Iron Maiden conducted a thorough search for a new vocalist in the 1990s, when Bruce Dickinson left the band to pursue a solo career. Despite the decision to choose Blaze Bayley , the band's frontman for five years, Andre Matos was almost selected for the position – and Blaze himself acknowledges that the Brazilian had a voice more suited to the Iron Maiden's classics.
As the website Igor Miranda , Blaze Bayley's statement about the compatibility of Andre Matos' voice with Iron Maiden's classic repertoire was made in 2011 during an interview with the Heavy Talk . "Yes, he's a very good singer. His voice is much more suited to Iron Maiden than mine. He could sing the classic songs, like 'The Trooper'. And maybe things from Somewhere In Time, he could probably do that much better than me, because his voice is different, he has a very high range and my voice isn't that high," said Blaze.
Bayley's admiration for Andre Matos was no secret to the Maestro of Rock, thanks to a meeting between the two a few years after Dickinson's return to Maiden. "I met Blaze on the road and he told me I should have joined Iron Maiden instead of him. I was very happy with his recognition," revealed Andre (via Rolling Stone Brazil ).
Watch the excerpt from the interview with Heavy Talk below.
When Andre Matos almost joined Iron Maiden
After Bruce left Maiden in 1993, the band began a search for a new vocalist. At the time, Andre Matos was the vocalist for Angra , who would release their debut album Angels Cry that same year, and had the entire discography alongside VIPER on his resume.
Rock Bizz website , in 2012, his Angra colleagues were worried about losing their vocalist to the newly formed band. "This was a blow to the band because, according to them, there was a great chance I would be chosen, which would completely interrupt the plans for recording the first album. So, the material sent to the Maiden people was the two Viper albums and the demo of Angra's first album," he said.
Despite his Angra colleagues' confidence in his chances of being chosen, Andre Matos himself didn't have high expectations about getting the Iron Maiden spot. "Personally, I never got carried away with the idea of being chosen, because Iron Maiden is too British a band for them to choose a Brazilian to sing, so I didn't have any big plans anyway, so it was natural that they chose Blaze," he said.
Years later, when Angra recorded the album Fireworks in England in 1998, Andre Matos went to an Iron Maiden concert as a guest and had a casual conversation with Rod Smallwood , the Maiden's manager. "You were one of the three finalists. And you still sing very well," Rod told the Brazilian.
Classic Iron Maiden songs have been part of Andre Matos' repertoire since adolescence, when he joined VIPER. In a video from the VIPER Tuesdays , exclusive to Wikimetal , which recovers classic videos from the iconic Brazilian band, we can watch "Run to The Hills" sung by Andre during a show at the Dama Xoc venue in São Paulo on April 30, 1989. See below.
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