Aces high on collaboration
Iron Maiden’s guitarist branches out with ‘Smith/Kotzen’ side project
Iron Maiden superfans, of which there are millions, have spent decades trying to chart which guitarist plays which lead line across 16 albums. The task could be tricky on the output featuring early axemen Adrian Smith and Dave Murray; now that Smith, Murray and Janick Gers make up a triple guitar attack, it can be an epic brain teaser.
With Smith’s new side project with six-string wizard Richie Kotzen — the LP titled simply “Smith/Kotzen” — the game should be obvious. After all, the Iron Maiden member has spent four-plus decades playing a signature style of heavy metal and Kotzen tends to bounce between soul and jazz fusion, hard rock and progressive rock. But Smith has already noticed people chiming in with wrong answers.
“I’ve read some reviews and people will say, ‘That’s a typical Richie riff,’ and it’s the other way around, or, ‘Adrian’s playing here,’ and it’s actually Richie,” Smith told the Herald with a laugh. “But that’s part of the fun of it, trying to figure out who is doing what. I suppose diehard fans will have some idea.”
The LP from the duo finds the musicians sounding unlike themselves and completely at home. “Smith/Kotzen” often feels like the tough, loud, blues-descended rock of the ’70s that both guys love.
“I’ve know Ritchie for seven or eight years and we’ve been jamming together at a studio at my house (in Los Angeles) where we’ll have parties and we end up playing all night, playing Bad Company, Humble
Pie and all the old ’70s stuff I grew up on,” Smith said.
“At that point, I said, ‘Wow, Adrian’s really a blues guitar player in a lot of ways,” Kotzen told the Herald. “And he liked a lot of the same singers that I did. We always talk about how much we like Paul Rogers and early Rod Stewart. So I had a real clear idea of where he was coming from so that made it easier when we decided to write with each other.”
Kotzen has built his career on prolific solo work (some two dozen albums) and collaborations (he’s played in Poison, Mr. Big, the Winery Dogs and more). He is accustomed to forging fruitful musical connections with a diverse range of talents. But rarely have two people clicked like these two — they trade licks, lead vocals, writing and production credits and together play 90% of the instruments on “Smith/Kotzen.”
“There were very few things we disagreed about,” Smith said. “And I’ve tried to write with other guitarists and often you just end up noodling around forever. We managed to have productive noodling.”
“What I love about the record is that it’s honest, there’s nothing forced about it,” Kotzen added. “It was such a natural process.”
The two spent a couple of years writing and strategized to release the album in 2021 to give them time to tour when Maiden was off the road. The pandemic ruined that, but they have hope for carving out time in the next year or so.
“We had a run of dates planned, maybe Japan, Europe then North America,” Kotzen said. “We want to do it. We meant to do it. … This is an album that should be toured behind.”