Iron Maiden Honors Former Lead Singer Paul Di’Anno In St. Paul

Iron Maiden held a concert Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, which was the British band’s first time taking the stage following the death on Monday of original lead singer Paul Di’Anno. Iron Maiden paid tribute to Di’Anno during the concert, dedicating a performance of “The Time Machine” to the late former member of the band.

Di’Anno joined Iron Maiden in 1978 and played an integral role in establishing their early sound. A statement from his record label Conquest Music confirmed his death on Monday, October 21 at age 66. The note, which detailed Di’Anno’s career with Iron Maiden and after he left the band, stated:

On behalf of his family, Conquest Music are sad to confirm the death of Paul Andrews, professionally known as Paul Di’Anno.

Paul passed away at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66. Born in Chingford, East London on 17th May 1958, Paul first came to prominence as lead singer of English Heavy Metal band, Iron Maiden between 1978 and 1981. He sang on their groundbreaking debut album Iron Maiden, and the influential follow-up release, Killers.

Since leaving Iron Maiden, Paul Di’Anno had a long and eventful recording career with Battlezone and Killers as well as numerous solo releases and guest appearances.

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.

Conquest Music 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.

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who joined the band after Di’Anno’s departure, addressed the audience in St. Paul last night. Here’s a transcript of a portion of what he said:

“This next track is actually called ‘The Time Machine,’ and I was watching Back to the Future last night on TV, and it’s true — it is 1.21 gigawatts of power that you need to put a DeLorean through the portal of time itself. I normally tell a story about that, we have a bit of fun, but tonight is — I don’t want to put a down on the proceedings at all because our friend, our band member, Paul Di’Anno, passed away, as you’re probably aware, and if you’re not aware of that fact, you are now.

“Paul was instrumental in the first two albums, groundbreaking with Killers, and the first album. An amazing voice devoted to rock ‘n’ roll right up until the last minute of his life.

“[We] would just like to give, maybe for those of you who were born and still remember those early albums, when obviously I wasn’t in the band and he was, and those of you who were fans of the stuff he did with Battlezone and his own projects afterwards, and for anybody else that’s familiar with listening to the tracks like ‘Remember Tomorrow’ and stuff like that, which are absolutely awesome — I’m just going to ask everybody just take a few seconds to just close your eyes in silence and say just internally, mentally, if you believe in god, if you don’t believe in god, it actually doesn’t matter, just believe in what you believe in and just say ‘Thanks, boss, for doing what you did.’

“Paul, if you’re listening, this is a little message from Minneapolis to wherever you are, upstairs or downstairs, you’re having fun. Minneapolis! For Paul Di’Anno!”

Iron Maiden then performed “The Time Machine” in tribute to Di’Anno. The song appeared on Maiden’s most recent studio album, 2021’s Senjutsu.

A video posted by an audience member of Dickinson’s speech and Iron Maiden’s performance of “The Time Machine” in honor of Di’Anno can be viewed below: