching that was something. I remember it was in America when it really came to a head — that’s in the film. They were literally barging into each other onstage.
“I think Steve wondered at the time whether he’d made the wrong decision bringing Bruce in, that Bruce was just too full-on. But that’s the way Bruce is. To this day he gets wound up onstage and gives it everything.”
In the end, Smith says, the tension helped define the band’s dynamic.
“It worked out for the better,” he says. “I think it made us stronger when we resolved it and moved forward. Bruce drove the band in a different way than Steve — just with pure onstage intensity. He took the whole thing to another level, entertainment-wise.”
Smith himself has experienced Iron Maiden from both inside and outside. The guitarist left the band in 1990 and later played on solo albums by Dickinson, who departed Maiden in 1993 before both returned in 1999.
“When I came back I had a different perspective,” Smith says. “I could see the band for what it was and appreciate it more.”
That time away also changed him as a guitarist.
“Before Maiden I was fronting a band and was as much a singer as a guitarist,” he says. “After I left I played with different people. I worked with Roy Z, who’s a brilliant musician — a virtuoso. He taught me quite a bit.”
Smith continues to seek out those kinds of musical challenges today, including his side project with Richie Kotzen, Smith/Kotzen, which released its second album, Black Light / White Noise, last year.
“Hopefully that rubs off and you elevate your game,” Smith says. “If you’re still learning at this stage of the game, that’s a good thing.”
One example came from rethinking how Maiden’s classic songs were played live.
“Songs like ‘Run to the Hills’ and ‘The Number of the Beast’ were recorded in the key of D back in the day,” Smith explains. “That’s actually kind of a lightweight key on guitar compared with E, where you’ve got that big bottom string.
“I always felt we were missing something slightly, sonically. In the studio you can compensate for that, but live you can’t. So when I came back I started playing them in drop D. It added a bit of texture and gave them more muscle.”
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden’s global tour continues. The Run for Your Lives trek resumes May 21 in Greece and will travel through Europe, North America, Central and South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
The band will actually be in Australia when it’s inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 14 in Los Angeles and has given no indication it plans to attend the ceremony.
Looking ahead, Smith says Maiden plans to take 2027 off, a break he expects to spend working more with Smith/Kotzen.
