{"id":10214,"date":"2026-04-24T05:32:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/04\/24\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T05:32:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:32:41","slug":"i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/04\/24\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills Culture | The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a career-spanning documentary hits cinemas and the band eye two nights at Knebworth, they revisit their path from pubs to stadiums \u2013 but how did they get through their crisis-filled 1990s?<\/p>\n<p>When I ask Iron Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris about the fact his band have lasted for more than half a century, he sounds bewildered, as if he\u2019s put something down then forgotten where he\u2019s left it. \u201cIt\u2019s gone so quick. You go on tour for a few months and it seems to fly, but so much happens. Our whole career is an extension of that \u2013 for 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s looking back on how he steered one of the most influential \u2013 and deeply idiosyncratic \u2013 British bands in history. Catapulted to the premier league of 80s metal on the back of galloping, theatrical, multi-platinum LPs including The Number of the Beast, Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Iron Maiden not only survived the mid-90s slump that befell many metal bands, but got even more heavy and ambitious.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/apr\/24\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/apr\/24\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\">Read More<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/cbbc8ffd0011a875afced2909815ed69334a2d36\/698_0_5550_4439\/master\/5550.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f835296e0b0c1e14fc41069ce0e925bc\" title=\"\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a career-spanning documentary hits cinemas and the band eye two nights at Knebworth, they revisit their path from pubs to stadiums \u2013 but how did they get through their crisis-filled 1990s? When I ask Iron Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris about the fact his band have lasted for more than half a century,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/04\/24\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a career-spanning documentary hits cinemas and the band eye two nights at Knebworth, they revisit their path from pubs to stadiums \u2013 but how did they get through their crisis-filled 1990s? When I ask Iron Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris about the fact his band have lasted for more than half a century,&#046;&#046;&#046;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/04\/24\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cultural Left\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T05:32:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/cbbc8ffd0011a875afced2909815ed69334a2d36\/698_0_5550_4439\/master\/5550.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f835296e0b0c1e14fc41069ce0e925bc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/94cf8075fda504f02a6c2fba01de1a33\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills Culture | The Guardian\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T05:32:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":202,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/5550-pBhDfA.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/24\\\/i-nearly-quit-to-become-a-fencing-teacher-iron-maiden-on-50-years-of-heavy-metal-hard-living-and-hopeless-communication-skills-culture-the-guardian\\\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018I nearly quit to become a fencing teacher\u2019: Iron Maiden on 50 years of heavy metal, hard living \u2013 and hopeless communication skills Culture | The Guardian - 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