While playing guitar for Iron Maiden , Dennis Stratton played heavy metal. But that wasn't his favorite musical style, a fact supposedly related to his dismissal in 1980 after a short time with the group.
According to Stratton, Rod Smallwood , the band's manager, disapproved of the guitarist's musical taste. “The bands I was listening to at the time were Whitesnake , The Eagles, George Benson, Steely Dan – easy listening music, just to relax to,” he told the Gary Bushell Talk Show (via Ultimate Classic Rock) in 2014. “I was listening to [these songs] in my hotel room and Rod heard them. He came in and started yelling and arguing. He said, ‘If anyone walks through that door and hears The Eagles coming out of that room, it’s going to cause problems for the band.’”
This argument was just one of several between the two about "small and silly things," until Stratton's eventual dismissal. "There was no friendship, no connection," he commented about that period.
In episode #319 of the Wikimetal Podcast , Stratton's story came up in our editorial team's conversation when discussing Killers , Maiden released in 1981, the first after the musician's departure and featuring Adrian Smith. Besides this album, iconic albums by Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard , and Joan Jett were released that year. Listen to the full episode here.
Dennis Stratton has already appeared on episode #053 of the Wikimetal Podcast for a fantastic interview. Listen here!
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