Whilst at school, Adrian befriended
Dave Murray and founded his first own band
Urchin as lead singer and lead guitarist. Adrian bought his first guitar from Murray, a Woolworths' Top 20, for five quid, his dad fixed it. Murray left to join Iron Maiden, the new band of another friend,
Steve Harris. Smith continued to front "Urchin" until joining Maiden in late 1980 for the
Killers album (released in 1981), replacing
Dennis Stratton. Smith first wrote songs for Maiden on the 1982 album
The Number of the Beast, and was the band's secondary song writer from then on (often in co-operation with
Bruce Dickinson). Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars helping to forge the trademark sound of Iron Maiden. Some notable dual lead solos are "
2 Minutes to Midnight", "
Alexander the Great" and "
Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Notable solitary solos include "
Wasted Years", "
Stranger in a Strange Land" and "
The Wicker Man".
Adrian's solos are usually composed rather than improvised. His legato playing is very smooth and fast, and typically even his very fast passages have a musical function and relationship to the chord structure behind the solo, drawing from modes and arpeggios which are more often from the blues licks.
Smith released a solo LP with the band
ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project) titled
Silver and Gold in 1989. Following its release, Smith departed from Iron Maiden in 1990 when recordings for the
No Prayer for the Dying album was about to start, and was replaced by
Janick Gers. It is widely believed that Adrian left due to his unhappiness with the direction the band was taking: after releasing the experimental
Somewhere in Time and
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son albums,
Steve Harris had decided to take the band back to a more traditional hard rock direction which you can clearly hear on the
No Prayer for the Dying album. This album featured one last song co-penned by Adrian with Bruce Dickinson, "Hooks in You".
Bruce Dickinson's comment on Adrian:
When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don’t think anybody had realized how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn’t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn’t in the band. I just don’t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it’s great having three guitarists.
In 1996, Adrian joined forces with former
Helloween vocalist,
Michael Kiske on Kiske's solo album
Instant Clarity. He plays guitar on a few tracks and co-wrote a few songs.
Later, Adrian formed his
alternative rock-influenced band
Psycho Motel. This band was a progression from an earlier music project of his,
The Untouchables, which had featured some of the members from ASAP and
Jamie Stewart. The band recorded two albums,
State of Mind (1996) and
Welcome to the World (1997). Smith would also play on
Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth and
The Chemical Wedding albums. This more progressive direction's influence on Iron Maiden's own performances since he rejoined the band is clear.
On August 22nd 1992 Smith made a brief appearance onstage with Maiden to play "Running Free" during the Donington Festival, much to the appreciation of the audience.
In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden for the "
Ed Hunter tour", a tour in support of the
video game of the same name. Since then, Smith and Maiden have released 3 studio albums,
Brave New World in 2000,
Dance of Death in 2003 and
A Matter of Life and Death in 2006. He remains with the band to this day.
In his spare time, Adrian loves fishing, as can be seen on the
Rock In Rio DVD.
Adrian has a wife named Nathalie, and three children, son Dylan Smith (born in 1989) and twin daughters Natasha Smith and Brittany Smith (born in 1991). Dylan is currently in a unsigned band based in Buckinghamshire, England called "Turn From Despair".
